1 Feb 2008 —
Question
Q41: Vow of Silence?
Question 41:
“What for you is the deeper value of a vow of silence? For how long do you think that you could keep such a vow?”
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A True or Real Vow of Silence is to silence the mind. This means not to entertain thoughts that come into the theatre of consciousness. If someone talks to me, I do my dharma. Perhaps answer the question, or I simply smile kindly.
We, as devotees and disciples of Blessed Amma strive to maintain a Vow of Silence as long as we can. If we forget momentarily, we pick it back up. There will come a day when effortless no-thought is… And then we are patiently waiting for Our Guru’s Grace to fall.
The deeper value of vow of silence is silence from our innerself and not physically. We should be calm from inside remembering God and surrendering to him. As well as physically also we should always speak out good things. Once there was a Saint who was on Maun Vrat, he would never speak and always write what he needs to convey on the slate. A well known spiritual guru thought he would go and meet the Saint. He asked him whether his vow was only from the outside or from the inside also. This opened the eyes of the saint and he started speaking. It means for the world he was not speaking but from within he was always ‘speaking’ something or other. A real vow of silence means controlling your the mind and the thoughts.
I received a thought of the day the other day on email that struck me very much. Here it is:
“Today I was walking with some friends in Armstrong Redwoods Park and I was astonished at those trees. The more I looked at them, the more I came to appreciate them. It was completely still, unlike our tropical forests in India, where elephants trumpet, tigers roar, and there is a
constant symphony of sound.
“Here everything was still, and I enjoyed the silence so much that I remembered these lines of John Keats. It is a perfect simile for the silence of the mind, when all personal conflicts are resolved, when all selfish desires come to rest. All of us are looking for this absolute peace, this
inward, healing silence in the redwood forest of the mind. When we find it, we will become small forces for peace wherever we go.”
So an external vow of silence must be a striving to one day reach a similar internal silence.
we cannot control the ears from listening to unnecessary things, or close our eyes to avoid seeing unnnecessary things. in short, we cannot control these senses much to avoid reacting to external stimuli from the world, but we can surely control our tongue. we can choose to speak or to remain silent, cant we ? so by maintaining silence and talking only good and pleasant things when necessary, we can conserve a lot of our energy and also develop spiritually.
i ve noticed whenever i take a vow of silence, first it’s a struggle not to speak… but by the evening things starts to calm down… our mind stops in between.. and in the night when we look at the silent world around us.. Its so SILENT. its actually the silence that is there and all the sounds, vibrations, fluctuations, movements everything is based on that SILENCE….
we can easily understand this when we take a vow of silence at least for 24 hrs… i met a monk who took a vow of silence 36 years ago… and he was not able to break it since then….
a vow of silence lends us time to think deep and get closer to Truth….silence speaks louder than words, true, but difficult to practise….
it’s tough for me to maintain silence for a whole day because i’m studying at a regular college….there have been instances when i was forced to break the silence when teachers asked questions in class… a day of silence does lot of good as i withdraw to within myself and soon straying thoughts end up at one point-amma….
On New Years I was at the M.A Center in San Ramon for the Silent retreat. I was very calm and quiet inside. Now every year I will take a vow of silence for one day atleast once or twice. I’m in school every day, so that makes it very hard to be silent!!!
todays situation for me would allow me to be verbally silent maybe for couple of minutes therefore mental silence is more of an option for me .
I definitely want to break the shell of constant chattering of the mind and go into deep silence where my mind is fully awake but completely quiet. This state for me would be my vow of silence. I’ve tried stopping the incessant chatter of the mind many times unsuccessfully, except for once, about 4 months ago, when it happened automatically while chanting mantra my mind totally became silent and my mind & heart focused on Amma saw her clearly smiling at me. When I came out of this state I thought it was for 1-2 minutes, but looking at the time it was 25 minutes. I then understood the value of a silent mind. It was a beautiful experience.
Taking a vow of silence (e.g. physically not talking) helps the mind become quieter, as the energy is no more dissipated outside. When quietness and peace fill the mind, a wonderful feeling of bliss and contentment is experienced… precious…
I don’t know for how long I would be able to keep a vow of silence… I wish it to be for a loooong (and precious) period of time…
Not a second….but trying to. I will acheive with ammas grace.
There is a saying ” Silence is better than Gold” . But keeping silence is difficult, and can be overcome only by practice and with grace of AMMA.
Vow of silence, mostly is limited to keeping the mouth shut, by in this the other four senses are still active – an internal turbulence. All five can be brought under control only by practice.
from external to internal, from temple pooja to manasa pooja, from talking to silence, from cleanliness to purification, from chanting to meditation, from compassion to grace, from amma to amma
Silence is Yoga !! 🙂
It is a wonderful experience we get from mauna vrita ( vow of silence )
We can feel the nearness of Devine ( AMMA ). A day long is the maximum which this child of AMMA could keep by the Grace of AMMA. We can feel that energy is being stored during and even after the silence. By practicing vow of silence we can come out of several problems.
The most blessed Sadhak is the one who speaks only what is to be spoken and contemplates constantly on the Divine.
The austerity w.r.t. speech is “Chanting the Divine Name” and “Speaking the Truth that is loveable” …
Vow of Silence can also be the best austerity as long as our speech is imperfect and the thoughts are not pure.
IN SILENCE, THE TRUTH MANIFESTS …
I think that would really be hard for me because I talk and think so much about everything. A real vow silence would be a silence of the mind. It’s really hard.
I feel maunam of mouth will lead to mounam of mind. Whatever we speak have a effect of it on our mind. The first step towards calming our mind is to speak only if absolutely essential.
If I can keep quiet under severe provocation then I feel I am successful in my first step in controlling my mind.
I don’t know how long i could do it for-depends on the situation at the time-within and without. I am reminded of the quote from Lao Tzu i think: ‘She who speaks does not know,she who knows does not speak’. At the rare times when i have been graced briefly with a more subtle state of consciousness the urge to speak has left me, thoughts don’t arise and therefore words are superfluous-that indescribable stillness reigns. Ahhhh……..
As far as I am concerned it is a little bit impossible to control the organs of sound. If i’am alone i used to talk to my Lord as though he is in front of me. What to do. Deep rooted nature can’t be eliminated fast.
Myself whole day living alone, without talking almost everyday becoz children go to school, college but i can’t stop talking with my beloved amma . Not a second but trying to. I will acheive with ammas grace one day when all my family members are there i will take a vow.