Ruzbeh N. Bharucha

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From July 10th 1925 till His Samadhi on January 31st 1969, Avatar Meher Baba maintained complete silence, even through two major accidents where He was injured grievously. This blog is an extract from Rabda…My Sai…My Sigh, which talks about Meher Baba’s Silence and the importance of being silent within in general.

“Do you know why Avatar Meher Baba, on July 10th, decided to keep silent for the rest of His physical journey? He did not utter a sound for the next forty three years and do you know why He kept silent? Do you know why so many lovers of The One, keep silent? Do you Rabda?”

“Baba what will I know. I mean if You are tired and would desire a very badly made cup of chai I can get you that.”

Baba smiled, but He was always in prayer. Sometimes Caiz heard Baba but most often the words were inaudible.

“The explanation that my Meher gave was that He had been coming time and again, countless times, sometimes as a Prophet, sometimes as a Master, sometimes as an Avatar and sometimes as a consciousness revolution and whatever was needed to be spoken, all the philosophies that were to be revealed, every possible spiritual truth that was to be handed out, each step of the way clearly paved and laid down….but mankind, seemed and seems to be like a collective gigantic headless chicken running about, from here to there, often in circles, even though the path has been shown and the destination made clear.

“So my Meher told one and all that as all that He had spoken so bloody often went on deaf ears, it was best now not to preach but to awaken and thus He took the vow of silence, on and off, telling one and all He would break His silence, but He never did. Now tell me my demented child, do you think that was the real reason or the only motive behind His silence? Why did He have to go through over forty years of keeping silent? Do you know how hard it is to keep silent for such a long time? Do you have any conception of how gut wrenching it is to keep quiet and then try to get a point across, for over four decades. Some people purport that it conserves energy. Yes for sure it does. But when done for a short while and when one is virtually in isolation. Not when you are in the world, giving sermons, conversing through the writing board or sign language, trying to get across your words silently. And remember when I first saw Him what did I whisper? I whispered, Parverdegar, and what does Parverdegar, mean? It means God. It means The Lord. It means the Absolute Authority. Not an Avatar but I whispered Parverdegar and who can bring the very Lord in the physical body and make The One realise His or Her own Divinity? The Perfect Masters. Thus Baba Jaan, Tajuddin Baba, Narayan Maharaj and Upasani, were instrumental in bringing God consciousness into Our Meher but first lifting His human consciousness into God consciousness and then bringing God consciousness to operate from the human body of Meher.

“So why did Our Meher decide to go silent even though He had the most mesmerising of all voices. He could captivate all by just speaking and yet He decided to give up speaking and embrace silence for the remaining forty three years of His physical sojourn. Why did He give so much importance to Silence?

“The truth is God resides in silence bachha. God speaks through silence. God is realised through silent contemplation, focus and meditation. Love is a silent emotion. Thus God’s main vehicle, love, too is silent. There is no greater love expressed to God than that of silent devotion, silent selflessness, silent surrender, silent acceptance. Silence is the key that unlocks not only the doors of Heaven but also the doors of self realisation. The soul encased in the thousand petal lotus, the blue shimmering identity which remains covered by the muck of cause and effect and noise, within and outside, can only be slowly reached by removing silently one petal at a time all the petals and this too can be achieved by calm, dedicated silence.

“Meher Baba wanted to teach one and all and all His lovers that the way to His heart was through silent love. His way was of Silence. He did not perform miracles like Tajuddin Baba, Swami Samarth or your Baba Sai. He went about silently working through love. Yes, He dictated so many books and revealed to mankind ways of reaching The One, but even that was done with dignified silence.

“So baccha of mine, why did my Meher choose silence as His main vehicle to bring about higher consciousness in His followers, devotees, disciples and lovers? The reason is simple. He chose silence as if He had not, the cacophony enveloping the world would have destroyed the world further. He chose to be silent, in order to create harmony in the lives of all people who lived with the loud ranting of disharmony in their lives and minds and hearts and tongues. To make quiet the unrest in the hearts of mankind, He chose to remain silent for over four decades. If He had not become silent, the sound and madness of the world would have deafened and numbed the spirit of countless people. So understand He chose silence to make you live a happier life.

“You asked me sometime back how should a common man be in the world and yet be with God, well the first step is to be silent within. You can speak little but there can be so much noise and sound going on within yourself, that you are in reality an extremely noisy and loud person, though you may speak softly and rarely. Thus real silence starts from within. But even silence can be the calming, spiritual kind and then silence can be the most offensive, aggressive and self destructive type.

“Calm silence heals you, nourishes you, empowers you and allows you to play out your cards in the most beautiful manner. If you are silent this way within, then God can implement His true plan through you and allow you to live your karmic blue print in the most graceful and capable manner. If you are silent in the calm manner within, it means you are in complete positive surrender to whatever God has in store for you.

“So silence is most important but more important than silence is calm silence. If you are silent within, but are brooding, you are hurting, you are waiting, then that is not silence, that is a state of enforced suffocation and gagging your true state of being. That kind of silence is more loud than a truckload of animals in heat. That kind of silence is the worst sort. It is usually brought about due to having no other option to be silent, or brought about through cowardice, brought about through not being strong and bold enough to take a stand for what you think is right. That is the silence that cripples your very soul and makes you impotent and shrivels your being and causes tremendous and often fatal illnesses. That silence is not silence it is the deafening sound of hell.

“But we are talking about calm, positive, nurturing, positive surrender category of silence. Meher Baba decided to take the vow of silence to bring about calmness, of thought, word, and action, by the power of His silence. But He was filled with love, over flowing with compassion and laughter and joy and mischievousness.

