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<p class="paracenter">MENTAL SILENCE
</p>
<p class="paracenter"></p>
<p class="para">Normally<b> </b>the mind is in a turmoil; it is eagerly active. 
First of all it is preoccupied with its problems and wants their solution. It 
knows only to think, to see pros and cons, weigh, reason, deduce; it arrives at 
some kind of conclusion which brings success or failure almost at random. Apart 
from this conscious or voluntary activity there is in the mind a whole region of 
involuntary activity; that is to say, it is assailed on all sides by a hundred 
thoughts, ideas and notions that come from outside and fill your brain cavity 
and over which you have no control. Each one tries to push forward, secure a 
place for itself, claim satisfaction and fulfilment. They are all moving at 
cross purposes and the mind knows no peace or issue.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> It is possible to put a violent 
pressure upon oneself and forcibly push out all this confused movement and make 
the mind vacant. But the effect of mental will upon mind cannot be perfect or 
enduring. Besides it is not that, the absolute vacancy, that is our goal. Some 
other way and manner has to be found for stilling the mind's activities.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> It is to call in the peace that 
is beyond, that is
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-65</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">already there somewhere. It happens, with a sincere demand or 
aspiration in the consciousness, a certain readiness in the being. When that 
happens (something in the manner of the Upanishadic <i>viv</i>&#7771;<i>nute tanum 
svam </i>—he unveils himself his own body), you feel as if a sheer blank, even a 
black void has entered into you and captured you. In the very midst of whirlwind 
activity comes a dead stop. Nothing is there now, no idea, no thought, no 
notion, no motion even— an immense emptiness has eaten up, engulfed everything. 
Keep steady and await. In that stillness something rises up—up and up—and goes 
out beyond, a tranquil beam of consciousness. And then something descends, from 
afar—a peace, a luminousness, authentic and absolute in its reality. It comes 
down, enters into you, possesses your brain and body. It has, you find, resolved 
all problems, harmonised all contraries and conflicts; for it comes from the 
home of mother truth. Now you do not strive, but you know, you do not grope, for 
you are led. You await and at each moment you receive the direction as to what 
is to be done; you have no thought or preoccupation, the inspired movement 
happens automatically and infallibly.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> Sometimes it happens too that the 
sudden silence or inner immobility causes a bewilderment and you are caught by a 
fear that you are losing all bearings, that
</p>
<p class="para">
<br>
</p><p class="pageno">Page-66</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">you are turning an absolute idiot or something worse. Some in a 
panic have let go the grace that came. In such a condition one has to be firm 
and steady and continue.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> I have said normally you are 
assailed by all kinds of thought. They come into your brain from all quarters 
and demand audience and satisfaction. Thoughts need come into the brain, because 
actions become possible through them, they give the form and frame to your 
action. But the difficulty is that the thoughts are not only various but almost 
always contrary to each other; we see man so often moving in contrary directions 
and contradicting himself at each step. It is bound to be so if the doors of the 
mind are left wide open. Sometimes, however, or in some persons, one dominant 
thought takes possession of the mind and drives out all others. In such a case, 
when a single idea rules, one is likely to cut oneself down, narrow oneself and 
force the being into a strait-jacket, to move in a closed groove. The being in 
its entirety does not find self-expression or self-fulfilment. Thus you may have 
the idea, the fixed idea, that the world is irrevocably miserable and 
incorrigible and therefore you will naturally plan your whole life to that end, 
all your occupation and preoccupation will be how to get away from this world, 
you will seek a far solitude, inner and outer, seek
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-67</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">release from existence and merge into the Transcendent or the 
Void. On the other hand, if you have the idea that in spite of all appearances 
to the contrary the world is remediable and reclaimable, then your life takes on 
a different pattern. It will seek to find out ways and means of the remedy and 
to what degree the possibility goes.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> Now, the value of an idea cannot 
be determined by the idea itself. Usually one chooses because of some external 
reason or other: one's education, environment, one's personal temperament, likes 
and dislikes go a long way in determining one's choice. So the first thing you 
have to do is not to allow the thoughts to Come in pell-mell, as and when they 
like. Thoughts must come only when you choose them and only those that you 
choose. There must be a conscious selection. How to proceed in this work? As 
your own thoughts cannot choose themselves, what you have to do at the outset is 
to call for a higher guidance and let yourself be absolutely impartial and 
passive in its hands.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> A blankness is needed, a white 
emptiness somewhere behind—even if it does not come and occupy the front too. 
Give up personal choosing and wait for the Higher Direction—the Divine—to do 
with you whatever it wills. Given the requisite silence and reliance, the 
decision comes inevitably and you are moved to
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-68</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">do automatically what is required to be done from moment to 
moment. At first you may not get the knowledge of the why and the wherefore of 
your action, you act merely as an automaton but with the luminous silence within 
and a tranquil aspiration attending. When once you have been trained in this 
unquestioning docility, then knowledge will be given to you gradually, at first 
only of a few steps ahead, later on for a fuller and completer perspective.
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-69</p>
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