Kanchi Mahaswamigal - On Silence

[Guest guest]

Namaste all.

 

(Extracted from the Tamil lectures of Kanchi Mahaswamigal, as

reported in `Deivathin Kural' Vol 1 pp.403-409 and Vol 3 pp.685-690)

 

We get to know the outside world through our five jnAnendriyas

(organs of cognition). Without having to tell us what is outside,

there are five other indriyas (called karmendriyas) which do actions

by themselves. But the only organ which has a role in both these

sets of five is the mouth. It tastes food and acts as a jnAnendriya;

it speaks and acts as a karmendriya. (Here we are not taking just

the tongue which tastes, but we are including the teeth, lips etc.

and call the entire mouth organ as the jnAnendriya).

 

Thus it is the organ of mouth that has a larger share of work than

the other organs. Eating and talking are two functions for which the

mouth is responsible; that is why probably our shastras decree that

the mouth has to reduce its activity by half. On the other hand the

natural tendency for us humans is to double its activity in each

role. In other words, our mouths are over-worked! Always we keep

eating something and continuously we keep talking and expressing

opinions!. Both have to be tempered down. Our scriptures therefore

prescribe fasts and fasting days for us; and they also

prescribe `mounam' for us. First they say: Talk about God and noble

souls. And then they say: Not even that, keep silent for a time.

 

But what do we see in the world? Speeches, speeches and more

speeches! There are loud-speakers to blast these speeches to all

corners. Is this not a torture inflicted on the society? Silence is

not only good to the one who practises it; it is a great service he

does to the society!

 

Our scriptures say: In order to control your mind, first practise

controlling each indriya. And the most important control is that of

the organ of mouth – both in food and in talk. Silence is the art of

curbing our itch to keep on expressing what goes on in the mind. If

we can achieve this, half the job of controlling the mind will also

be done.

 

In olden times a characteristic expression was the advice to

be `calculative' in one's dealings with money. When money is

concerned, everybody appreciates the value of this advice. The advice

is valid even in modern times because everybody knows the value of

money. But man often forgets the same advice is valid even in the

use of words that one speaks. First, if we calculate our words and

use them carefully and economically, both we and our listeners would

have saved time! By practising the habit of talking less and crisp,

we would not be wasting energy. More importantly, most of the

misunderstandings that spoil the atmosphere would vanish. Actually,

too much talk is a modern disease and is probably the most important

infectious disease around. `Mounam kalagam nAsti' is a well-known

ethical saying. Even in the western world, they say: Speech is silver

but silence is golden.

 

Mounam is the entry to jnAnam. We may not go to the extent of

observing complete silence; but we must at least reduce the quantum

of our speaking. The newspapers and other media keep on producing

columns and columns of arguments and counter-arguments and then we

elaborate upon them by our verbal expositions and all this leads only

to further talk and no more! Certainly it is difficult to control our

thoughts. But every thought of ours need not be expressed vocally.

This fundamental discipline is part of the Yoga that Krishna teaches

in the Gita.

 

PraNAms to the Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

[Guest guest]

2008/8/30 V. Krishnamurthy <profvk:

>

> But what do we see in the world? Speeches, speeches and more

> speeches! There are loud-speakers to blast these speeches to all

> corners. Is this not a torture inflicted on the society? Silence is

> not only good to the one who practises it; it is a great service he

> does to the society!

>

 

Email and other such forms of communication are only an extension of

speech. Hence, a modern day mouna vratam, I suppose, should include

the avoidance of writing emails and posting on as well.

 

This is not a joke, I am being pretty serious

--

santoShaH paramo lAbhaH satsa~NgaH paramA gatiH I

vicAraH paramaM j~nAnaM shamo hi paramaM sukham II

- yoga vAsiShTha

[Guest guest]

Rameshji and Prof. VKji

 

Just adding to some more noise via this email. Silence is not absence of

everything - then it becomes a suunya vaada. Silence is presence of

undifferentiated consciousness in spite of the differentiating noise since even

the noise is known only because of that silence in and through the noise. It is

then not the elimination of the noise that one can get to that silence – that

way one may go to sleep by that process - but it is the vigilant observation of

the all pervading silence in that noise. In fact I must say silence cannot be

recognized without the noise present since in the very recognition of the

silence involves noisy mind! Reminds me of Shree KrishnakarNaamRitam sloka by

Bilvamangala Liilaashukuni-

When the raasakRiiDa with Krishna and gopies in Brindaavanam is going on - he

says:

 

angnaamananaamatare maadhavo

maadhavam maadhavam caantareNaanganaa|

ittamaakalipite manDale madhyagaH

sanjagou veNunaa devakiinadanaH||

 

Lord Krishna, son of Devaki is gracefully playing on the flute. During raasa

liila he is dancing between a gopi and a gopi while playing his music. As he is

dancing the author shifts his attention from gopi to Krishna and says between

Krishna and Krishna there is a gopi now. As the dance matures, what the author

sees now is Krishna is not dancing but is in the center around which all the

gipies are circling around and dancing to his tune.

