In a universe drowned in external chaos and internal turmoil, true serenity lies in cultivating contentment, self-awareness, and spiritual growth to restore the silence our hearts crave
In the cacophony of our lives, silence is something that is terribly missing. In this noisy world of ours, we all crave peace in the form of blissful silence. Blowing horns, inaudible loudspeakers, mindless noise, war cries, bombings, drone attacks, etc., all heighten the level of noise. However, there is more to this than meets the eye. There is a graver kind of noise hidden behind the curtains, found in the deep depths of our minds and hearts. A horrible noise is eating into the vitals of our being. It makes us restless and compels us to long for a serene and beautiful silence.
Outwardly, a person may appear calm. However, inside his deeper self, there are giant monsters of noise devouring every bit of him, drinking his fresh blood and laughing in mirth. In deep slumber, man is constantly grappling with inhuman noises—noises that bring down his fragile house, constructed on sand, like a pack of cards. In this horrendous situation, man is in search of silence—the eternal silence that can heal him.
In reality, noises do not grow suddenly in our lives. We irrigate their roots and do the necessary pruning. There are many causes responsible for the omnipresent growth and blooming of noise.
First, we have misunderstood life in its totality. Bargaining for a few paisa has made us violent in every respect. Seemingly simple things have become so entangled that it may take eras to unravel and smooth them. Socrates was right in saying that contentment is the real wealth. This is because contentment does not allow us to meddle constantly in the noisy world. It puts the brakes on our non-stop pursuit of chasing and running behind temporary things that lead to deadly noise.
Misunderstanding life has reached such a level of destruction that the melodious and soothing voices of birds are now noise to us. Where once the cuckoo used to entertain us, machines—and only machines—now blare out incessant noise, deafening us and making us numb. In a crowded city, our hope to settle permanently has resulted in the choking of our throats.
Second is egoism. It has also played a part in making us crave silence. We compete and we fall. We bring down others to run over them and construct grand mansions of egoism. Other people’s destruction weighs heavily on our minds. Satiating our ego leads us to fall into gruesome noise. Such is the effect of egoism and its associated noise that we hardly behave like human beings. We may look human physically; however, deep inside, there is a void that makes us act and react like animals. If we look closely at the world, egoism is staring us directly in the face and mocking our fallacies.
Egoism says to us, “Man, you were supposed not to fall prey to my brutal nature. I was deliberately put into you so you could overcome me and become a complete human being. However, you began worshipping me.”
Third, and last, is copying or imitating others blindly, without a shred of rationality. We are doomed to such a level that, despite knowing that earthly matters are merely a road by which we pass on to the next world, we still cling to them and mar our lives. Any sane person cannot imagine deluding themselves by blindly copying others. Osho once said that if others chased a rope, mistaking it for a snake, would you, too, blindly follow them? No, you would check whether it was a snake and advise others not to fool themselves by taking the rope for a snake.
So, the need of the hour is to bring some decency into our lives by refraining from acting like stone-hearted and irrational human beings. At the end of the day, this worldly life is like a passing wind—no matter how permanent it appears on the surface. Craving more and more must be shunned at the earliest. Bringing in contentment is the only remedial measure available to us. It is contentment that will set our tracks right. The wobbling ways of discontentment only serve as the final nails in the coffin.
Imitating others for a temporary, so-called bliss must be abandoned. Introspecting at the deepest level is the certain path to bringing permanent silence into the chaotic and noisy world we live in.
Last but not least, spiritual growth is the highest priority of modern times. Healing wounded souls is like writing in stone—no amount of worldly disorder can erase it. It elevates a person to the highest level possible.
Now, the ball is in our court to chase blessed silence and calm our nerves. We cannot afford to abandon our wholeness for the cheap noises that engulf us from every side. A rational human being needs calm silence the most.
Let us avoid meaningless noise as much as we can.
Syed Mustafa Ahmad
sy**********@***il.com