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THE POWER OF SILENCE

Even as a boy I was avoiding talking to strangers and to the family members more out of shyness than as a virtue. In latter years I made up more than the quota of my child hood silence and at one stage of my official career talking was thrust upon me as a part of my duty as a lecturer. It had become such a disease that even for a worthless issue I was making lectures to friends and children that they slowly started avoiding me. But slowly I realized that a silent man is more admired and what little he had to say was heard more attentively. A chatterbox not only pollutes the surroundings with his noise but also risks the life of himself and also listeners by his talk. Certainly we cannot do away with our communication to others by talking in person and also by phone. But we could greatly minimize the time and also the words of talk by eliminating most of them which are invariably superfluous. The effect of stressing your point is greatly lost by lengthy sermon. We have seen in great pictures the worthy director deploys timely silence in between the dialogues that enhances the power of the story. Series of dialogues delivered with modulation may give credit to the writer for his literary ability only by paying the price of not reflecting the acting potential of the great actor.

That holds good even in our day to day communications. Noise exists all around us externally in the form of things like traffic, television, cell phones, talks amongst family members, noise produced by mixie, grinders, a/cs and so on. Internally also there is noise in the form of constant thoughts. Those who have studied the ill effects of noise are encouraging increased silence both from outside and inside your mind as a way to improve your health and well being. It has been reported in yesterday's news paper that noise levels at hospitals around the world is incredibly high, and now anti noise campaigns have been started to help keep things quiet. These noises cause the patients to lose sleep and have higher blood pressure. Also it is reported that loud noises increases the risk of heart attack. Internal noise also affects our health. Aside from external noise, the noise inside of our head can also greatly impact our health. As most of us know recurring thoughts of anxiety, worry, anger or fear are not only incredibly draining, but they contribute to the stress in our lives.

It has been suggested by scientists and psychologists that quieting our mind with meditation is the only way which helps to silence negative thoughts. It has been reported that a proper meditation helps to reach quieter levels of mind, relaxes the body and lowers level of stress hormones. In last week's Sunday chronicle it has been reported that scientific studies have confirmed meditation's beneficial effects which include

1. Boosting the immune system

2. Lowering the risk of cancer and heart diseases,

3. Lowering the blood pressure.

4. Improving concentration and sleep.

5. Relieving head aches

6. Faster recovery after surgery and

7. Enhance creativity. While we may be thinking that there is no time to meditate, once a start is made one will find it helps increase our energy and actually we achieve more throughout the day. The following 4 simple meditations for busy people have been suggested.

1. Breathe awareness meditation.

2. Body awareness meditation.

3. Walking meditation.

4. Knitting meditation for women.

We should also practice absolute mental silence between thoughts. It has been claimed in the Vedas that every individual is blessed with a certain number of total of breaths only in his entire life time which is comparable to the winding of the spring of the clock. Once that rewound tension of the spring is completed the clock can't function any more. By no way you can increase it. By talking sparingly the breathes could be conserved and hence number of days of living. By speaking one has to take many more breathes than one would take other wise. It has been claimed that a day's silence means a week longer of life and more, and a day's speech means a week less of life.

So it is better that we keep a watch on our words spoken and make it to the minimum. It has been claimed that in ancient times MUNIS never spoke although they do all kinds of other things. They have been reported to live 200 or even 300 years. In the present age we have become so fond of speech that when we are alone like to go out, to find somebody to talk. If it were explained perhaps they would understand how much energy they loose with each word spoken. Silence is relaxation of mind and body; it is restful and healing effect. The power of silence is very great, not only for the gaining and preservation of energy and vitality, but also morally there are many benefits to be obtained by silence. Often we hurt or offend somebody only by talking too much than necessary; if we had refrained from speech we would not have hurt them.

In future I have made up my mind to prefer writing through letters /e-mail rather than lecturing which cannot be avoided altogether.

BY J.PANCHAPAGESAN FLAT-11,130 GILL NAGAR EXTN STREET CHOOLAIMEDU CHENNAI PH-044 23744963 EMAIL id- jpanchapagesan@yahoo.co.in