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What silence teaches us –B.K. Shalini
> Guest contributors > Silence is gold

Silence is gold

'Silence', in true sense, is our state of mind where the mind is free of any unnecessary, unwanted, negative, critical, waste thoughts, free from any kind of disturbance.

Imagine sitting on the shore of a deep blue ocean and seeing the waves go by or next to a mountain spring hearing the birds chirp, and the gentle  fall  of  the  water. We all  have experienced  moments  like  these  which  we considered as peaceful, quiet moments giving us enormous  joy  and  happiness.  We loved  and cherished them and wished they lasted forever. Very sadly, they waned in sometime since they were momentary. We kept searching for these moments outside in the world without knowing that the hunt for it starts and ends within us. In today’s world,  more  and  more  people  are wandering clueless to attain this, however, little do they realise how.

Silence in the material world shuts us to the ‘noise’ and ‘hullabaloo’ of the external world. But, what about the sea of thoughts that emerge within our mind every minute and the noise they create? They are so loud and constant, banging us all the time. What is, therefore, “the real silence”? We might be in the quietest, calmest, most serene place of the world; but, does that guarantee an experience of silence that we are looking for?

God’s knowledge has made me realise that ‘Silence’, in true sense, is our state of mind where the mind is free of any unnecessary, unwanted, negative, critical, waste thoughts, free from any kind of disturbance. The picture perfect of the external world has to be created inside. It is the feeling within that will give us the experience we look outside. It has to be created and felt within. Silence, thus, is silencing the mind. Once, we silence the mind (in which thoughts originate), we silence our words and actions automatically, which means they would be meaningful and pure. Once, the mind (and its thoughts) are taken care of, there would be no turbulence in our words and actions. It is rightly said, “We are what we think.” I understand this clearly now. Thoughts are the seed. We need to nourish this everyday with God’s divine knowledge and remembrance of him. The seed becomes deep-rooted and gives way to a beautiful blossoming tree. There is no better nourishment than God’s love.

 

Those, who conquer the mind, can conquer the world! With silence comes immense Power. As we spin the discuss of self-realization, we can use silence for our self-development and growth. In our lives, we come across challenging and turbulent situations, difficult people and we do not know what to do. The lesson of silence has to be applied in these situations by listening patiently, by being calm, by avoiding arguments, by practising tolerance and forgiveness, by deferring our reaction, by not questioning, and by not being judgemental even though we are provoked and prompted very strongly to do so. Maya is not wanting us to win. However, Maya doesn’t know that we have already created a win and success for us the moment we decided to stay in silence, stay in our stability and Swadharma in those situations during those few minutes.

This can only happen if we are able to silence our thoughts in those moments of absolute calmness and surrender the situations, our mind and thoughts to the Supreme. There needs to be ‘no thinking’ time. In that moment, just answer one question: Will he be happy with what I think, say and do? Is this what he wants from us? We got the answer! This will give us a lot of energy to make well-thought-of decisions. Many situations do not require an immediate answer or a reaction. In such cases, we can defer our reaction by silencing our mind and take time to analyse the situation and people involved and come up with the best solutions. At that time, the first Power to be used is the power to pack up and, later on, the power to judge and decide. At times, people whom we interact with, can also be challenging and difficult . The relationship, be it at home or in the office, can become dysfunctional if the matters are not sorted out. First and foremost, we need to tutor our mind not to create negative thoughts and impressions of people, which are more commonly known as ‘perceptions’. We must remember everyone has their own definition of “right and wrong” and it is okay to stay with that divergence. We need to stay neutral. This will come to our advantage. We will have more sanity, stability, neutrality and good wishes in these interactions.

Another important element in this direction is the practice of becoming Swaraj Adhikari. The mind and intelligence, the two great faculties of our soul, have to be treated as good friends, who listen and cooperate. When they do so, we must not forget to appreciate and thank them. We need to constantly share and discuss with them, so that they understand. Soon, they will think and judge what you want them to do. The five senses will also follow in line.

We will realise sooner than later that these challenging moments and situations are futile, we have been wasting our precious time in these petty little matters. We are chosen by the almighty for the larger purpose of bringing a change in this world. We are so lucky to become his helpers in this task. There is nothing bigger than this. This will not happen, if we do not change within. The change within will change my world, both inner and outer!

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