Hey reader,

This quote always makes me feel a great correlation between music and life:

The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between them.
Claude Debussy

Just like the music, where there are high and low pitches, tempo, melodies, volume, etc. but the irregular but accurate pauses or silence that makes the music beautiful. The life is not in the noises we listen to and live-in everyday but life is in the silence we always seek to. The silence where we can reflect our lives to ourselves, where we can retrospect our life, where we can feel the joy and happiness in what we achieved so far, where we can understand and look upon the learnings from our failures, where we can feel our presence, where we can sense that we exist, where we are not thinking of the meetings or targets or aims, where we are not thinking of any relationship but just one thing, that’s us. This is where we find life different and apparently, beautiful.

Noise is not only in the ears but in our thoughts as well. Unfortunately, we are living in a world, where there is a blind competition of being the more powerful, prosperous, successful and also a major group of people who are in so fond of criticizing that they can even criticize the most beautiful thing on Earth.

Today, if you start reading any news post on any social media platform with comments enabled, you can see how intelligent people who have this most important weapon, technology, in their hands and still what they do over there is criticize or complain or give advice (which I am also doing here), or abuse different nations in the name of sovereignty, trying to prove the superiority of being a develop nation and what not. The moment I start reading any of these, I feel the need for silence even more. It is just like you are stuck in a traffic jam, where every other person is shouting at each other, fighting, abusing, full of anger. How long would you like to stay there? This is what happens every now and then.

Adding to it is the world of the meme, which basically began with the purpose of humor and entertainment, but now has become more of a tool to tease a community or a group of people or nations. We all know that it will not end there, a response will also come and it just goes on and on. Basically, what cartoons in the newspaper used to do is now done by meme, in an exponential volume. A cartoon would have come one day and response another and so on… But for a meme, the time has changed from days to minutes. Just have a look at your gallery and count the number of memes present in there?

Do we really need them? The hatred and sarcastic comments and discussions? Is this what for the Internet and Social Media Technology was created for? How about if this gets silenced?

We Millenials really find it very hard to understand as well as experience the silence. Here, is one famous quote, that clearly reflects why it happens:

“We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken a lifetime to learn. It seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox.
Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

As said, “This has taken a lifetime to learn”. We are still young and hence, might have not learned it yet, but, the need to have it is clearly visible. Let me put it here again:

How often you have thought to just pack your bags and get off to a place like a peaceful valley beside a river or to a less crowded beach, with fewer people, less city noise, lesser daily cringes and just enjoy the silence.

If you feel it, and if you agree with it, you also would know how important it is to understand silence.

To get over with these noises, some go for vacations, some go for a walk in nature, some do the meditation. But are we able to get anything from it? Are we able to get that peace and silence in those overcrowded mountains during the vacation where we don’t miss any single chance to exploit the natural beauty? Where in search of more silence we have started to trek to hidden beauties and also started polluting them? Do we understand that silence in there? Or do we just pretend that we have found it?

While writing about it, I came through this amazing page which talks about what silence is, why is it important and how to practice it. Do check it out. Here are a few excerpts:

According to Google, in English, “Silence is the complete absence of sound”. It is also synonymous to: “quietness, quiet, quietude, still, stillness, hush, tranquility, noiselessness, soundlessness, peacefulness, peace (and quiet)”

According to Ramana Maharshi: Silence is of four kinds: the silence of speech, the silence of the eye, the silence of the ear, and the silence of the mind. Only the last is pure silence and is the most important.

If we see the four kinds of silence and relate it with Meditation, they are quite correlated. We start the meditation by stopping any discussion, closing our eyes, and concentrating to some focal point. Though, silencing the ears is not an easy thing to do and so is the mind. What we all do while trying to meditate is we try to control our mind and thoughts which is a mistake as I came across this article which says:

You are focusing hard and trying to banish the thoughts, and they are not going away. This is the nature of the mind, but it looks like you are very prejudiced against your mind. When you are doing your kriya or your meditation, you don’t mind if your kidneys or your lungs are functioning or if your heart is beating. You don’t mind all the other processes in the body – only your brain should not function! The notion that if you do something spiritual, your brain should stop working is simply wrong.

So, I completely understand that we all need silence somehow, but just going to mountains and beaches, I don’t think so is the solution. It can be practiced in our daily life as well. Meditation is one way of it, and for people like me who belong to that 3% of the population that love Classical Music, it’s another solution.

“Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”
Leonardo da Vinci

If you wish to know more of the health benefits follow the link where the author has explained how silence affects overall physical health and well being. Honestly, I also have not understood and experienced the silence completely, but I do understand its importance and need in my life. I’m trying and hopefully succeed one day.
But, till that time, let’s try to reduce the noise as well. Stop over-reacting to comments, adapt silence against unwanted sarcasm, and think twice before sharing a meme if it could really hurt someone.

-Navneet