The Sage Who Hears Silence

Have we developed the sensitivity to see the unmanifest?

- Devdutt Pattanaik

While in American families , one is encouraged to verbalise, ‘I love you’, in most Indian families you don’t need such overt expressions to feel loved and included. Through silence, many things can be communicated: love, hatred, acceptance, rejection, suffering, understanding. The unmanifest (Nirakar) is seen as more potent than the manifest (Sakar); provided you develop the sensitivity to see it. However, silence is now a bad word – equated with complicity, cowardice, inaction, even fear and submission. We have forgotten the Muni, the sage who values silence (Mauna).

Sound is created when waves in the air strike the eardrum. Sound becomes language when the brain pays attention to the sound, and decodes it. In yoga, through the practice of