THIS quietness is all the time in human consideration and search of spirituality. Sages and poets have often said, achieve a higher, a finer silence within and you will be able to hear better. Let not doubts and confusions in your head block the free flow of divine energy in your inner sanctorum. That will enable you to understand yourself better. In words, this appears to be a simple thought. As one tries to achieve that inner quietness, one finds things far more difficult and complicated than one has imagined. For, the human mind is far more fluid than one actually knows or has bothered to know. The mind operates in countless ways and reminds itself suddenly of past happenings as if without no apparent reason or trigger. Such a mind does not become a quiet place all by itself. One has to make special effort in that direction.

 

Spirituality is one name of such an effort -- the activity to quieten the mind, to make its silence more complete. Again, that poses another problem, so to say. For, stillness refers not to the physical but has the context of the spiritual. When Rumi talks of becoming quieter, he implies a massive effort in pushing out the unwanted thoughts, unanswered questions, uncleared doubts from the mind. By no standard is this an easy process. For, each attempt to achieve that is likely to lead one to a messier mindscape in which definitions get blurred all the more and newer doubts surface, different questions emerge -- almost sprouting like mushrooms in the rains.

 

To quieten such a mind requires a huge effort. But with a finer sense of focus, one can attain a quieter mind in whose silence one may be able to hear more. But what is that thing that one may hear in the silent, still mind? That is the sound of the soul, the silent murmur of the universe, the distant call from within one’s own inner being, the Omkaar which is the humming of the earth rotating around itself (as scientists surmise). ...! But, what does one get out of such a hearing? Sages say, one travels closer to oneself. In other words, one inches closer to that point of perfection within. So, attain complete quietness, total stillness. That is the starting point of spirituality.