HINDU RITUALS AND ROUTINES - Part 42

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HINDU RITUALS AND ROUTINES -

WHY DO WE FOLLOW THOSE? Maun-Vrat [The golden silence] We have to penetrate the cluttered noisiness of our mind and the world around us to reach where absolute silence alone remains. When we know silence, we shall know ourselves Maun-vrat literally means a vow to keep silent. For spiritual growth it is essential that one’s speech must be pure. To acquire purity of speech the practice of silence is important. It is believed that through silence one is able to achieve one’s desires. One attains the abode of Lord Shiva. Along with maun-vrat it is essential that some time must be spent in offering prayers.

In the Bhagavad Gita, 17/16, it is said, "Contentment of the mind, amiable temperament, silence, religious meditation and good thoughts reflect austerity of the mind." Silence is placed mid-way between other qualities. It begins with control of the mind. Once the mind is controlled, one becomes friendly. One begins to look kindly towards others. One cuts down on useless speech and thinks more of God. There is conservation of energy and a person experiences greater inner strength. According to Yogiraj Nanak, the essence of life is ever flowing and eternal. If we want to express it in its entirety, or even try to do so, we can succeed only to a limited extent. When our senses, mind and intellect fall short of expressing all, another expressive channel called maun (silence) opens up. “If the speaker can communicate through the silence and the listener can listen silently, it is the most powerful means of communication. And in spiritual learning, it plays a dominant role,†he says. He explains that a quiet communication is most important where two individuals are burdened with different sanskaras (inherited traits, impressions, memories) due to bonding with a particular religion, ethnicity, culture or country. In which case, the connotation of a word or its sentiments remain tied to sanskaras, however subtle the words may be. In his booklet, Maun Samvad (Dialogue in Silence), Yogiraj Nanak says: “Life’s essence cannot fully blossom into words. Maun has the essence, which always exists in the present, and is free of ahankar (ego). The speaker’s or the listener’s ego (‘I know this’ and ‘I don’t know this’) always takes him to I-ness instead of Be-ness and Is-ness. Once freed from ego, what remain are purity, beauty and the nectar of peace and solitude. The power of peace thus obtained is so strong that our life within remains unshaken by the storm and stress without. In short, maun calms the mind and thus fills the whole life with peace.â€life with peace.†In the 10-day Vipassana course, participants observe silence for eight days. Says a Vipassana meditator: “Silence is the medium that takes us forward on the journey from the apparent self to the real self. When we are silently observing the body, and observing the mind, this something that is witnessing is silence—the real Self. We are constantly allowing in the garbage through our five doors—the senses—and we are constantly reacting to it. Silence takes us beyond the sense experiences to the real experience.†Osho too describes the importance of silence in our lives beautifully: “Only silence can be heard and understood. Words can be heard but only superficially, and can be understood but only intellectually. Silence is heard existentially and is understood from your innermost being. It is a total understanding… Silence means you have put aside the whole furniture of the mind—the thoughts, the desires, the memories, the fantasies, the dreams, you have all pushed aside. You are just looking into existence directly, immediately. ‘‘You are in contact with existence without anything in between you and existence. That is silence. Silence is usually understood to be something negative, something empty, an absence of sound, of noises. This misunderstanding is prevalent because very few people have ever experienced silence. All they have experienced in the name of silence is noiselessness. But silence… is overflowing with a music that you have never heard before, with a fragrance that is unfamiliar to you, with a light that can only be seen with the inner eyes. It is not something fictitious; it is a reality and a reality which is

already present in everyone—just we never look in. But why do we need to go into silence? Why do we need to know it or to reach it? Because when we know silence, we shall know ourselves. When we reach silence, we reach the supreme power that is often called God. Silence is shoonya, the no-mind state which every yogi, every sincere sadhak aspires for. Silence springs forth from the ultimate union.

 

 

 

dil se,

Bharath.Krishna

Doha, Qatar

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