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That which is, is
silence. How can silence be explained in words?
The highest form of grace is silence. It is also
the highest spiritual instruction. All other modes
of instruction are derived from the mind and
therefore secondary. Silence is the primary form.
If the Guru is silent, the seeker's mind gets
purified by itself in the Guru's presence.
A vow of silence is but a vow. It may help in
meditation to some extent, but what is the use of
keeping the mouth shut and letting the mind run
riot?
The pure state of attention to the Self alone is
one's own state of silence, which is devoid of any
other thing.
The Guru is the bestower of silence who reveal the
light of Self-knowledge, which shines as the
residual Reality. Spoken words are of no use
whatsoever if the eyes of the Guru meet the eyes of
his disciple.
Silence is the best and most potent initiation.
That was practiced by Dakshinamurti. Initiation by
touch, look, etc. are all of a lower order. Silent
initiation changes the Heart of all.
Silence of a realised person is most powerful. He
sends out waves of spiritual influence which draw
many people towards him. Yet he may sit in a cave
and maintain complete silence. He never needs to go
out among the public. If necessary he can use
others as his instrument.
Silence is ever-speaking. It is the perennial flow
of language which is interrupted by speaking. These
words which I am speaking obstruct that mute
language. For example there is electricity flowing
in a wire. With resistance to its passage, it glows
as a lamp or revolves as a fan. In the wire it
remains as electrical energy. Similarly, silence is
the flow of language obstructed by words.
When one remains without thinking, one understands
another by means of the universal language of
silence. What one fails to know by conversation
extending to several years can be known instantly
through silence. Dakshinamurti is a good example of
this. This is the highest and most effective
language.
Initiation into silence is the most perfect
initiation; it comprises looking, touching and
teaching. It will purify the individual in every
way and establish him in the Reality.
Silence is the most potent form of work. However
vast and emphatic the scriptures may be, they fail
in their effect. The Guru is quiet and peace
prevails in all. His silence is more vast and
emphatic than all the scriptures put together.
Silence does not mean negation of activity or
stagnant inertness. It is not a mere negation of
thoughts but something more positive than you can
imagine.
The one Self, the sole Reality, alone exist
eternally. When even the ancient Master,
Dakshinamurti, revealed It only through speechless
eloquence, who else could convey it by speech or
with words?
The silence of the Self is ever there. As long as
you run with the running mind you cannot have it.
It is a supreme peace, immutable like a rock, that
supports all your activities, in fact, all
movements. It is in this silence that God and the
liberated souls are rooted.
Contact with a enlightened sage is good. They will
work through silence. By speaking their power is
reduced. Silence is most powerful. Speech is always
less powerful than silence, so mental contact is
the best.
True realisation is to cherish with one's
understanding, without any obstruction, the first
cause of all that is, that silence which is
liberation.
The perfect silence in which the ego, the root, has
been destroyed is the true nature, which will never
be vanquished.
The eminent and powerful state of silence can be
reached in the Heart only by attaining the
Self-state, the unmoving axis.
Only silence, which is the end point of jnana
[the direct knowledge of the Reality that is
the Self], is that true vision which is the
profound truth of Vedanta.
Silence is the ocean into which all the rivers of
all the religions discharge themselves. It is the
speech of the Self.
Silence, the unique language, ever surging in the
Heart [a synonym for the Self], is the
state of grace.
In silence one is in intimate contact with the
surroundings.
In the state of silence one merely abides as 'I-I'.
Apart from this, there is neither thinking nor
knowing.
Silence will manifest itself when the clarity of
Self-knowledge, which overflows with the exalted
direct experience, causes the trinities of
seer-seeing-seen and knower-knowing-known to
depart.
If the trinities that have risen from silence
subside in silence, then bliss will arise.
A mind that has experienced the light of silence
will not readily accept the conceptual drama,
consisting of the trinities, that appears in the
other light [chidabhasa].
It is the mind that is diminished when there is a
feeling of deficiency. In the fullness of silence,
there is only consciousness, but no thoughts.
That bliss that grows in the field of silence is
not attained and experienced in any other
field.
