In
an age of pops and rocks, to talk about silence seems redundant, incongruent
and out of place. We are so used to the noise around us and within us; it has
become impossible to live without it. Some of us have become identified with
the kind of noise that we make. Sometimes when this noise is silent, we become
so uncomfortable that we dread silence in all forms. From our childhood, we
have been taught and trained to be noisy that it has become the way of life.
This, we have inherited from our parents, elders and forefathers. Any
achievement or progress that we make in our daily lives is measured in
proportion to the amount of noise that we make!
We
have come to accept that silence is some kind of ‘death’ and to be alive is to
be noisy. Noise has come to be accepted as our essential existential condition.
We treat it as an inevitable necessity of life. From very early days of our
lives, we are taught to be noisy to get what we want. We scream, shriek and
shout and throw up tantrums and disturb others to get what we want. Aren’t
these the first lessons of our childhood?
The
deadening noise about and around us make our lives so stressful and difficult.
Our noisy jets, factories and machineries mark the progress we have made, don’t
they? The magnitude of noise is visible in our city markets, in the malls, in
the picture halls, in our stadiums… Our airports, railway stations and bus
stations, the fairs and festivals that we hold, the offices and workstations we
have created … – the list goes on – are all very expressive of how best noisy
we could be. Why, even the village teashops prove not less than a market place.
What about temples wherein we conduct our worships and offer prayers; we
believe that the noisier our worship or our prayer is the better for God to
hear us! Are our highways and freeways spared of this condition? The never
ending howl has become a requisite for our travels. But for this humdrum, our
travels could be more restful and relaxing, couldn’t they?
Look
at our schools and colleges! We have converted our kids into a noise producing
factories. The child that enters the classrooms lives with a variety of indispensable
noises and it begins to learn to make noise in a variety of ways. Our learning
centers have become a mass noise creating machineries. The teacher, who is in command in the
classrooms, affirms the child’s learning that noise is an important part and
parcel of our lives. Surely, whether she teaches science or mathematics, she does
teach the art of making the most dreaded forms of noises. And as the child
grows up, his ability to make noise improves, and he arrives to the conclusion
that nothing good can be achieved without noise. More the noise, better the
achievement! And the world outside – adult world or otherwise – confirms this
fact.
The
reason for all this, according to me, is our noisiness and turmoil within. We
are constantly troubled by our selfishness, greed, hatred and fear. And we
infect others and our environment with these. As a result, there is untamable
noise everywhere all the time. Our cry for attention and appreciation, our cry
against corruption and crimes, our cry for justice and jubilance, our cry against
oppression and atrocities are voluminous. And, we have developed an innate
desire to be heard and so we shout down others, we pull down what we built
ourselves, we scream and shriek to feel our lies true. Aren’t these the reason
for the major illnesses and diseases? The chaos and misery constitute our
destruction of ourselves and all the life forms around us.
But, the truth is the opposite. If we look
around, the most exquisite things happen in utmost silence. The beautiful rising
sun does it all in an enticing silence. The bud flowering occurs in the quiet.
The cocoon turns into a butterfly in absolute silence. There is no announcement
made when a seed opens itself under the ground to put out the shoot. The shell
within the deep seas turns a water droplet into a priceless pearl in silence.
The melodious brooks, the stillness on the mountain tops, the serene sunset …
all of these have an appalling ability to enable creativity at its best. Even
the very being of man, though there is noise all about him, longs for peace and
silence.
In
sickness, doctors advise quiet. When man is troubled, what he seeks is silence.
When faced with difficulties, solutions are sought in silence. Most important decisions
are arrived at after they are deliberated and discussed in deep silence and
tranquility of mind and heart. Calm is a must before we come to difficult
decisions, as would a tiger do before he overcomes its prey. We are taught to
get into silence before we go before God, in prayer.
But,
aren’t there sounds or noises around us? The thunder, the strong winds, the
birds, the animals … do make their noises. If we deeply observe all these
‘noises’ they are sounds that have rhythm in them. The waves embracing the
shore, the waterfalls doing their somersaults, the storm ravaging the woods
…all of these definitely have a pleasant music about them. The buzz of the
insects, the roars of the oceans, the murmur of the rains and the sound of
silence in nature transports us to a different world altogether.
Silence
plays an important role in the lives of men and women who have lived great
lives. Mahatma Gandhiji attached an immense value for silence in his life. He
remained silent throughout a day in a week. Saints and sages got themselves
away from the maddening world to carve out a great life, while being in it.
Mother Teresa would be a great example of this. Men and women worked toward
greatness in silence without any noise and screams. Sachin Tendulkar’s greatness
will lie in the fact that he worked to his ‘God of Cricket’ status, not with a
signboard around his neck, but in silence. He played his game after game with
utmost sincerity and focus that brought him this title. We have innumerable examples
of this kind in our lives, homes and other places. While on the other hand,
there have been few who made themselves to greatness with noise and roars. Life
around us stands an excellent proof of this.
Let
us teach our children that ‘silence is golden’ yet once again, boldly and
clearly. We should also teach ourselves through our silenced selves and serene
disposition, giving up all anger and frustration.
