Watch your words. Do you raise the restlessness around you through your speech? Or, do your words create calmness, silence and peace? Words are powerful tools. We need to use them carefully. Often, our questions and conversations become heated. They are all about winning the argument and having the last word. Both people in such conversations leave feeling fatigued, incomplete, unfulfilled and agitated. Debating is healthy, but often pointless as it doesn’t always have the purpose of sharing and growing in awareness together as its goal. Most debates are aimed at countering the other person’s views and opinions.
How does one leave the world a better place than when one entered it? True seekers remain committed to raising the level of joy wherever they find themselves. Every single time. In fact, we must endeavour to leave every conversation, every encounter, every relationship at a higher level from the place we enter into it. The peaceful mind is the source of joy. Peace arises in stillness. Stillness appears in silence. The ultimate purpose of all our words is to reach silence.
In ancient times, debates were often about understanding human nature and led to self-growth. They were tools to strike at the core of one’s flawed understanding of reality. One person challenged another’s core beliefs and the other countered with valid arguments until either one accepted defeat, and more often than not, accepting the winner’s viewpoint, became their follower. These were powerful conversations that many intellectuals came to listen to, and learn from. There were wise referees who controlled the proceedings and they were greatly honoured.
Around 2500 years ago, a powerful debate was going on between Adi Shankaracharya and Mandan Mishra. Thousands had come to listen and learn. Adi Shankaracharya eventually defeated Mishra. Suddenly, he was challenged by Ubhaya Bharati, Mishra’s wife. In those days, women were immensely respected and Adi Shankaracharya accepted her challenge. At one point, Shankaracharya became silent and accepted defeat when Ubhaya Bharati questioned him on finer points of the life of a householder. Later, both Mandan Mishra and Ubhaya Bharati became students of the Advaita path that Adi Shankaracharya advocated, since they had got a glimpse of his direct understanding of the supreme reality, through their debates with him.
A mind that is full of questions is restless. When one has obtained an answer, often a fresh question appears. Most questions make us agitated, if left unanswered. However, there are some questions that can lead us into silence. Such questions cannot be answered by other people for us, or through books. We have to mull over them constantly. We need to remain with them, day after day. They must gnaw at us, and we must keep seeking answers within, discarding them and seeking anew, until there is nothing left but total silence.
At one point, the mind stops. It becomes tired of the relentless self-questioning. It realises the futility of all that is, will be and was. The questioning just drops and one becomes totally still. One doesn’t need answers anymore. Seekers of the self are spiritual warriors who can cause powerful breakthroughs in others. When you converse with people, you must constantly remain aware. Lead conversations towards questions that turn the mind inwards. In every conversation, you must remain awake and find that small crack through which you can get in, and drop the seed of awakening. When you speak, drop the desire to be right and to argue. Focus on using the opportunity to create that space in which silence can appear. That is your vigil. That is what you must be on the lookout for, constantly.
Once you’ve begun to climb up the ladder of understanding in your own spiritual practices, remember to lower it down for others to climb up. You must share your own wisdom to help bring others into a deeper state of awareness.
Deepam Chatterjee is a teacher, writer, storyteller and corporate speaker, integrating Modern Life Lessons with Military History, Hindu Scriptures, Mythology and Mysticism. He can be contacted on deepamchatterjee@yahoo.co.in