 

From Vedantic point, Krishna represents the silence within- in the beginning of

meditation there is thought (gopi) and there is a thought and between the

thought and thought is Krishna with his divine music. As the meditation

progresses - the mediator focuses on the silence from the gopi and says there is

silence and silence and in between the thoughts. As the meditation peaks -

there is only silence in the center of meditations and all the thoughts are

centered on that silence and all the thoughts are only dancing to that divine

music round and round in circle. Circle is that which keeps equi-distance from

the center. No thought is more important - only important is to dance

consciously to that tune of divine music. Without dance there is no raasa

leela! Hence let us dance to that divine music within, and without going out of

tune, but with that divine music of silence - This is called akhandaakaara

vRitti - unbroken thought flow of the divine

silence within in spite of whatever the noise that is. If we can be silent only

when there is no noise, we will just go to sleep.

According to VishiShTaadviata - only through Shree or Laksmin we can reach

Narayana. Through manefestations alone we can recognize the unmanifest that

pervades all the manefestations.

 

Just a thought or flow of thoughts to recognize that divine presence in the

thoughts.

 

Hari Om!

Sadananda

 

 

 

 

--- On Sat, 8/30/08, Ramesh Krishnamurthy <rkmurthy wrote:

 

2008/8/30 V. Krishnamurthy <profvk >:

>

> But what do we see in the world? Speeches, speeches and more

> speeches! There are loud-speakers to blast these speeches to all

> corners. Is this not a torture inflicted on the society? Silence is

> not only good to the one who practises it; it is a great service he

> does to the society!

>

 

Email and other such forms of communication are only an extension of

speech. Hence, a modern day mouna vratam, I suppose, should include

the avoidance of writing emails and posting on as well.

 

This is not a joke, I am being pretty serious

[Guest guest]

Namaste Sri Sreenivasaji:

 

Here is my understanding and it is based on my undersanding with

limitations. First, your understanding on that the Silence ultimately

will be total (Purnah) is quite precise. Just like, we use a thorn to

remove a thorn, we need to use the noise to remove all noises. If we

choose a weak thorn to remove the thorn under the skin, the weaking

thorn will not be useful for the purpose. On the contrary, it may do

more harm to the skin by poking injury and by breaking. Hence we need

to be careful in chooing the powerful Satvik noise which has the

tendency to calming the mind and bring a conducive atomosphere. This is

the same reason, we start our meditation with the sound of OM which has

the power to silence our senses. In temples, we use the Bells to

silence all other noises and keep our focus on the Divine. For the same

reason, the sound of Conch is used durng worship and just before

meditation.

 

To the extent, these are all subjective judgment by the Sadhkas

(seekers) and they have to decide on choose that which works.

 

With my warmest regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

 

advaitin , " narayana145 " <narayana145 wrote:

>

> H.N.Sreenivasa Murthy

> Pranams to all

>

> advaitin , " Sunder Hattangadi " <sunderh@> wrote:

> >Dear Sri Sunder Hattangadi,

> In response to Sri Sadananda's posting you wrote:

> " The noise, howerver, has to be 'sAttvika'! (like the gopi-s): "

> WHY sAttvika alone? What about rAjasika and tAmasika noises? Are

> they not having the same substratum as the sAtvic one? Why this

division ?

> According to Upanishads THE SILENCE is pUrNaH , puruShaH is it not ?

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " narayana145 " <narayana145 wrote:

>

>

> advaitin , " Madhava Turumella " <madhava@> wrote:

> The goal of this list is to encourage Sattvic tapas. So the

> silense that is requested to be Sattvic.

>

> Dear Sri Madhava Turumella,

>

> A very clear cut exposition indeed!!

 

Namaste,

 

Thanks to Ramji and Madhavaji for their responses. Another

point worth noting is what Gita describes:

 

sattvaatsa~njaayate j~naanaM rajaso lobha eva cha .

pramaadamohau tamaso bhavato.aj~naanameva cha .. 14\-17..

 

" 17. Knowledge arises from SATTWA, greed from RAJAS, heedlessness,

delusion and also ignorance arise from TAMAS. "

 

So, the water is the substratum of the backyard stream and the

Ganges, but a dip in the latter is preferred for 'purification'.

 

 

Regards,

 

Sunder

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " narayana145 " <narayana145 wrote:

>>

>

> In advaitin , I wrote [Ref:41537]:

 

> Sri Ram Chandran (posting 41541),

> Sri Madhava Turumella (posting 41542) and

> Sri Sunder Hattangadi (posting 41551) have replied.

> Do the replies have any bearing upon the points/questions raised

> in the given in the posting 41537? I feel that they have been

> conveniently overlooked in the replies. Further the quotations from

> Bhagavad Gita have no relevance to the points/questions .

>

 

 

Namaste,

 

The points raised in post #41537 would be very relevant to

the 'uttama adhikari' (well-qualified). For the rest, I would submit

that all the posts referred to above,are quite relevant.

 

The Guru is like the mother who prepares the dishes to suit

the digestive capacities of her children (Sri Ramakrishna's allegory).

The Guru instructs the disciple at the suitable level. Krishna as the

Jagadguru has taken care of all the children!

 

Regards,

 

Sunder