On silence....

On silence....

Sometimes, all I want is Silence...A long uninterrupted silence.

I am not speaking about the silence that is deafening....

It is not even the silence that devours me......

I don’t even like the silence that frightens me....

I am talking about the silence that is silent and soothing and calm.........

I seem to get all types of silence except the one that I want........

It’s the other types of silence that drives me towards noise and sound....those are the ones that keep me engaged and occupied. They are the reason for my talking. They are the ones driving me towards outside.

Oh, for the silence that is noiseless and musical in its silence.......

On talking and silence!

 

On talking and silence!

The mystic says "I have lots to say and yet I choose to remain silent!

My words don't reach the listener. For every listener listens to what he wants to listen, what he chooses to listen. No, no one is here to listen to what I have to say!

And so, I went silent! And the world started calling me "Great One" for having gone silent!!??

They didn't understand my words. They don't listen to my silence!

I don't know how to reach them. I tried both words and silence and I have failed in both. 

Into my words they put their meanings. And my silence went deaf on their ears!!!??

And now, I don't talk and and I don't say through silence too!"

# being still, on silence, words and their purpose, on talking and listening, understanding, beingness, being one with the Nature, awareness, 

also read suggested : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=silence  

How to understand blog and Me, My Guru series especially

Contd……..

How to understand blog and Me, My Guru series especially

At the same time, there are characters also which reflect our behaviour and the flaws in our attitude.  We can see and judge it clearly when we see it as an outside character. So you can see your mistakes when you see these characters make them. In such cases don’t expect your husband, kid, colleague to behave like a Guru! You need to shift from student quality to your Guru quality to heal that cause of pain in your life.

There are also Rahul’s, Aziz and such characters who stand by Guru. You also may have someone like them in your life. And usually we tend to like Rahuls more than Vaishnav’s of our life. But look at Guru. She behaves same with all! She behaves not as per how people treat her. She chooses to behave her way. That is freedom. She does what needs to be done and goes about her job with love, commitment and yet with total poise and detachment. That is the way to live every relationship in our life. If she can live with so many people of such nature in her life, why can’t we live with just couple of such people in our life? Does that mean she'll tolerate everyone's nonsense for ever? No, it is told so many times that she let many masters and students out of her circle for good! That shows she knows how much to give and when to stop entertaining them. That is clarity of thought! That is knowing your boundaries and putting them to good use. 

One more aspect to be noted – nowhere Guru says she is good, patient, forgiving etc. It is all projected by her various students. Understand this point clearly. Go through all the stories if you please to note this. They project as per their expectations, conditions and how they are met. The same student is happy with her once and angry at her next moment. But she remains same!

What better way to understand desire, wish, expectations, conditions and trust!

Contd……..

# expectation, love, conditions, Guru, discipleship, acceptance, teaching and preaching, learning, perception, good and bad in others,  

also read previous posts : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=biscuit+story 

Question addressed : 

What is expectation?

How to address it?

What is freedom ?

What is being balanced?

Can we behave independent of situations in life?

Point to understand and apply :

• People will behave as per their nature. What does your nature tell you about yourself?
• If other's behaviour is deciding how to behave, act, be then who is responsible for that?
• If your happiness is based on what others have to offer you then do you really think you can ever be happy, secure and peaceful?

Today's miracle :

It was evening well after 7.30pm. I stood at the balcony looking at the sky for some time. It was after sometime that I realized that there was no noise that was disturbing me that night or all the previous nights for quite some time. There was no traffic on the road due to lock down. 

This silence was so calming by itself!

This silence I became aware of when a 'lone biker' drove very fast honking unnecessarily.

The sound made me realize the 'beauty of silence' that I was enjoying all those days of silence!

Is sound imperative for me to understood and value silence?

Need for feedback.....

On feedback, appreciation and human wants........

(This article is based on recent comments posted.....i just wanted to share thank-you and few thoughts on thoughts shared by few of you.....)

My English teacher – Ms. Susheela Prasad, God bless her, was a wonderful soul and an excellent teacher. She would complete a session and ask “have you understood?” and there would be dead silence in our class. Not a leaf moved. And she, after waiting for two minutes would say “your silence could possibly mean two things. One that you understood every word of what I taught and two that you didn’t understand a word of it! I hope your silence doesn’t mean the second!

Yet again one long silence in the class!

“Good God, can’t you atleast answer for this?”

We would still be silent. Then out of sheer desperation she would call out my name and ask “What about you? Did you or did you not understand?”

I would meekly get up nod my head and reply in a weak voice “I did, teacher!”

“Then, why didn’t you say so?”

Thankfully bell would ring and save me every time. I never answered that question of hers!

No other teacher asked us so. So, only Ms. Susheela Prasad ended up suffering our silence for years.

