The Gift of Silence

"There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fount of action and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being, welcoming me tenderly, saluting me with indescribable humility."
- Thomas Merton


God is silence. Beyond language and thought, beyond reason and concept, silence shines eternally. Listen with the ears of your heart and you can hear it everywhere.

Everything arises from silence and dissolves back into silence. Silence is woven in the gap between thoughts and words, creates music by existing between the notes, pervades all forms as the emptiness that fills every atom.

As the very core of your being, silence is the source of life and love, of joy and comfort and peace. The infinite perfection of the Self is the abiding, unchanging, impersonal silence from which unconditional love overflows and celebrates. Truly, silence is the very form of Brahman.

The greatest teaching is silence.The Guru’s silence effortlessly bestows the grace of liberation and the gift of immortality.

Totally and unconditionally surrender to this silence and all your suffering will cease. 

“Tranquility in the form of supreme silence is supreme bliss, the happiness of liberation. The radiance of consciousness-bliss in the form of one awareness shining equally within and without is the supreme, primal reality whose form is silence. Through resting silently in being-consciousness, the life of perfect bliss can be attained at all times and in all states in this very world and in this very body.” Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharishi. 

“Silence is the ultimate reality and everything in this world exists through silence. This means, literally, going deep inside yourself to the dwelling where nothing is happening; this place transcends time and space.That is our real home and the place to which we actually belong. In this state, there is only deep silence - there is no good, no bad and no state of trying to achieve anything. It is a state of pure being. The ultimate freedom is to reach this state of deep silence in which you transcend your body, your affairs and the universe.” Robert Adams 

In Memoriam

 

In loving memory of Dr. Ram Mohan Mallya.

“The real purpose of the scientific method is to make sure nature hasn’t misled you into thinking you know something you actually don’t know.The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of the mountain, or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha - which is to demean oneself.” Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

What can I say about the passing of a kind, decent and honourable man who is loved and remembered by so many?
I could say he was the best human being I ever knew.
I could tell you that he was simple, down-to-earth, honest and true. That he loved Nature and children and science with total abandon. That he gave more gifts than Santa Claus.

Living his entire life in the service of others, he did not have a selfish bone in his body.
He shared his resources, knowledge and wisdom with everyone he knew.He gave and gave and gave, unceasingly, without fanfare or fuss. Uncomplaining and cheerful, he saw the positive potential in life and in all others – in particular, in the young and the poor and the dispossessed. 

Those many who knew him, all of whom experienced his unfailing kindness and warmth ,will never forget him.

A light has gone out in the world. A living flame has finally died.

And yet, descendants of this flame , lit in so many others, burn on, transmitting kindness, compassion, wisdom, creativity, generosity, basic goodness and humanity……as one candle lights another, this handing down of light down the generations creates its own immortality.

In the collective memory of the hundreds of people whose lives he touched, he shines forever like a star in the sky.

At last, he rests in the perfect peace and bliss of infinite Brahman.

May his blessings flow to us always! 

“The great teachers and prophets, and the inspirers of humanity of all times have not become what they were by their miracles or wonder-workings; these belong to other people. The main thing that could be seen in them was their loving manner. ... One may ask: How to cultivate the heart quality? There is only one way: to become selfless at each step one takes forward on this path, for what prevents one from cultivating the loving quality is the thought of self. The more we think of our self, the less we think of others.” Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Shine on You Crazy Diamond!

(dedicated to Pink Floyd, whose haunting music and infinitely wise lyrics blessed our generations.)

“Remember when you were young? You shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond!
Now there’s a look in your eye, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond!
You reached for the secret too soon; you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond!
Threatened by shadows at night; exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond!” Pink Floyd

The human race is experiencing a nightmare created by its own madness – a reflection of its own state of consciousness. Its collective mind creates a collective bad trip.
In this time of dark portents, when tyrants rule and injustice reigns, when disease and disaster become the norm, when callous inhumanity and selfish greed appear to bring all life to the brink of extinction, must we despair?

Since the dawn of time, a wise and loving power has created and maintained the miracle of this cosmos and all that exists. Do you think this power is no longer active?
Every drop of rain that falls, every leaf that grows, every star that shines – all happens only because of this power. O ye of little faith, every breath you take is its gift!

Trust in this power..and it will never fail you.

“The Self that is subtler than the subtle and greater than the great is seated in the heart of every creature. One who is free from desire sees the glory of the Self through the tranquillity of the mind and senses and becomes absolved from grief.”Katha Upanishad

When you are trapped in a nightmare, fear feels real until you awaken.
Going through life unaware of your own true divine nature is the nightmare.

O son of man, awaken; the time is ripe!

Ride the steel breeze – open your eyes wide and see.
Dive into the Heart and discover that you are free.

Let that Light drive away all the shadows in your mind.
Be who you really are and shine!

“The great mountain of worldly anxieties is an unreal accumulation of fictions bundled together by the feverish imagining mind. One’s own reality, which shines within everyone as the Heart, is the infinite ocean of unalloyed bliss. Therefore, like the unreal blueness of the sky, misery exists only in the imagination, not in reality.” Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi.

 https://youtu.be/CiXNIjGX1hY

Emperor's Child

“ If you completely surrender all your responsibilities to me, I will accept them as mine and manage them. Abandon the drama of the world and seek the Self within. Remaining within,I will protect you so that no harm befalls you.If you worship me by meditating on the excellence of my true nature, the greatness of your own true nature will well up in your heart. Seek my grace within the Heart – I will drive away your darkness and show you the Light. This is my responsibility. Like the children of an emperor, my devotees are heirs to abundant rejoicing.” Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi, from Padamalai by Shree Muruganar

Beloved Lord of my Heart, how did I ever come to deserve such great good fortune?

Perhaps I was with you in a past life when you dwelt at the Sacred Hill – as a seeker or a servant, a dog or a squirrel, a peacock or a monkey.

Surely only such a blessing could have granted me the priceless gift of being your devotee!

Clinging in surrender to your lotus feet in the Heart, all my sadhana ends.

No words can begin to describe the abundant grace you shower unceasingly upon me.

You embrace me with such tender love, bear all my burdens, guide and protect me;

like a benevolent monarch, you transform this worthless slave into a prince of the house!

Free of all cares, released from all suffering - like a raindrop falling into the ocean, I dissolve in your blissful peace.

My heart overflows with gratitude, tears of joy stream from my eyes.

Inside and outside, nothing exists but your Light.



“ Brahman, the attributeless reality, becomes the Lord of Love who casts his net of appearances over the cosmos while ruling it from within through his divine power. Before creation, he was; after dissolution, he will be. He alone is. Those who know him alone become immortal.” Shvetashvatara Upanishad. 

https://lightsongs.blogspot.com/2020/07/guru-poornima-prayer.html