Those who have seen the light of silence are
without any attachment to the world, which is an
infatuating snare that rises from the "I am the
doer" idea, the feeling that there is a person who
is performing the actions that the body engages
in.
The feeling of remaining young forever is attained
in nothing else other than silence, the blossoming
of Truth.
Since it is thought that creates a sense of
deficiency, only thought-free silence is
fullness.
In order to attain the supreme state of silence,
that which is worthy of attainment by seekers of
Truth is the loss of individuality.
You should know that the supreme state of
liberation exists only in a mind who has attained
the state of silence and nowhere else.
The concept-free experience of the vast emptiness
of silence will rise, putting an end to the
delusion of the ego, the deceiving fixation.
The direct experience of the Self, silence, is the
axis of everything. This is the summit, the highest
good.
Those who have sunk deeply into the ocean of
silence and drowned will live on the summit of the
supreme mountain, the expanse of consciousness.
From silence came thought, from thought, the ego,
and from ego, speech. So if speech is effective,
how much more so must be its source?
The pure state [turiya] exists and shines
as unceasing pure being in the Heart after the
other thoughts that rise from oneself and the
Self-forgetfulness that is the basis for their
rising are fully destroyed.
Clinging to that pure state, which remains without
any attachments, is clinging to divine grace. This
alone is one's own state of silence wherein naught
else exists. To know and to merge in this state of
silence through practice of Self-enquiry, and to
remain always as That, is true mental worship. This
you should know.
Take either God or Guru as your Lord. Until you
attain liberation, keep in your Heart the
conviction that you are his subject. Remain without
desires and live according to his command. Oh
foolish mind, why do you forget this and get
deluded?
Remaining quiet is what is called wisdom-insight.
To remain quiet is to resolve the mind in the
Self.
Enthroning the Lord upon the seat of the Heart and
fixing the whole mind at his feet, worship him as
your own Self, without a sense of difference,
because He is your own true nature. You should know
that true worship, performed naturally and without
a break, is the fair nature of divine silence.
The inner silence is self-surrender. And that is
living without the sense of ego.
Subjugation of the mind is meditation; deep
meditation is eternal speech. Silence is
ever-speaking; it's the perennial flow of
'language'. It is interrupted by speaking; for
words obstruct this mute 'language'.
Silence is permanent and benefits the whole of
humanity.
Oral lectures are not so eloquent as silence.
Silence is unceasing eloquence. It is the best
language.
Which is the better, to preach loudly without
effect or to sit silently sending out inner
force?
Know that Self, which is to be enquired into and
attained in the Heart as the state of happiness
through the requisite tapas or Self-attention, is
only the state of silence, which is experienced by
removing the delusive and worthless knowledge of
differences along with its root, the ignorance or
wrong knowledge "I am this body".
The state of the experience of the one non-dual
silence, which is attained as the experience of the
unlimited true knowledge, is only the shining of
oneself as the empty space devoid of the false
imagination which is the rising of the wicked
ego-mind.
Since the silence of Self, which shines through the
pure mind [the pure existence-consciousness
which is devoid of all thoughts], alone turns
out to be the gateway to liberation, even though
they proceed along any path which is agreeable to
them, that gate alone is the final refuge.
Attending unceasingly and with a fully concentrated
mind to Self, which is the non-dual perfect
Reality, alone is the pure supreme silence; on the
other hand, the mere unthinking laziness of the
dull mind is nothing but a defective delusion. Know
thus.
Know that the inner silence - the undecreasing
strength of unceasingly praising and worshipping,
without worshipping, the Feet of Lord Shiva by the
beautiful supreme word [paravak], which is
the pure unrising speech [that is, worshipping
by Self-attention, the non-rising of the ego] -
alone is the true and natural worship of the
Reality.
Only those who have known their reality to be Shiva
[the Self], are those who are soaked in the
perfect and natural state of silence. Therefore
having removed the 'I'-sense in anything other than
Shiva [that is, having given up one's
identification with all adjuncts such as the
body], abide without action in Shiva.
The glory of the state of silence - in which one
has merged and died in the real principle, God, who
is the egoless Self, by enquiring "Who am I, the
false first person?" - alone is the nature of the
observance of self-surrender.
