UNIVERSE: Resounding power of silence

Teachers often assume that they are preparing their students for the real world. Their experience, their exposure and the power over their pupils give the impression that they are the shapers of the future. The truth, however, is that the gurus are now hopelessly out of touch with reality. The realisation dawned on me as I was discussing these lines from a standard poem taught in undergraduate courses: “Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;/Thus unlamented let me die”. To the ears, and eyes, of the generation that thrives in the never-ending limelight of social media, these words, it appeared to me, sounded strange. You must be seen and heard. When life is a one long party, you must make some noise — and keep making it. There could be no ode to solitude in the constant clanging of saturnalian cymbals. The call to quiet and meditativeness is odd when our postmodern lives are pursuits of perpetual merriment. In the month of December, when our partygoers are planning the weeklong Christmas-to-New Year bash, what can a teacher propose?

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Christmas, of course, is an occasion for merriment, but behind the usual celebratory mood there also lies a need to be silent — to ponder over the paradoxes of the world. The world which offers myriad thrills also sustains woefully oppressive structures. When the divine baby was born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, a jealous king ordered genocide to kill his rival in his infancy. The ugly paradox continues till this day. Elation is constantly threatened by impending tyranny. One must step back if there has to be any meaningful celebration in this festive season. One must clarify one’s own role in restoring some sanity in the world disintegrating all around.

Silence remains one of the greatest assets that we as a species possess. It is in silence that one gains insight. Humans endowed with the power of speech must also weigh in their capacity to be quiet. It is in quiet that man turns from a consumer to creator, from a party animal to a producer of delightful things. It is in stillness that we, who have gone astray, hear the voice calling us home.

The great Punjabi mystic Sadhu Sundar Singh once wrote: “God works in silence. Similarly, man also, who is created in the image and after the likeness of God, thinks, feels, remembers and wills in silence and works in many ways. Similarly, for instance, different kinds of inventions and discoveries are made in silence. In short, all great things originated and still originate in silence. Man reveals his thoughts and plans to others by means of words when he needs the help of those around him, or when he desires to help other people. As God does not need the help or assistance of any man in creating a thing, in silence He makes everything and supports the whole creation quite independently. However, when He desires to bring back those who have gone astray, He speaks to them through His prophets and apostles, and in this last age in the fullness of time, He became manifest in flesh, spoke to mankind and completed the work of salvation for them.”

Christmas is the celebration of getting back to the quiet of home.

— The writer teaches in Prayagraj