25 Mar 2014
[Shri Guna Darsana from Bali, Indonesia requested Swamiji to give a message for the enlightenment of Hindus in Indonesia, who celebrate NYEPI Day (One Day Silence) this month end. Given below is Shri Swami’s response.]
It is a matter of happiness to note that people are celebrating a specific day as the day of silence. Silence is called as Samaadhi and the person adopting silence (Mounam) is called as the sage (Muni). Silence does not mean the deep sleep, which is total unawareness. The deep sleep involves the unawareness of the awareness of this world and also the unawareness of this world. Silence involves the awareness of your unawareness of the absolute unimaginable God. The deep sleep is the climax of unawareness or ignorance. The silence is the climax of the knowledge, which is awareness. This silence is the next step after concentration (Dhyana) as per the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Concentration here means the deep analysis about the knowledge of the absolute God.
The Veda also says that there are four stages. The first stage is called as ‘Vaisva’, which is the awareness of the world in the awakened state (Jaagrat). The second stage is called as ‘Taijasa’, which represents the awareness of the world created by mind in the state of dream (Swapna). The third stage is called as ‘Praajna’, which is the total non-awareness involving the non-awareness of awareness and non-awareness in the state of deep sleep (Sushupti). These three states are common to all the living beings and the concept of God does not exist here. The fourth stage is called as ‘Turiyam’, which is the awareness of non-awareness of the absolute unimaginable God. This fourth state is limited to very few people, who are the seekers of God as said ‘Turiyam Brahma’. This is the final concept of the spiritual knowledge and is the foundation of world peace. If all the universal religions understand that the original God is unimaginable, the conflict between religions disappears. If the religions take the absolute God as imaginable and understood, there will be multiplicity in the concepts. The reason for this multiplicity is that this imaginable creation is constituted by several imaginable items. Each religion selects a specific imaginable item as the absolute God and this results in the multiplicity and conflict of religions. Therefore, the way of silence indicates the awareness through realization of the unimaginable ultimate God, thereby leading to the end of inter-religious wars resulting in the world peace. You may argue that Shankara said that God is the result of deep sleep (Sushuptyeka siddhah). But, here, you should understand that the word Sushupti here is limited to the unawareness relating to absolute God only. If you argue that Sushupti is the original deep sleep, you cannot conclude that God is the result of deep sleep since you are in total unawareness. The point that you are passing on this statement indicates that you are in the awareness of the concept relating to God. Here, the word awareness should be taken as the process of knowing God or world and should not be taken as the form of energy as an item. By this the word awareness need not be taken as God as per the Advaita philosophers. The process or work is never accepted as God by the Advaita philosopher. In fact, the awareness itself is only a specific work and this is the main reason to deny that awareness is God. Hence, the awareness taken as an item or substratum is only an illusion based on which you are trying to establish awareness is God.
On this day, you are not speaking any word indicating that God cannot be described by any word (Yato Vachah… Veda) due to His actual unimaginable nature. Shankara also defined that the absolute God can be explained only through silence (Mouna Vyakhya…). Your mind and intelligence must be silent indicating that God cannot be thought by mind and that God cannot be discussed by any logic of any intelligence. You should be aware of such unimaginable God, so that this day of silence becomes fruitful. If you think about the worldly issues or sleep without thinking anything, this day is useless. Even though you talk and if your talks are concentrated on this concept, still, you are participating on the day of silence. Therefore, you should realize the significance of anything through the analysis and arriving at the right conclusions of knowledge, to be followed by the practice that gives the fruit.
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