SRI MA: How is that? Why has the word ‘through’ been used here?
A DEVOTEE : Silence is itself wisdom, the means is itself the end.
SOMEONE ELSE : By silence we have to understand the stilling of the five senses.
SRI MA : Yes, but why say ‘through’?
A DEVOTEE: Complete and exclusive concentration on the Self this is the significance of ‘through’.
SRI MA : When speech is suppressed, the activity of the mind still continues. All the same, such silence helps to control the mind. As the mind dives deeper, its activity slackens off, and then one comes to feel that He who provides for everything, will arrange matters. When the mind is agitated by thoughts of worldly things, the benefit that should be gained by abstaining from speech is lost.
One may, for instance, keep silent at the moment of anger, but some time or other it is bound to burst forth. When the mind is centered in God, it keeps on advancing steadily, and along with this emerges purity of body as well as mind. To let thought dwell on the objects of the senses is a waste of energy.
When the mind is thus occupied and silence is not observed, it finds release in speech. Otherwise, this kind of silence might put undue strain on the senses and possibly result in ill-health. But when the mind is turned inward, not only can there be no injury to health, but more than that, by constantly dwelling on the thought of God, all the knots (granthi) that make up the ego are unravelled, and thereby that which has to be realized will be realized.
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