“Silence is the first element. Before came The Word, there was Divine and Supreme Silence. Thus first came Divine, Supreme Silence and after that came The Word. Thus silence comes before The Word. So The One was filled with Silence and then decided to Speak. This is how important silence is. The human body has five elements. When the physical body is dropped two elements are dropped too. The element of Land and the element of Water. Then the astral body drops the element of Fire. Then the causal body drops the element of air. Then the spirit is filled with Divine Silence. The last element which by mistake it has been termed as ether or vacuum. It is not ether. What is the meaning of ether? If you look up the books it will show up as ‘heavens, atmosphere, upper air, space’.

“How can heavens and atmosphere and upper air and space be called the fifth element. In Sanskrit, it is called Akash. Akash’s literal translation means The Sky. Where the fuck did the sky come about as there is no sky in reality. Space is unlimited vision of gases and friction of all that which floats about in the cosmos. Why would we be made up of that? Why would the spirit bodies need air or upper air or atmosphere or the sky? No, ether in reality means silence. The first of all elements and the last of all elements before each one merges with The One. Silence is the sigh of God. Remember this you bloody idiot.”

“Ehhhh. I am silent. You are the noisy One.”

“So where was I….”

“You said ‘Remember this my noble, silent child….”

“Keep quiet, so first comes silence within. Calm silence.

Which means your mind is silent. Which means you have your mind under your control and not the other way round where your mind has you by your bollocks and you have no say in anything. Whatever noise your mind wants to create, it will create, and you follow like a goat going to the slaughter house. So first comes silence of the mind.

“Then comes silence of the heart. Expectations of how people should behave, how a loved one must speak or reciprocate, how you react to any situation or a comment or an individual or a prejudice or a dogma or a custom or religious-society-family thought patterns, is decided by how silent your heart is. When you stop reacting to situations emotionally, but not reacting, in a positive silent manner, and not once again in a defeatist or angry silent manner, then an individual has achieved silence of the heart. Immediately you will stop judging people. To judge my child is most unspiritual act one can commit. It is as bad or worse than stealing, cheating, manipulating, lying, as when you judge, you create duality and divide and you push away the vibration of Oneness. Anything that pushes away Oneness and invites discord or duality is a horrifying deed. And when you judge somebody, you are in reality judging God as God is in everybody and more important God has created everybody and by judging or being condescending you are telling God, He has messed up, He has made something inferior and He has created something that has a default. My son who resembles a fossil, remember this, God is aware of each and every thing and of each and every creation. So when the heart too is beautifully silent, the heart will be in the state of calm positive surrender and centeredness.

“So the mind, which is the Receiver, Transmitter and Treasurer, is silently going about its work. The heart which is the storehouse of all emotions, is silently observing everything and is like a placid lake at spring time. If both mind and heart are silent, then the tongue eventually will follow suit and start behaving its fucking self. Remember one thing baccha, ninety percent of problems come about with what goes in the mouth and what comes out of it.

“The tongue has sent more people into the bowels of hell than most of the damned vices. Just as there have been more deaths in the name of God than in the name of the Devil, similarly, most of the karmic debt of most people is due to the tongue. Do you want to know the greatest mantra of all mantras for one’s fastest spiritual growth?”

“Is this a trick question?”

“Nope.”

“Hooookays, tell me the greatest mantra of all mantras.”

“The greatest mantra of all mantras is ‘shut up’. If you can keep your mouth shut, you will be doing the greatest service for your karmic evolvement. When you keep your mouth shut, you automatically stop reacting to situations and by not reacting to situations, ninety percent of your issues will be either sorted or be easy to sort out. So when the mind and heart are in the state of positive silence, automatically the tongue will follow and the individual will be relatively more silent. But remember, we do not have an issue about talking. When sufis or sadhus say, talk less, what they truly mean is gossip less, slander less, or how do you nowadays put it, bitch less. Slander like judging is something looked down upon by God and Master. Slander or gossiping or trying to put somebody down, is once again a vice that comes high in order of moral and spiritual bankruptcy. When you gossip or indulge in slander, you are like a pig, eating its own shit. It is something I truly dislike. Truly feeling saddened. Truly detest. When somebody gossips and puts somebody else, not present down, it breaks my heart. Remember this always. When you do all this…”

“When have I done all this….”

“Aray idiot, I mean when mankind does all this it breaks my heart. So, silence of mind, heart and tongue, are the pillars for spiritual growth, pleasing your God and Master and also enriching your life. Imagine not being in control of your mind and the innumerable thoughts. Not being in control of the bursts of emotional ups and downs. Not being in control of your tongue. If that is not hell what is. And then imagine the life of peace, calmness and serenity if you are in control of your mind, heart and tongue….and how will you be in control of these three gateways, it is through the embrace of silence. Thus, Meher Baba became silent for forty three years.

“Of course the people who now take care of His Samadhi, do not understand all this, so they go about hushing everybody who even whispers near His Samadhi or will prevent even a child laughing aloud. Aray for God sake, understand your Master and His greatness. But what to do. They have cloaked me up from head to arse to toe in gold, a Fakir like me and my Meher’s silence they have equated it to death like moroseness.

“So my child, silence is paramount. Silence is not just golden. Silence is Divine. But remember spirituality means spreading The Light and spreading Divine Joy. So silence should not be equated to sullenness or being all stuck up or grumpy. Just as detachment should not be equated with aloof behaviour.”

Be blessed always.

JAI BABA

 

Ruzbeh N. Bharucha​​​

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