RE: Maharshi's Gospel - Silence and Solitude 3

[Guest guest]

(From previous passage - M. Silence is unceasing eloquence. It is the

best language. There is a state when words cease and silence prevails.)

 

....continued:

 

Disciple. How then can we communicate out thoughts to one another?

 

Maharshi. That becomes necessary if the sense of duality exists.

 

D. Why does not Bhagavan go about and preach the Truth to the people at

large?

 

M. How do you know I am not doing so? Does preaching consist in mounting a

platform and haranguing the people around? Preaching is simple communication

of Knowledge; it can really be done in silence only. What do you think of a

man who listens to a sermon for an hour and goes away without having been

impressed by it so as to change his life? Compare him to another who sits

in a holy presence and goes away after some time with his outlook on life

totally changed. Which is the better, to preach loudly without effect or to

sit silently sending out inner force?

Again how does speech arise? There is abstract Knowledge, whence arises

the ego, which in turn gives rise to thought, and thought to the spoken

word. So the word is the great-grandson of the original Source. If the word

can produce effect, judge for yourself, how much more powerful must be the

Preaching through Silence! But people do not understand this simple, bare

truth, the Truth of their everyday, ever-present, eternal experience. This

is the Truth of the Self. Is there anyone unaware of the Self? But they do

not like even to hear of this Truth, whereas they are eager to know what

lies beyond, about heaven and hell, and reincarnation.

Because they love mystery and not the Truth, religions cater to them so

as eventually to bring them round to the Self. Whatever the means adopted,

you must at last return to the Self: so why not abide in the Self here and

now? To be a spectator of, or to speculate about, the other world, the Self

is necessary; therefore, they are not different from the Self. Even an

ignorant man, when he sees the objects, sees only the Self.

 

(From Maharshi's Gospel, published by Sri Ramanasramam and available for

download from http://www.ramana-maharshi.org/ )