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Dissolving into the Soundless

Sadhguru on words, sounds, society and dissolving into the soundless silence.

Blog Home Lifestyle Music Oct 31, 2016

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A word is a lie, Sadhguru explains, while a sound is a certain reality. He recounts

a story from the life of Matsyendranath and Gorakhnath to illustrate the process
of dissolving into the soundless silence.

Sadhguru: Speech is of the society, words are of the mind, sounds are of
nature, the soundless is of the beyond. Thus, if one gets identified with
ones own speech, he will belong to the society. If he gets identified with
his words, he will belong to the mind. If he gets identified with the
sounds, he will belong to nature. If one dissolves in the soundless
silence, to him alone the realms of the beyond will yield.

What we call society is essentially a conversation. It is only because of

constant conversation some kind of communication, expression of
thoughts, emotions and ideas that there is something you can refer to
as society. If there isnt any kind of conversation or communication, or
essentially, if there is no speech, there would be no society. For most
people, it is so difficult to be silent because silence is a way of shifting
from being a social being into an individual being. The term social
being is just a polite expression for calling you a crowd. It is only the
individual who can perceive, transcend and be enlightened, because
society is not a reality, it is just a conversation, a cacophony of speech. If
everyone stops talking, there will be no society.

How to Become Silent?

A woman should not

have to fit into a mans
world. Half the world
should anyway be hers.

Sadhguru
Todays Mystic Quote

Not being a social being does not mean you are antisocial. Being a social
being simply means you are not a being, you are a certain kind of noise.
If you belong to a youth society, you will make one kind of noise. If you
belong to a corporate society you make another kind of noise. If you
belong to a religious society you make another kind of noise. If you do
not make the appropriate noises, you will not belong to that society. If we
just take away speech from the world, human beings will no longer be
social beings, because the need for speech came only when people got
together, and people got together most of the time only because they
have a need to speak. You know, there are gossip societies everywhere.
That is the only universal society! Wherever you go, whether it is a
corporate crowd or a socialite crowd or a religious crowd or even a
spiritual crowd, gossip society always exists. Gossip is a compulsive need
to speak it does not matter whether you know something or not, you
have to speak.

Sound is Reality, Words are a Lie

Conversation, speech and social systems formed only because the human
mind could invent a word. A word is not a reality. Neither is the mind.
Sound is a reality. There are all kinds of sounds in nature. But a word is
not a reality. In India, because we have over 1300 languages and dialects
in close proximity, it happens quite often that one word in one language
means some sacred object, but in another language it means a filthy
thing. A word is a made-up thing. A sound is not a made-up thing. Sound
is a certain reality. Sound can be a vehicle to penetrate the nature of
nature itself, but words do not get you anywhere because they are just
made up in your mind.

Sound is a reality in which you are

constantly enveloped. What you call
form is just another level of sound.
If you ride the Sound is a reverberation which is an
words, you will be existential reality. Because of the
constant usage of words and more
full of bull. If you ride complex formations of words, which we
call sentences, language, conversation
the sounds, you and literature, the mind has become full
of words so full that the very
could explore existential reality is obscured.
different aspects of
People who live in active societies
nature. cannot relate to forms anymore, they
can only relate to words. Children can
relate to forms in the beginning, but
these days they pick up words so fast.
Probably by the age of four or five they
have also lost the forms and are full of words. When you are so full of
your own invention, you are bound to be confused and lack clarity of life
because a word is essentially a lie.

Patanjalis definition of yoga is Chitta vritti nirodha. This means,

When all the modifications of your mind are gone, that is yoga. When
the fluctuations of your mind are gone, that is yoga. The fluctuations of
your mind are essentially caused by the words that you generate.
Generating words means you make up meanings for meaningless sounds.

If you ride the words, you will be full of bull. If you ride the sounds, you
could explore different aspects of nature. Being filled with forms is not
everything, but it is one step closer than being lost in words. If you learn
ten different languages and use all ten with the same ease, you will see,
you will have no words in your mind, you will have only forms because
now if I have to say tree, I have ten words for the tree. Sanskrit language
did this for every form they created at least a dozen different words so
that in your mind the word will not stick, only the form will stick. When
you have to speak, you have to create a form and then come out with an
appropriate word depending upon the situation. These were devices that
were created so that step-by-step, as you live, the very process of life
will slowly take you towards that soundlessness, towards the source of
creation and liberation. Everything was engineered that way.

