Sweet Silence!

It is only the youngsters who know how hard it is to keep quiet; almost all the students in a school at some time or other get whacked for making noise, or talking to someone else. This has been accepted as one of the symptoms of growth process, and we do not make much noise about it either. But this symptom continues well beyond their adolescence, and runs sometimes even upto their old age. The noise which keeps them busy in their adolescence slowly transforms itself into an inner noise.Most of us reach our graves making huge noise, and very seldom may we recognize that we are a noisy lot.

We love noise, and that is the reason why noise pollution is not a problem for us; it appears that it is the problem only of the neighbors and civic bodies and not we who live in the midst of high decibels. There are people who cannot sleep unless there is some loud noise. I had the good fortune of living in a room just adjuscent to one of the main streets of the city, and every day early in the morning I can hear the rattling noise of the trams and then the vehicles, but after a few months of stay there in that room, I had so got used to the noise that it would not disturb my peaceful sleep. We all of us get used to the noises and that becomes our way of life.

One of the greatest tragedies of human existence is that most of us do not even know that we live in the midst of noise, and we do not taste the beauty and wonder of silence. We think that there is nothing beyond noise, and that it was the end of all. We are born into a noisy world and we are given grand farewell with so much of noise. All that we know is the silence of the graves, but not that of the deep oceans. I am told that there is absolute stillness at the deep waters of the ocean. Maybe we will never feel what it means to be in stillness, and that is why we so much love noise and feel we cannot part with it. The very moment when we are separated from noise, we feel certain amount of emptyness creeping in, and we are afraid of facing the vacuum.

I understand it is a terrible experience to face stillness and silence. I would be too frightened to be left in a room, all by myself, with silence all around. I may be more comfortable with even eerie noise, but not silence, which may be more frightening and threatening. But if only I begin to enjoy silence and the stillness of silence, then it may open up several sweet vistas for me. But to take a bold step to drown myself in stillness, calls for great guts and courage, and unfortunately not many of us have that much guts. If ever we had that courage to face silence, we might be madly in love with silence, which can give a foretaste of the blissful sweetness of stillness.

I know that if I have to take a close look at silence and taste of the stillness of the heart, I have to cross two layers of noise: one, the bodily noise, the physical one, and two, the mental noise, one which is created and maintained by the mind. If I can cross these two boundaries, then I might have access to true silence. One of the greatest consolations is that I am never alone in life's journey; there are people wherever I go, and there are very few chances for me to really fall out of track. I am still looking for the way to reach stillness of the heart, where alone I can drink the sweet nector of the soul.

Noisy Silent Zone

Perhaps the place which is notorious for being the most noisy place on earth is very close to each one of us, and we may not even be aware that we are so easily getting used to this horrendous noise. The noise of course does not hurt us, because we have got used to it, and have even begun to like it. It is the noise of the inner self. Very seldom does this “chatter box” pause during our existence. The only exceptions are the following : children who have not reached the stage of self-realization, people who have no control over what they think and do, the so-called crazy people, the senior citizens who return to their second childhood and forget to listen to the noise.

During the life time, it is impossible for us to really escape from it; even if we do not want it to haunt us, it would still be there around. The noise of the mind is perhaps the most dangerous noise which can hurt not only our bodies, but also our spirits. It can dampen and discourage our spirits, and ultimately we may be turned into mere machines. Very few people on earth really care to take note of this noise, which is fully active even when we are asleep. The greatest of people are those who are able to control these noises, and through them and with them are able to enter into the inner silence of the heart, and that may be the moment of enlightenment.

All of us are easily lost in the noise, and the noises often take advantage of our situation and make us weak and vulnerable. The mind knows our Achilles’ heal, and it strikes just there, and in order to escape from its attack, one needs to go through a sadhana, studying the noisy zone, how it cripples the human spirit, what its real function is, and how one can flee from the crippling effects of the noisy silent zone. Far beyond this noisy zone is the still waters of silence, and anyone who drinks of this waters can hear the sweet melody of the stream, the passing of a gust of wind, and be lost in its wondrous medley of choruses.

Many spiritual gurus and enlightened masters have given us simple ways how we could peer through the noisy zone, and get a peek at the silence zone. Anyone who has tasted even a moment of silence, far beyond the noisy rattles of the mind, would venture to do anything in order to enter into a full communion with silence. We live in a world, where living with noise is considered a perfect way of life. Party floors blast noise, which is often dubbed as music, the person who can make the noisiest sound is considered a master craftsman. Has the world ever produced any master who has tried to make music out of silence?

Now let me come to the point… In the previous blog I had complained that I am not able to listen to others, not only to their words, but also to their pain and suffering, agony and anguish because my ears are stuffed with noises of all sorts, and I can hardly hear them, leave alone listen to them with attention. I wish to listen to them with all my heart, and that would be possible only when I am able to listen to the silent music of my heart; I might like to dance to the music, and invite the whole world to dance with me in the cosmic dance of the gods and goddesses. Then even the whimper of my brother or sister would arouse my feelings and sentiments. I would be so attuned to every movement of the hearts of others, that I would be able to enter into their hearts easily.