I’ve heard many artists say that they hate playing to silent crowds. They love the crowd that participates. Then, I didn’t understand it much. Now when I post, post after post and get no feedback, I realize my karma (of school) is getting back at me. I get to teach to the walls as my teacher would always say!

Trust me; feedback is the only thing that can keep me going and doing this job 24/7. Feedback always doesn’t mean “you are great maam” et like. I am not fishing for compliments here. 

contd..........

Coin in the mud

…contd….

 

But, this thing wouldn’t happen henceforth. God bless the person who put stone in the path and which hurt him. He realized the truth. He would walk with head bent from that day onwards. 

He missed the blooming of flowers and the fall of leaves. 

 

He didn’t see the smiles of children nor did their laughter reach his ears. 

 

His whole concentration was only on finding the coins in the mud. His disappointment knew no bounds when he didn’t find any. He would come home irritated, vexed, feeling cheated and tired. His health started failing and suffering mounted.

 

One day he was sitting on the park bench, head bent heaving heavily. A kid came to him and said “uncle, look up, there’s rainbow up there” and started clapping hands. Our old man looked up to notice the rainbow. He had seen it after a long time. 

 

He smiled – after a long time. He found lots of kids clapping hands pointing at rainbow. He looked at their smiling faces and lost himself. When it was time for him to leave, he saw flowers in full bloom. His heart leapt up in joy. God, how much he had missed all these sights and sounds all these days – all for just Rs. 5/- coin. He laughed at his stupidity. How could he and why did he trade joy worth millions with that coin in mud?

 

From that day onwards, he started once again walking with head up and by enjoying the God’s creation. His health picked up and smile returned to his lips” she concluded the story and left us.

 

We were left dazzled. How stupid of us to stick to one experience and log on to that through every event of our life. ‘Everything changes’ applies to these insights and experiences too. “However good be an experience, enjoy it but move on” she had said so many times. And yet here we were stuck to one event and let that blind us to other insights and experiences which we could’ve had in the past few days.

 

Yes, it was good to have some good experience but to be stuck to it, awed by it was sheer stupidity. Move on should be our watch word and action word too!

 

I laughed at my dumbness and thanked her for waking me up to reality. Am I glad she’s there to give me these jolts?

 

We all looked at each other. This time we didn’t have to talk to each other to know what the other was thinking. We were all thinking the same. Let’s drop our past experience and move on and what better way than sit in meditation for that? And we all sat in meditation without exchanging another word.

 

We opened our eyes only to drink tea or have lunch. Not a word was spoken by anyone today. Strange yet it was comforting! We were ok with it.

 

And late night we left her place in silence…..for once we gained in silence. What we couldn’t say but she gave in silence too that we experienced today. We hardly spoke yet were more close than ever, more connected than ever. I think best communication happens in silence and I smiled at this thought as I walked in moonlight away from her place…….

 

Me, my Guru – Bhagavatam – Bhaktha Prahlad and Hiranyakashyap

 

Contd....

Me, my Guru – Bhagavatam – Bhaktha Prahlad and Hiranyakashyap

But when the same problem is faced by a sadhan, bhaktha, people who are following dharm, then the same problem helps to alleviate them. It heals their karma. It betters their attitude. It purifies them. It helps to loosen up their bondage. It helps to grow spiritually. So you see, if and only if you are following Dharm, are full of purity of intent and in sadhan don’t look at the name of the relationship. Just do your bit. Keep your end of the relationship pure and full of love. See how honest you can be in your relationship. Play your part right. And then, leave the rest to God.

Use relationships to free yourself from bondage. Don’t use them to bind you to this World and karma”.

Having said this our Guru left us to have our lunch. We had to eat to fill our stomachs. But our hearts were filled already with what she shared!

She didn’t say anything new today and yet it felt new. Wasn’t this topic ever young, new and beautiful every single time?

Just listening to it gave us goosebumps. Imagine the bliss one experienced when he lived it??!!

Wow! No doubt, all Gurus stressed on this again and again!

We ate in silence.

This silence was beautiful.

This silence was fulfilling.

This silence was peaceful.

 Concluded......

Please note: Assuming you all know the stores from Bhagavatam that I am sharing, I am giving you an abridged version only......if any of you don't know any of the stories that I have shared, let me know I'll write the same in detail.....

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# Me my Guru series, Prahlad and Hiranyakashyap, Bhagavatam, Bhaktha and samsari, materialistic and spiritual person, devotee, devotion, God protects those who trust him, God's grace, bad parent and good parent, break down situations, situations don't make or break us, 

also read suggested https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/2016/01/no-snowflake-ever-falls-at-wrong-place_23.html 

read the complete link given above.....