Nishabdh Beyond Sound

The existence that one is able to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch
through the five senses is essentially a product of reverberations, a play
of sound or nada. The body and mind of a human being are also
reverberations. But body and mind are not an end in themselves they
are just the outer peel of a possibility. Most people do not go beyond the
peel; they sit on the threshold of the doorway their whole lives. But the
purpose of a doorway is to enter. To experience that which is beyond this
doorway, the practice of silence is referred to as maun.

The English word silence doesnt really say much. In the Sanskrit
language there are many words for silence. Maun and nishabdh are
two significant ones. Maun means silence as we generally know it
you dont speak; it is an attempt to create nishabdh. Nishabdh means
soundlessness or beyond sound. That which is beyond sound is that
which is beyond the play of forms and the five elements. That which is
beyond sound is the final passage to that which is the very source of
creation.

Nishabdh, nirvan, nirvikalp, all of these mean the same in one sense.
Nishabdh means soundlessness, nirvan means formlessness, nirvikalp
means that which is beyond kalpa or creation, that which is neither
sound nor form.

Crystal Clear

There is a story about Matsyendranath and Gorakhnath. Matsyendranath,

a great yogi, is generally referred to as an incarnation of Shiva. We do not
mean Shiva was born again. We say he is an incarnation because in terms
of his knowing and capability, he is not very different from Shiva. After
all, we are interested in Shiva for the qualities he possesses, not for the
man. Matsyendranath was very close to that, so people said he is Shiva
himself. Gorakhnath was his very close disciple, who later became a
legend by himself one of the most well-known yogis in the country.
Gorakhnath did a phenomenal amount of work across the subcontinent.
There is almost no one in India who has not heard of him.

Matsyendranath was walking with

Gorakhnath, and they had just crossed a
small stream. Matsyendranath sat down
Gorakhnath is the under a tree and said, Get me some
kind, if you tell him water. Gorakhnath ran for the water. If
the guru asks for water, he wants it
to do a mantra ten done in a moment; so he ran. He found
that the little stream had been crossed
times, he will do it by a few carts just then and the water
was muddy. So he came running back to
10,000 times. He is his guru and said, The water is muddy
always on the go. in that place. Just ten minutes away
there is a river, I will go there and get
the water. Matsyendranath said, No,
get water from the same stream, from
the same spot. But it is muddy. I
want water from the same stream, from the same spot and I am thirsty.
So Gorakhnath again ran to the stream and it was still very muddy. He
did not know what to do, and he again ran back to his guru.
Matsyendranath again said, No, I want water from that stream. Not
knowing what to do, he went back again. Then, he found that the water
was a little clearer. So he waited. In 5-10 minutes it became as pure as
can be. He brought the water bursting with ecstasy, jumping with joy
and gave it to his guru. Matsyendranath kept the water aside and did not
drink. He was not thirsty.

Gorakhnath is the kind, if you tell him to do a mantra ten times, he will
do it 10,000 times. He is always on the go. Whatever you tell him, he will
do it with great fervor, which is a great quality, but now a time had come
for him to move into another space. So Matsyendranath was conveying a
message: You have done all the running around and intense activity
very well, but now a time has come. Just wait. It will become crystal
clear.

Sound is essentially in your mind. Whatever sound may be happening, if

you are asleep, it does not matter. Only if you are a bad sleeper it is a
problem, otherwise what does sound mean to you when you are dead
asleep? The entire murky mind is simply because of the sounds that you
generate, which take the shape of words, and you attach meanings to
meaningless sounds. Just wait. It will once again become crystal clear. If
all the sounds die down, if you stop attaching meanings to the words, if
everything falls down, then it will be crystal clear, soundless.

Editors Note: Mystics Musings includes more of Sadhgurus insights on

sound and silence. Read the free sample [pdf] or purchase the ebook.

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POSTED IN: Music

TAGS: Sound, Starred

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