Silence of the Spirit (3.c)

The modern world is so frightened of silence, of the outer silence, and all the more the inner silence, of the heart, of the soul! The noise around us some how make us think that we are safe and secure, and nothing untoward could happen to us, but the fact is far from it. We are most often so frightened of the "noise" outside, that we have to subdue it with out iPods, or MP3 players, or the FM radio, attached to our cellular phones. I find the trend contagious, and more and more people are attracted to this menace of running away from 'noise'.

Today as I come to realize the two layers of reality that I have fathomed, and now stand at the threshold of my being, what I become more and more conscious of the endless silence beckoning me to jump into the deep. The silence may be deafening, and it may even be dangerous, because it may make me come face to face with the reality of my being, but that is what I feel will make me authentic, to own up what I am without hiding anything of my past or present. I stand before the silence of my spirit, not knowing what is in store for me and how I am going to face it, but face I will.

Going beyond the layers of the body and the mind, today I wish to sink into the silence of my soul, of my Being; that is where I am sure I will encounter the Lord of my soul, but when I stand before my authentic self, what more would I need. I know for sure, that the other name of my Being is God! When I behold his beauty and splendor, I know I would recognize my own image on him. It is this silence which can give me a foretaste of living an authentic life, in communion with my being. The nagging doubt plagues me often, but will I be ever be able to be in touch with my Being all the days of my life?

As I behold the serenity of the silence of my soul, I realize that everything I have received from the world is rubbish in comparison to the precious jewel of this eternal silence; I would like to savor the sweetness of this silence, even as I sit quietly, firmly grounded on the earth I have been born into, establishing myself on the frameworks of the mind, I know I will get the glimpse of this silence at sometime or the other; if not immediately, at least in the not so distant future. To go beyond name and shape is something that is very challenging and difficult for me, but when I come to experience silence, I cannot hold on to the values of the world. I submit myself to go beyond name and shape in the presence of the limitless silence.

I have been taught many things wrongly from my childhood; even my faith had been misrepresented to me. I had been taught that I can taste of eternity only in the next world, but here I am at the threshold of eternity, a slice of eternity offered to me on a platter. When I enter into the eternal silence, am I not entering into the world of eternity, and that is where God dwells, that is where all the righteous and saintly persons and creatures live; even the music, I presume is, composed of silence! So are the Alleluiah and Sanctus! I know as I enter into this silence, I am entering into an altogether different world, the world where all of us are permanent citizens, for that is where we all belong to!

Play and Pause! (2.b)

Eckhart Tolle is one of my favorite authors, and his seminal work The Power of Now put me in an altogether different mental disposition. I began to look at reality of the mental magic with a different perspective, thanks to Tolle’s inspiring words. Today I am going to put into practice something of what Tolle has recommended in his book, The Power of Now, because that would be the gateway to enter into the third phase of our inward journey, to the Spirit. I have already relaxed my body, and have become conscious of the magic and miracle that the human mind is capable of, but beyond these magic and miracles is another realm of the mindstream, by which I mean an endless flow of “noise” which can obstruct me from reality, and entry into the core of my being.

I would like to become conscious of how my mind works, because most often I take this for granted. I seldom pause for a while to realize what my mind does and how much of control I really have on my mindstream! I sit quietly in my room or any place where I feel comfortable, and close my eyes if that helps me, and remain still for a while. Then I begin to become conscious of what my mind is preoccupied with, without trying to control what it thinks. I will be an external observer, as if I am watching a movie of what is happening on my mindscreen. I would not make any value judgment if what the mind is thinking about is good or bad! I just observe the mind’s movements for about five minutes.

I realize that there is no better non-stop chatter-box on earth than the human mind, my mind. It moves from one thought to another, sometimes coherently, some other times incoherently. Sometimes it projects thoughts which are meaningful, some other times, sheer meaningless, useless thoughts. There are socially acceptable thoughts and other times, socially unacceptable thoughts. But I begin to realize as I witness this great drama, or movie on the mindscreen that most of the time my mind is busy and occupied with things which do not necessarily concern me, and things which I do not wish to be associated with. But do I have a choice? The moment when I try to make a value judgment, then I am only giving more power to the mind.

One thing is clear for me, so long the mind is busy and occupied, I have no access to my spirit, where I can encounter the Lord of my heart. The mind places a opaque film between me and my spirit, my Being, the really Real. Most often I become involved with the mindstream, and react to what goes on inside the mind, and it would be shown in my body response. When my mind imagines pleasant things, then my body is relaxed, but when my mind imagines and projects violent objects or events, then my body is tensed and stiff. Tolle suggests that I distance myself from my mind; I am not my mind. I remain outside of the mind, and just observe what goes on within, and there would be moments when I might experience absence of thoughts, and they are moments of ‘silence’, and they are the moments when this opaque plate is removed and I have access to reality.

