SILENCE

The individual ego must cease to strive, the mind fall silent, the desire-will learn not to initiate. Our personality must join its source and all thought and initiation come from above.

To get the capacity of this silence and peace is a most important step in the sadhana. My whole Yoga is founded upon and it is through it that there come afterwards all the inexhaustible riches of a greater Knowledge, Will and Joy. The cup has often to be emptied before it can be new-filled; the yogin ought not to be afraid of emptiness or silence. It is the spirit that feels a release in the silence empty of all mental or other activities, for in that silence it becomes self-aware.

What the physical mind has to learn is to be quiet and act only when the Will wants to use it, when it is really needed — and also to act only on what the Will wants to deal with, not run about in a random manner. When it becomes quiet, it can then go inside and come into contact and unity with the inner physical consciousness. The wideness and peace as it grows can do much to quiet the physical mind and give it an inward source of deeper action.

A silent mind is a result of yoga; the ordinary mind is never silent. The thinkers and philosophers do not have the silent mind. It is the active mind they have, only of course they concentrate so the common incoherent mentalising stops. There are always two things that can rise up and assail the silence, — vital suggestions, the physical mind's mechanical recurrences. Calm rejection for both is the cure.

The Silence bears the Eternal's great dumb seal,
His light inspires the eternal Word;
He is the Immobile's deep and deathless hush.