The Many Voices Of Silence

The Many Voices Of Silence 

Silence is a peculiar thing. 

It pervades every space , every moment. Yet if you go to find it, it cannot be found!

At home every night after dinner we gather to study from a page or two of some spiritual text. Currently we are halfway through Dasbodh, that contains teachings of Samarth Ramdas, the saint from Maharashtra from the 17th century. It is a treatise on Atma Vidya, the science of the soul. At the heart of the teachings is the spiritual truth that our essential nature is transcendent to our mind, intellect and body. Mind is a factory of thoughts. To experience the pure self one must be able to stand outside the mind! That’s easier said than done! We decided to spend two minutes each day to practice silence and simply observe thoughts! I asked mom yesterday how her practice was going. She candidly admitted that she couldn’t sit in silence for two minutes. Thoughts were impossible to overcome!

For a moment let’s set aside silence from a spiritual standpoint. Instead let’s look at it from day to day perspective. We are more adept at recognizing silence THROUGH our mind, than from outside of our mind!

Simplest experience of silence is when we wake up before anyone else in the home. Or stay up late after everyone else has gone to bed. What does that silence do? It just tones down the noise around us and allows just the voice in our head to speak! In other words , it helps amplify the voice of our mind that was dampened by the noise of others during rest of the day. 

How does this silence feel?

That’s really a million dollar question!

If this silence feels good, it’s an indicator of our mind being comfortable with itself. It is a measure of our own peace.

But it is not always the case. 

I see a lot of patients in my workplace who come for problems with sleep. They stay up late trying to fall asleep or wake up within an hour of falling sleep and lay awake all night! Their mind can’t stop running! That’s how they describe it. 

Silence is painful and unwanted for them. During the day the same mind is occupied with things to do. Problem arises when the chores end. It doesn’t find peace in itself. It is inundated with all the problems and worries in life. And because it has not learned to systematically solve the real problems in a logical, practical way, the mind creates additional web of problems with anxious thoughts. And then struggles to free itself from that dense mess. 

That mess can be solved! If the mind listens carefully. To a wise person. A counselor. A friend. 

Yet sometimes, the mind plays deaf. It doesn’t hear any outside voice of reason and wisdom. And wrestles endlessly with its own voice. 

How does silence feel for such a mind?

It can be filled with chaos. It can be riddled with confusion, fatigue, hopelessness, loneliness, defeat. Even anger and frustration. It is starkly in contrast  to the silence of a peaceful mind. 

And then there are other kinds of silence.

The silence that grips a room when someone speaks irrationally. 

The silence of bystanders when two parties argue passionately and with individual conviction on a certain issue from entirely opposite viewpoints.

The silence when you find yourself at a table or in a room where you are unwelcome.

The silence after a supervisor tells you that you have been fired from the job!

The silence before the much anticipated interview or meeting or before the exam results are released!

The silence before and/or after seeing the doctor for a life changing diagnosis.

The silence after a funeral of a loved one. And after all the attendees at the funeral take leave. 

The silence when you get seated in an airplane next to someone who wished the seat would be empty! And if the flight is a long one only the silence inside your head can create a comfortable space around itself! 

At the end of the day what really matters is that silence inside you! That’s what is going to be the determinant of the quality of your life. 

Here’s the kind of silence I have discovered that is the best so far.

A silence that quietly watches you with a compassionate detachment! 

What is compassionate detachment?

You can feel real compassion coming from that silence. Yet it doesn’t interfere with your mind or decisions. It allows you to see your own thoughts, feelings, and choices. It makes room for you to review them and arrive at a better understanding of how each works to make your path easier or tougher. It just holds the torchlight for you to see and walk. 

It is steady even when you lack patience and forbearance.

It is steady even after you have acquired patience.

On its support the mind builds fortitude. Holding on to the steady sense of encouragement the fortitude teaches emotions to stay unshaken by unpleasant experiences. It learns to keep moving forward notwithstanding comfort and discomfort. It only learns later to call this phenomenon as courage. 

When courage boosts confidence, other people begin to appear less of a threat. When the perception changes from negative to neutral there appears room for friendship and compassion towards strangers. 

None of this would be possible without the compassionate silence surrounding the mind. And it is the detached nature of this silence that allows the mind to mature at its own pace. Had the silence been interfering, mind would never learn. It would become a programmed robot instead of an evolving human.

Atma Vidya is teaching to identify the silence as the self. 

Until now we have existed in our minds. It is teaching us to identify our world of thoughts as non-self. 

For that one must start spending more time in the space between the thoughts. In the gap that comes between end of one action and start of another. It must start basking in the compassion of the silence that has always been a companion through thick and thin. It must realize that this silence is its real nature. Everything else has come from it. Even the voice in your head has come out of the silence which is you. 

June 14,2026