Always Aditya

Silence is what I always have preferred over its more equally famous opponent, chattering. But during the last month, has been my site has been very silent as I was busy with my exams and this time, for the first time in my life I hated something to be silent, as I do not like it to be that way. All this time I was wondering what would be happening on my site, as I did not really had an opportunity to see it with leisure.

Over the years different directors depending on their interests have showed the concept of silence in different ways in their movies and plays. In all the “ways” in which silence has been portrayed, incidentally, it has been correct. Silence has been shown to indicate uneasiness, fear, serenity, helplessness, goodness and so on. It has been called as Truth, Infinity, Reality, Enlightenment, Nothingness, God, Great or Holy Spirit, True Self, Consciousness and Love. Silence takes these different forms in different situations. Silence in a horror movie shows fear and the same silence between two lovers explains a lot of things. No matter how silence has been shown, it is, to a layman, absence of sound. Index finger placed vertically on the mouth symbolizes the word Silence.

From time immemorial we have been listening to the saying, “To be a good speaker, you need to be good listener”. Silence is the main ingredient to make a person a good listener. It is the basic and powerful tool to communicate between a speaker and a listener. Silence leads the way to attention and thus connects two minds. Connection may or may not have consensus. Some times  communication is lost not because of silence but by saying too much. Surely it’s no coincidence that the word “listen” is an anagram of the word “silent”.

That does not mean there should be utter silence. Too much of silence is also very frightening. Not many beings on this planet can live in total silence for long. It creates a sort of uneasiness and loneliness. Silence in it’s deadly and dangerous form can be seen sometimes during the night. It is very difficult to be in dead silence. It is terrifying. Consider this. You get locked in a haunted bungalow. There is silence everywhere. No light. No sound. No one around. Place unknown. Suddenly a door open with a creaking sound, breaking that silence. Ewwwwwwwwwwww!

In the same way, silence does not always have to posses a positive essence to the situation. A storm can be deafening with thunders and lightning. But before every such storm, there is utter silence. Silence always precedes a storm. Silence need not always indicate positive. Lying is done not only with words but also with silence. Silence when not required can bear negative results.

There is a famous saying, “Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.” Most of the time a silent person is always interpreted as a smart guy. Only after he opens his mouth do his true characteristics begin to show.

Death indicates Silence. When dead, nothing prevails except silence. Silence here is so pure. The person who is dead knows nothing about what is going on in this world. He only sleeps silently. The only difference here is that he is going to sleep forever. Silence when a small baby is sleeping indicates the caring the parents feel for him. As for the baby, it’s silence is also very pure. It does not understand the way this world goes.

Silence is also synonymous to prayer. A prayer intensifies when there is silence everywhere. Silence creates vibrations, which enables a person to meet his God through his heart and mind. Spirituality and silence have a very deep connection. Meditation has always been the foremost way to find the spiritual enlightment. Indian Mythology boasts of many seers and swami’s who have been in meditation for many years to find the ultimate goal of mankind, the possible view of God himself. Many of these persons were successful in their attempts but this success was possible only with the maintenance of silence to create an environment to meet the God.

More often than not silence has been synonymous with the concept of peace. Peace is shown symbolically with white colour and utter silence many times. Silence creates the environment, which makes the mind relax and find peace. Swami Vivekananda used to swim across Kanyakumari to meditate daily. It was his way of going away from public to find peace and inner meaning to his life and of that of the whole mankind. All that we hope, all that we wish, all that we pray and think is done and also contained in silence.

The silence seen in an examination hall would be full of tension and anxiety. The feeling of the students writing the exam would be full of anticipation that they should do well. While some students expect the paper to be good, others might hope that the paper shows up questions they have come prepared to the hall. All this is seen in the silence the students keep all through the 10 minutes before the examination starts.

“Speech is Silver, Silence is Golden”, goes a proverb. Sometimes silence followed when it is meant to be broken results in unfavourable circumstances for a person, a community and a country or to the whole of the human kind. When the USA attacked Iraq with the idea of eliminating Saddam’s rule, the whole world witnessed the havoc and barbaric activity of the world’s supposedly superpower with help from UK, which boasts of following gentlemen behaviour in every aspect of their lives, in silence. When these countries unleashed all their possible weapons on Iraq, the deafening sound made by them resulted in creating a deadly silence over the country. Everyday, during the war, the whole of the country experienced anxiety in its horrifying intensity. They have suffered silence in silence. Now they rarely see any peace in their country. All we see is people getting on with their lives in silence. After all, gold isn’t always a nice option.

Have you ever wondered why silence is maintained when paying respect to any one who is no longer in this world? Is it to show respect or anything more than that? Many great people known for their oratory prowess also maintain silence for a couple of minutes to pay their respect. Even though I still haven’t found the answer, the only probable answer I could generate is that silence creates a serene environment which makes the situation very calm and peaceful which is what the dead person is experiencing.

When it comes to my choice, I always prefer silence even though a sound here and there would do no bad to my life. Most of the time, I would prefer sitting alone and think of things I would like to think with no sound disturbing me. Moreover crowds do not excite me. By saying “I love silence”, I do not mean I prefer silence that is followed in hospitals, funerals, when asked any question for which I do not know the answer and more preferably that silence from which I am supposed to understand everything what the other person is thinking and want to convey. The person, in this context is a girl 10 out of 10 times.