Sounds of Silence

                                                     SOUNDS OF SILENCE

                                                             Pranjali Bandhu   

We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence ... We need silence to be able to touch souls (Mother Teresa).  

Silence is golden, say the sages, speech is silver – a metal considered to be of lesser value. You should be able to hear, feel the thoughts of others with less or no words. Sound is linked to creation. In the beginning was the word, says the Bible, but this sound comes out of the void, non-existence is there first and then existence. Creation as sound, God as silence – this emptiness. By creating rhythmic and melodious sounds we try to reproduce the sounds and vibrations of earth and nature and through creating this unity of the inner self with nature recreate ourselves. Dance and music are interlinked; witness the cosmic dance of creation of Nataraja.  

In India, since ancient times, Brahmin priests have performed a ritual called Agnihotra, a fire ceremony which involves use of a geometrical copper pyramid pot of very specific dimensions, sacred fire, and the chanting of certain mantras at precisely sunrise and sunset. This process is said to produce vibrations in the ethers which are considered beneficial to the planet’s wellbeing. It has been scientifically documented that this process lowers pathogenic viruses and bacteria and pollution levels within a two-mile radius of the area where the ceremony is performed. Sound vibrations are also being used today to lower pollution levels, to change chemical patterns of pollutants created by industry. 

We need both but we do not need noise, and there are limits to human toleration of it. One of the worst forms of pollution is noise pollution. And like all other forms of pollution it is created by human beings and more so by the human beings of modern society. It is unfortunate that today we have allowed our sensibilities to be drowned in noise and more noise, and no longer hear the rhythms and melodies of nature, just as we have become deaf and no longer care to listen to one another. “We use silence to listen to one another, to touch one another and to know one another,” said Marcos, leader of the Chiapas movement in Mexico. (“The Word and the Silence”, Oct. 12, 1995). And this is not limited to human beings but extends to communication by all sentient beings. Noise beyond a certain decibel can affect the proper functioning of the human ear and make people hard of hearing. It can also make you ill, just as music, its opposite, can be healing because its rhythmic vibrations effects beneficial physical-psychological changes on the subatomic, energy flow levels. 

Out of the constant noise pollution of a city like Chennai the following words came out:

    Coolness ripples through

    Cadences of soft rain

    After the clash of fake firebombs

    The lilting cry of the Mullah

    From the neighbouring mosque

    Rustles through the rain

    Were there no loudspeakers

    How would it sound?

    The crash of thunder is music,

    but not so a bomb.

    Best of all  -

    the silence of the jungle

Major sources of noise pollution in modern society are industry, war and vehicles, produced by machines. To that you can add politicians, and religious establishments – the temple, the mosque and to an extent the Church. Secular establishments like businesses, schools, by unwarrantedly using the loudspeakers are also increasing noise pollution in small towns. Instead of encouraging quiet contemplation and meditation, a looking inwards to feel integrated, there is a din of competitive religions locked up in a race to add to their numbers in a struggle for supremacy. This is especially so in the cases of Islam and Christianity for various historical reasons. 

However, even within these religions there is a trend of looking within, away from priests and mullahs as mediators, for unity with the cosmos, or with God, which alone can give peace and quietude. There were the Taoists and the Buddhists. Within Islam it was the Sufis, within Hinduism we had the Bhaktas, and there were the Christian mystics as well. We need to reread the Sufi poets and songsters of India, relook at indigenous worldviews, listen to their drumming, refer to all these traditions to rediscover these truths.