SILENCING THE TROUBLED MIND
The other day I happened to read a passage written by the Late Khushwant Singh titled “The Power of Silence”. Written in 1987, when the digital age was still in its infancy and the pressures of a materialistic world, consequent upon accelerated economic development and an exponentially multiplied purchasing power, were just beginning to manifest themselves, the piece of prose is remarkable for its foresight and clarity of thought and is relevant even more than three decades later in the contemporary scenario.
The pressures of the modern age, the disintegration of the joint family system, rise of nuclear families, gradual but perceptual loss of familial support, a remarkable and tectonic shift from the spiritual to the materialistic, increased pressures of the modern day work environment leading to a renewed focus on the need to maintain a work-life balance, the onset of the digital revolution manifesting itself in 24/7 connectivity with correspondingly high stress levels and the complex interplay of many social, occupational and environmental factors have only reinforced the need to look at restoring the mental health and balance of society.
These days when increased reference is being made to life changing techniques and therapies such as Meditation, Vipasana, Pranic healing and other techniques to help stabilize the troubled mind, the role of the Power of Silence immediately reinforces itself. While not belittling the effects of such therapies, practiced in controlled environments, under requisite supervision and guidance, with adequate and due safeguards bereft of any radical interventions, there is a need to look internally and the efforts that the self can make to attain mental peace.
While dwelling on the Power of Silence, Khushwant Singh refers not only to the need for the external environment to have a modicum of stability, with Nil or dramatically reduced physical noise levels, but also on the need to cleanse the mind and rid itself of internal noise and tribulations. Keeping the pace of the external environment in mind with its accompanying high levels of stresses and strains, it is imperative to periodically reach a state of detachment where the mind is cleansed of any debilitating thought processes and stands in an empty decluttered state. Such a process, all the more necessary while going to sleep, should also be resorted to repeatedly, periodically as and when possible even during regular working and working hours. Gradually developing the requisite thought process and aligning our mental eco-system to the same by sustained individual effort would be of utmost benefit. Attempts at periodically silencing the mind would only serve to exponentially benefit personal life in all its dimensions.
In the modern day wired world, there is also an important need to take frequent Digital variations by severely curtailing ones’ technological dependency and periodically switching off of all devices — mobiles, laptops, tablets, PCs and the like on which we have become critically dependent. It needs to be understood that technology has to be used merely as an aid and not as something critically determining the course of our lives. The recent philosophy of “Digital Minimalism” deals with combating screen addiction and rebuilding man’s relationship with technology so that it serves us and not the other way around. While self-help books on the issue abound in the market, in the end it is only individual effort, and that too sustained, that can eliminate digital clutter and the accompanying online noise. This would not only lead to mental detoxification but, if practiced consistently, also lead to a positive effect on the physical state and output.
To conclude, it is topical to quote Plutarch, also referred to by Khushwant Singh, in the mentioned passage
“We learn speech from men,
silence from the Gods”.
The ability to periodically silence one’s mind, divorce it from external stimuli and give it a semblance of stillness would only, overtime, go a long way in reducing societal tensions and help settling troubled minds. It is not for nothing that our forefathers said, “Where speech is silver, silence is golden”. Periodically silencing our mind would only lead to mental stability which is the ultimate deliverance. Perhaps, easier said than done — but, then, in everybody’s self-interest, a beginning can and should be made.
Pardon me, if I sound too, sermonising — these are just random thoughts of a meandering mind.
