The Best Way
Practising silence in spiritual life bestows many benefits. The real advantage comes from silencing your mind, but there are external advantages too. The greatest one, according to Jagadguruttam Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj, is controlling your habit or tendency to talk unnecessarily. And what do people mostly talk about? The things they are interested in. And where does your interest lie? Where you have feelings of love and hate. You have practised only in these two areas all your life. Either you will talk about worldly love or worldly hate; you will talk about your enemy or your friend. How can you talk about something if you have no interest in it? Either you will talk about your friend or someone you love, such as your wife, mother, or father etc. or you will talk about your enemy or someone you dislike because your mind is agitated by them.
Since you only talk about things within these two areas, the first advantage of external silence is that you will stop doing so. You are saved in this regard. “Saved? Saved from what,” you may ask? Before you talk, you have to think, don’t you? Yes. First, you think, then you decide, then you plan what to say (even how to say it), and then you formulate your words. For example, you ask someone, “How is Ramesh?” Now, before you asked this, you first thought about Ramesh, and you wondered how he was. You planned and decided that it was important for you to know about Ramesh because he is someone dear to you. Throughout this process, your mind is engaged in the world, even before you utter a single word. And this is the same mind that you must engage in loving thoughts of God and Guru. But by doing this, you have incurred a loss in this regard. No matter what you talk about, you will have to engage your mind in it — before, during and after you speak. There is no escaping this, and hence, your loss spiritually is beyond doubt. The less you talk, the less you will engage your mind in the world. This is obviously beneficial to you spiritually. You must save your mind for thoughts of God and Guru. Engage your mind less and less in the world, and more and more in God and Guru. This is the most important work for any spiritual aspirant on any spiritual path.
When it is important to engage your mind in the world, then you must be careful and make sure that you are detached from whatever it is that you must talk about, be it an object or person. Why? Because you will think less about it and therefore talk less about it. You talk about worldly things only if your mind is thinking about them, if your mind is attached to them. Thus, the benefit of talking less (or not talking at all) is that you will save your mind along with your senses. And if your mind is saved, then you can achieve many things. After all, the act of worship originates from your mind, doesn’t it?
Secondly, when you speak about worldly things it will influence the listener. If the listener was engaged in thoughts of God and Guru, after hearing you, he too will start thinking about the world. Your talking has harmed him along with yourself. Now, if the listener responds to you, then your mind will start ruminating on what he said because you can only understand something when you use your mind to interpret it. To understand someone’s talking, it is not your ears or eyes or any other sense organ that performs that function. It is your mind and intellect that interprets the stimuli around you. Every action of yours requires the involvement of your mind and intellect. Without the mind, your senses cannot function. Though your senses are living, without your mind and intellect, they are as good as dead.
Aspiring devotees must therefore endeavour to speak as little as possible about the world. The idea is not to be completely silent but to refrain from unnecessary talking or continuous talking about worldly things. For example, if someone says, “I saw a ghost last night,” then everyone would start talking about ghosts. People will share different stories and theories, and in the ensuing conversation, some people will lie, and others will exaggerate, and all this can go on for hours, ultimately leading to nothing. By engaging in such things, it is as if you are determined to waste your time. Unnecessary chatter can also lead to someone saying the wrong thing that will have a negative effect on a listener. And if you confide in someone about a third person and that person tells someone else, then this will lead to animosity. In this way, you can get into all sorts of trouble simply by talking and all such troubles are easily averted by remaining quiet. Only your internal feelings are left to be examined, and therefore only one task remains: to engage your mind in loving thoughts of God and Guru and attain your goal.
Kripalu Bhaktiyoga Tattva-darshan — the essence of Vedic wisdom, spirituality and devotion in daily life.