I am quite used to star-gazing, and today I am going to do mind-gazing, observing my mind, all that is going on in it, without forcefully trying to enter into silence. As I become conscious of the thoughts from outside, the thoughts subside by themselves, and I may be able to enjoy absence of thoughts for just a few seconds, but if I continue to mindgaze regularly, these moments of ‘silence’ may gradually increase, and in this most precious moments I may become one with reality, divinity, and am not touched or disturbed by either pain or pleasure. It is at this moment that I become truly a child of God, experiencing the godliness that I received at the time of my birth. Once I begin to taste this precious moments of ‘silence’ I would be prepared to give up anything in exchange for it. I am slowly moving close to my being.

Mutilating Music

The two-days college festival has raised the noise pollution in the vicinity to manifold, and the heap of dust which generally gathers on the furniture had doubled, due to the over-enthusiastic students, who were on the ad hoc noise competition, though no prize was given for this item. As one nears the college, it was obvious that one can listen to the numbers without getting close to the stage; one can easily make out the singer and the song from about 300 meters. But about 2000 odd students who had gathered at the grounds did not bother about the noise; they could still speak to their boy/girl friends over the mobile phones!

Who bothers about the noise and pollution? We all delight in making promises, declarations about how we would save the planet, but when it comes to annual functions, we let the students have what they want. I wish the college administration had the courage to tell the students that there is a decorum that needs to be observed in organizing college annual festivals. Western bands are the craze in all city colleges, though not too many of the students are used to listening English numbers, and there would be just about one third of the students who might enjoy such crazy-sounding, out-of-pitch, high sounding numbers.

In communication theories, noise is defined as unwanted, unpleasant sound, and that is what most of the modern singing turn out to be. It is the death of music in the name of voice modulation. Any abnormal and unusual noise is branded as creative expression, and higher the decibel of the noise created, the better it is esteemed. Maybe the so-called fusion artistes of the western tradition may have to listen for a second time some of the Indian classical music pieces, where one will observe that higher the pitch, the softer is the tonal quality, and even at the peak of one’s voice, the artiste would blend his voice with the instrument in such a way that there is perfect unison. That is the music which can reach directly into our hearts and arouse manifold feelings.

Kolkata has seen an alarming mushrooming of ‘bands’, Chandra Bindu, Lokhichara, Dheu, and the faster they appear, the quicker they disappear. Some of them survive because of one or two popular albums, and they imagine they have the artistic licence to do whatever they way, just because people had paid a price to purchase their albums, and they had done fairly well in the competitive market. But time will tell us that the people who know how to distinguish genuine soul-renting music from cheap, popular music, will one day throw these bands into oblivion, and bring back the traditional music forms. Then we shall hear again Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Atul Prasad, Ram Prasad, and we shall be elated to an altogether different realm.

Any attempt to bring dishonor to music is a dangerous attempt; the very people who may jump to the tune of some uncanny creative artist, may condemn the same music as noise. Human creativity can find different expressions to delve deep into the heart of all reality, and music can provide one familiar medium. If common people are deprived of this privilege to enter into another plane of reality through music, then music itself may transform its mode and reach the very people it is created for. Music can never be murdered, nor can it be mutilated. For no one can deny the music of one’s heart beat, one’s breathing, one’s flash of eyelids; for there is music in every being, both animate and inanimate, and those who can hear this music are truly heavenly beings!

Art of Understanding

I really wonder how we human beings understand one another so well. I don’t know if there is any other creature on earth, who understand and communicate with one another as well as the humans. We depend largely on language to communicate, but language is not all. There are people who are able to communicate with others through non-verbal signs and gestures. The speech-impaired do communicate themselves, though their communication is very different from what most of the people would do.

But behind this seemingly simple process of understanding one another, there is a whole lot of things happening in and out of us. In order to understand a person, the receiver should be in a proper frame of mind, to receive the code which comes encoded in the form of a gesture or language, and it is the duty of the receiver to decode the message, and respond appropriately to show the receiver that the message has been properly received. Levi Strauss has extensively studied the way we communicate with one another… but that is all theory.

Why do we often experience a break in communication? Why do we face misunderstanding even with familiar people? In a communicative process, any disturbing factor is technically called a noise; this noise is not merely auditory, consisting of audio signals, but it has several layers, one important layer being the psychological. This simply means that in order to achieve a good level of communication, the speaker’s heart should be in sync (short for synchronization) with that of the receiver’s heart. When there is a mismatch, then the communication is bound to fail.

Thus it is within our power to direct the way communication takes place with me and within me; it is not too difficult to create artificial noise around me so that I do not hear the other person, and then can go to any extent to find excuses. No communication is hundred percent faultless. The perfect communication that can ever be possible is beyond the reach of human beings. Even an attempt to communicate to my own inner self is inadequate, and leaves a lot of gap, that I find it hard to reach a perfect equilibrium with one’s own self.

But how does God communicate to human beings, and what are the noises that we can identify? Even when God communicates himself/herself through the best medium possible, yet human mind may plant an artificial barrier between them and the message… No wonder, our communication with God, or the reverse, God’s communication with humanity is never a finished task, but a process that will go on till the end of time. Maybe at the end of time, we may sigh and say, Ah, now we understand what God was communicating to us!