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Silence is the Altar of Spirit
From The Path by Swami Kriyananda
"My first visit
to Twenty-Nine Palms (Paramhansa Yogananda’s
desert retreat) was for a weekend. My recollection of him on that
occasion isn’t so much of the things he said, as
of what he didn’t say. I didn’t know it at
the time, but he placed great importance on silence. Disciples
working around him were permitted to speak only when necessary. “Silence,” he
told them, “is the altar of Spirit.”
Master was
seated out of doors by the garage; Bernard and I were standing
nearby. Master asked Bernard to go into the house and fetch something.
Suddenly, for the first time since my acceptance as a disciple,
I found myself alone with my guru. It seemed an opportunity not
to be missed: a chance to learn something—anything! Master,
evidently, didn’t see it in the same light. He made no move
to speak. Finally I decided I’d better “break the ice.”
I had learned from Bernard how to commune inwardly with Aum, the
Cosmic Sound, which manifests itself to the yogi in deep meditation. “Sir,” I
inquired, “what does Aum sound like?”
Master gave
a prolonged “Mmmmmmmmmm.” He
then reverted comfortably to silence. To me, alas, his silence
was anything but comfortable.
“How does one hear it?” I
persisted, though I already knew the technique.
This time Master
didn’t
even answer, but simply assumed the prescribed position.
After holding it briefly, he returned his hands in silence to
his lap.
Some months
later I told him I was having trouble calming my breath in meditation. “That,” he replied, “is because
you used to talk a lot. The influence has carried over. Well,” he
added consolingly, “you were happy in that.”
Silence
is the altar of Spirit. As I grew into my new
way of life I came to prize this maxim."
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