The power of silence

And what effect have all these words had? Mainly, it seems, to divide us. This is hardly surprising because it is achingly rare that our words are the expression of the soul. Rather, they tend to be the expression of our very ordinary natures. We use them to boost our egos, win arguments, control others or put them down, and to disguise our real feelings and motives. We use them to fill gaps in a conversation and gaps in our lives, and to make us feel that we truly exist: ‘I speak, therefore I am”.

We argue about what they mean in the Auroville Foundation Act while we breathlessly await their interpretation by judges, as if Mother’s vision can be defined and decided in the courts.

Moreover, in the present polarised environment where we rarely interact personally with those who think differently from us, we tend to judge others on the basis of the words they use on public forums rather than on their essence, on that which is unspoken.

And, yes, we also use words to express love, solidarity, compassion and wisdom, as well as our deepest and highest aspirations and ideals. But, at least in our public forums, such expressions seem increasingly rare.

So how can we begin to heal the rifts which our words, among other things, have created between us? One way is to begin using words differently, to evoke our better selves (and here Sri Aurobindo’s guidance on the use of psychic self-control in speech is invaluable). Another way is simply to collaborate in a shared task that is beyond politics. We did this in past Matrimandir concreting when a diverse collection of humanity united in ferrying chetties of concrete up the unfinished structure.

Today that option is no longer there. This is why I think we need to find another way to be with each other but beyond words. To simply be with each other without the armoury and armouring of language: no speeches, no PowerPoint presentations, no opinionated exchanges. Just…silence.

We’ve done this before. Quite often, at the end of even difficult meetings, we have gathered ourselves in silence. Of course, there are many different kinds of silence. There is the deep silence of surrender or aspiration, and the shallow silence of simply not talking while one is planning one’s next meal (Mother once referred to this superficial kind of silence as ‘noisy’!). But sometimes these moments of being together without speech have felt far more profound and unifying than the thousands of words expended by us over the previous hours.

But to stay silent with each other, and for longer, won’t be easy. Some people may find it difficult to sit in the same room with others who they think have done serious harm to Auroville and/or verbally attacked them or their friends. Moreover, many of us feel threatened by prolonged silence. We feel shackled when we cannot outwardly express ourselves. And silence may force us to go within, which may lead to an uncomfortable re-examination of what we believe in and what we are doing.

For the power of true silence, where the mind and emotions are put to sleep, is in its potential to reveal undiscovered parts of our being and open us up to new insights, new sources of wisdom. And deep inner silence does not preclude outer expression. In fact, it is the source, the wellspring, of true expression, of true action.

This is why, if we could manage in a diverse group (which may be a small group initially) to sit together for some time in a spirit of surrender and with the deep intention of asking Mother to show us a unifying way forward, I believe that a new way to deal with our present challenges might begin to emerge.

There is no guarantee of this happening, of course, and those who favour quick fixes may quickly opt out. But if something does begin to emerge, it would need to be nurtured carefully, for the temptation to verbalise it, to externalise it too quickly, might deform it. In fact, it may take many meetings before someone feels ready and able to formulate whatever is emerging.

But if together we could succeed in birthing something new, something genuinely unifying, it could go a long way towards healing the deep rifts that have opened between us and bring a huge dose of fresh energy to the collective adventure of materialising Mother’s Auroville.