Inner Silence ~ Episode 1

We all need ‘Silence’ in our lives. We know that if we are continuously exposed to sound, it not only affects our hearing, especially if it is a very loud sound, but also produces headaches and affects our peace of mind. Silence is of two kinds, inner silence and outer silence. At one time or another, everyone has craved for silence; or the need to experience it.
Outer silence is achieved through shutting out all the sources of sound, either by switching them off, or by sealing one’s own ears. That’s how ear plugs have come into being. Through technology now, we can also achieve a kind of selective silence; for instance, when you are flying, many companies have noise cancelling headphones which block out noise.
We all want some kind of silence but total silence can be unbearable for most people. And that is why we find in many homes, a television being continuously on, even if no one is watching it. Or of course, we find people excessively using iPods, radios or cell phones.
A part of us craves for silence while a part of us finds it unbearable. And then we try to fill it with some sounds, with some form of company.
Now why would total and complete external silence become unbearable? This is because when outer sounds stop, the inner sounds become audible. And the inner sounds may not always be very pleasant. The inner sounds are caused by our thoughts. We hear ourselves and other people inside our heads and have inner arguments with past memories, inner anxieties about the future. We have haphazard thoughts and thus our thinking is a waste of time as we aren’t able to produce any concrete results. The biggest problem is that our mind is always running, even at night we are unable to sleep due to our excessive thinking.
A person who is able to deal with one’s own thoughts and ideas in a systematic way is recognized as a thinker. But we all are thinkers; we only need to organize our way of thinking.
The only time we are free from these inner sounds, is in a state of deep sleep which is unconsciousness. While consciously the inner sounds are going on, all the time. And yet, for some of us, we do experience inner silence, at certain moments in our lives and usually these are the critical moments.

Which moments would we describe as critical moments?

Well among the critical moments would be the times when life takes us by surprise, or it creates an extra ordinary situation that we may not have experienced before. Or a situation that is likely to change the course of our life dramatically. One such situation, which could be described as a critical moment, is the death of someone who is close to us. Normally, if someone is terminally ill, the friends, relatives of the person, are at least mentally ready for the possibility that this person may not survive. But, we know that sometimes, death occurs in sudden unexpected ways, especially of someone who is close to us, that definitely would be a critical moment. And at such times, we experience a deep inner silence.

(Out of six, one is complete ~ to be continued)

Bibliography:

• Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda ~ God Talks With Arjuna ~~ Bhagavad Gita ~ Published By Yogoda Satsanga Society of India.
• Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda ~ Inner Silence ~~ Inner Peace ~ Published By Yogoda Satsanga Society of India
• Swami Tyagananda ~ Monk of Ramakrishna Order ~ Ramakrishna Vedanta Society, Boston, USA
• Swami Adiswarananda ~ Meditation & Its Practices ~ Published By Advaita Ashrama
• Swami Vivekananda ~ Voice of Freedom ~ Published By Advaita Ashrama
• Inner Voice & Reflection, as Guided By Divine Mother Through Robbin Ghosh