According to the prarabdha [karma that is
working itself out during the present life] of
the individual self, the Supreme makes the
individual act untilthe prarabdha comes to an end.
Efforts made will be a failure due to prarabdha;
even in spite of obstructions, the prarabdha will
bear fruit. Therefore to remain silent [without
trying to oppose one's prarabdha] is best.
It is not possible for anyone to do anything
opposed to the ordinance of God, who has the
ability to do anything and everything. Therefore to
remain silent at the Lord's Feet, having given up
all the anxieties of the wicked, defective and
delusive mind, is best.
If we scrutinise what the method is to end forever
the movements of the wavering mind or ego, which is
like a reflection in wavy water, we will discover
that the method is for one to remain silently
attending to oneself alone, and not for one to
attend to that wavering mind, which will make one
slip down from the state of Self.
Those who have perfect knowledge say that the state
of true knowledge, in which one remains without 'I'
[the ego], alone is silence. In order to
experience that silence, which is devoid of the
feeling "I am this body", clinging to the Self in
the Heart is the spiritual practice.
The pure silence which shines forth when the
'I'-sense is lost by abiding in the Heart, knowing
one's own real existing state instead of going
outwards cherishing and attending to other things,
alone is the limit of true knowledge
[jnana].
Since, just as the activities seen within and by a
dream-person become laughable and non-existent in
the outlook of the waking person, even the
activities of the individual self [such as his
birth and death], which are an imagination seen
by him within himself, become non-existent in the
true awakened outlook of Self-knowledge, all of
those activities, including his bondage and
liberation are unreal and are a mere play of
illusion.
When the pure gracious Supreme reveals the nature
of Self, he who was in the dark room of ignorance
will merge in the silence of Self-abidance,
drowning in God-knowledge or
existence-consciousness, which is the beauty of the
Reality.
Know that silence - which is the perfect knowledge
of the form of Self and which shines within when
the ego reaches the Heart by rejecting all the
juggleries of thoughts, which are rarely rejected -
alone is the glorious supreme word
[paravak].
Only those who have not keenly listened to the
Lord's language of grace [silence], which
is the supreme word, which shines forth when the
wandering mind subsides, will say that the sound of
a flute is sweet, that the sound of a veena is
sweet, or that the prattling speech of their own
babbling children is very sweet.
If the noise of thoughts rising incessantly within
does not subside, the ineffable state of silence
will not be revealed. Those whose thoughts have
subsided within, will not leave the strong and
perfect state of silence even in a big
battlefield.
Tell me, is not the vocal silence observed by those
who do not engage in Self-enquiry and who do not
know the real goal, which is the silence that
shines forth when the ego, "I am the fleshy and
filthy body", subsides and reaches the Heart, a
mere mental endeavour?
The life of Self - the true knowledge which shines
forth devoid of the ego-sense due to the drowning
of the ego in its source when the madness of desire
for the petty, illusory and delusive sense-objects
has been completely destroyed - alone is That which
can truly satisfy the mind.
Those whose Hearts are surging with joy by
experiencing the ever-new ambrosia [amrita]
of Self, which shines brightly in the pure silence,
will not be spoilt in the world by experiencing the
petty sense-objects, which give a little mad
pleasure caused by mental delusion.
The Reality which is very clearly known by sages as
the goal of all Vedas and Agamas, and
the observance of Reality recommended by all the
spiritual instructions, is nothing but silence, the
state of supreme peace.
The complete giving up of the other three
objectives [purusharthas] of human
existence beginning with righteousness, is the
glorious state of peace, which is the nature of
liberation [the fourth and only true goal].
Therefore completely giving up all thought of the
other three false objectives [wealth, desire
and righteousness], cling only to silence, the
knowledge of the supreme Self, which is Shiva.
Keep your mind still. That is enough. You will get
spiritual help sitting in this hall if you keep
yourself still. The aim of all practices is to give
up all practices. When the mind becomes still, the
power of the Self will be experienced. The waves of
the Self are pervading everywhere. If the mind is
in peace, one begins to experience them.
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