Teaching through Silence

Teaching through Silence

In spiritual to learn and realize the ultimate truth we have to acquire the spiritual knowledge and without acquiring the spiritual knowledge progressing forward in this path is difficult as following some meditation or rituals would be mostly mechanical in nature and you would not know what’s next. Hence acquiring knowledge becomes important.

Here it does not mean that we should no practice but we have to have an understanding of what we are doing and know what is it that we are trying to achieve without which the practice becomes incomplete. In-fact a person needs to follow all the paths together to proceed successfully in spiritual life.

Meaning he has to acquire and understand spiritual knowledge (jnana yoga), second he should have the love towards the divine, practice Karma yoga (giving up the desire of outcome of an activity) and practice Raja yoga (meditation and associated techniques). When a person practices all these things together he will have the realization of the divine. People may say that each path can be independently followed for realization, but in practical life it is very difficult to do this. A homogeneous amalgamation of all the paths will always help the aspirant to move quicker.

So we will discuss about Jnana yoga. He the prime importance is given to acquire knowledge about the absolute and practice the same in our day to day life. What is the knowledge that we have to acquire here is question that comes to us first?

The teachings of the Upanishads are very clear and it says that “all is one”, meaning the entire existence and non-existence is nothing but Brahman and this is in the form is in the form of Absolute existence, absolute consciousness and absolute bliss. Further it says that the apparent universe is false and there is but only one reality that is Brahman and you the atman within is none other than Brahman.

To understand this, a person starts his spiritual journey to acquire the spiritual knowledge but learning from the books has its own disadvantages as everything is not clear and there is all possible chance of misunderstanding the scripture which is more dangerous than ignorance.

Hence next what a person does is that he goes and approaches a Guru to impart him with the knowledge of the self, based on the spiritual level of the student a self-realized Guru imparts the knowledge of the self by advising him to read and understand Vendantic scriptures and Upanishads. He explains the knowledge to the student and advice's him to contemplate on the teachings and come back for any questions.

If the student is of a higher caliber then the Guru advises the student to directly follow meditation and helps him to achieve the stillness required for realization. At this stage the Guru and Student communication at mental plane or to put it simply, the intention of the Guru is understood by the student without much verbal communication.

Again if the student is highest caliber the mere Silence of the Guru is enough for the student to understand that nature of the self is revealed is only in Silence and this silence is nothing but Brahman. 

The Silence of the Guru will always tell the student to still himself and understand that all these things that are happening around is nothing but Maya, i.e., the projection of the Self. The silence emphasizes that all that is happening around, the apparent world and the teachings of the Vedanta are Maya itself and the Silence beyond this is the absolute, i.e. Brahman. The best way to represent God is through silence as only when there is stillness there is realization.

When a Guru is uses his silence to teach it would mean that he expects the student to be still , all these actions around happens out of this silence and hence he says us to find that silence which is the Brahman and source of all.

Hence it is for this reason teaching through silence is regarded as the best way of the all.