Stress of Lockdown
(Part IV)
Think of Seniors, Super Seniors, Oldies and Goldies
(Silence the Pearl of Happiness)
During the Corona
time children are busy on online, may be for studies or purchases, office goers
are busy in the “work from home” the WFH the wonder word and ladies in Indian
style their home chores; but what seniors should do particularly the men, when
most of the news is repetitive, newspapers are missing for the fear they may
carry Corona, home delivery is handy for milk vegetables, medicines, groceries,
and online is facility for everything. How many times one can answer call bells
and how much time it takes to water the plants at home, devotional songs and
booze is not everybody’s cup of tea although there are some who enjoy songs in
the morning and drinks in the evening,
but majority has no love for the both. Nobody
has the time to spend some with their seniors and give them company, listening
and entertainment are a far cry. The end product of everything is that
seniors are lonely and slowly going under stress and sometimes into depression.
The effect of such a
situation is that many lose interest in their day to day life that increases
the level of irritation and they get angry now and then-that makes them more
irrelevant, they reduce their intake that increases intake of medicines and
majority develop enforced silence - the first step towards depression. Solution
has to be found within these existing circumstances as Corona imposed.
Speech is natural to
human beings and in fact to all the living beings. It is gift of nature to life
and more so to the man. It is a means to express day to day in grief and
happiness and we learn to speaks as soon as one is born, if otherwise one is normal.
Humans can add sweetness to it by their words, tone and tenor even otherwise
one should speak in polite and polished manner that can get one best of
friends. Manners, formalities, discipline, knowing of the limitations,
relations, circumstances, environment audience and the place are the parameters that forces a
person to make his speech suit the audience and the occasion: if one does not
bother he himself becomes non-existent.
Speak when you must
that will enable one to have control over expression as well as the words one
speaks and your voice would be heard. Such a behavior is also the indicative of
one’s strength of character and love for self-respect:
Wise men speak because they have something
to say; Fools because they have to say something.
Unknown
In old-age, we have
lot of experience and time at our disposal but audience is missing or has
thinned. We have lot to tell but the time changes the relevance of our
experience much of which has become obsolete and obscure but our urge to tell
becomes stronger and stronger with time, which sometimes irritates the audience
and costs relations. We must choose our words, their relevance and the timings.
People like to listen “yes” more often about their proposals, so unless there
are any fundamental differences and issues, proposal of others be agreed to.
Still better is to remain as much silent as possible.
In simple words silence
means not to speak and to remain calm & quiet, just an observer of the
situation. Silence is a discipline very hard to learn, still harder to
practice. It is an art of keeping your emotions, urge, temperament, thoughts
under control and cool too. That way Corona period is a gift of nature to
seniors when they would understand the beneficial aspect of remaining silent.
Silence is a medium
of communications the most effective one. It is the language of Gods and sages.
It is language of nature. It is the language of growth and meditation. All good
things are given and taken in silence. Speech is silver, silence is golden. If
you do not understand the silence of somebody you would not be able to listen
to his voice also. It is great art to
understand and listen to silence. Silence is the most effective voice if you
know how to listen. Rudyard Kipling said, jungle speaks to him because he knows
how to listen.
“He who does not understand your silence will probably
not understand your words.” – Elbert Hubbard
Prayer to God- a
perfect communication model which follows silence as the medium of
communications. Only those who know how to pray can understand how beneficial
silence is to an individual. All human beings when they wake up early in the morning
pray to the Almighty for good health and all round progress for themselves and
for their loved ones. While doing this prayer a person is most open. He is true
to himself, he confesses, he accepts, he admits and he talks direct. He has
noble and pure thoughts. In fact, he talks to himself. He is satisfied having
talked to the God. God knows everything about him. Everything is open and
known; nothing is hidden or unknown between the man and the God. There are no
egos between the man and the God. One is not afraid of the other. This is most
effective and perfect way of communication. If we can talk to other persons in
the way we pray to the God that would be the most effective way of
communication.
Language is for
non-lovers, those who are not in love,
For lovers silence
is enough language,
Without saying
anything,
They go on speaking.
OSHO
Language of silence
is wonderful, it is understood by all human beings on this planet, even the
birds and animals like silence. No words of any language are required only
gestures are enough and are widely understood world over. It is divine
language, God speaks only in silence and you have to be silent to listen what
He says.
One must practice
silence. Let us start from forced silence. Do all you morning chores without
making any noise and take it “one can do” for example brushing your teeth,
taking bath, having a cup of tea, reading newspaper, getting ready for the job,
taking your breakfast etc etc. That will reduce your dependence on others and
improve your temperament, in addition make time available for relaxation and
leisure. One can start with say twenty minutes in the morning and then increase
the time as one feels blessed with this habit. It is possible.
In many religious
practices, chanting the name of the Lord without speaking is taught: that helps
one to remain engrossed with the Lord anywhere anytime without disturbing one’s
work and daily routine. This practice helps one to separate mind from body - that
way mind is doing something else and body is busy somewhere else. When one has
reached that level, slowly he can practice to keep the mind free from all the
thinking even from the name of the Lord. This is not easy, it takes a longtime,
but as and when one able to achieve this it is a bliss, the tranquility, peace
and Shanti achieved will always remain with the person and he would become
internally happy, finding positivity in every situation. It is wonderful
journey. One must try at least once.
Silence provides
physical strength to vocal cords, so much essential when one is suffering from
hoarse voice and bad throat even otherwise we must provide rest to our vocal
cards. Silence is also a big energy saver.
Silence provides a
person lot of time to analyze, think, plan future action, think of response as
the energy saved sharpens the functioning of mind. Correct assessment of the
situation leads to correct solution and hence acts as a multiplier to the
respect and regard of the person giving solutions.
In such a time
seniors must increase their level of positivity – to ooze love, affection,
purity, charity, compassion, sacrifice, wisdom, happiness, determination,
selflessness, kindness, gratefulness etc
from their activities for others and for
their benefit, in addition to thinking and acting for positive results for each
problem and difficulty. This requires a change in the attitude as to how we see
others and their activities. It is mine of inner glow and happiness not only
mentally but physically also. It keeps you engaged and in center of the things.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every
opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
Winston
Churchill
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world
would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
Martin Luther
Enjoying silence is
the first step towards managing life purposefully when the era of solitude
commences for one reason or the other.
Amavasya” in the
month Magha in Hindu calendar is observed as “Mauni Amavasya”. It is believed
that creation of the Universe commenced on this day. As the name “Maun”
suggests it is day to observe silence so many
people observe “Maun Vrat” on this day in reverence to the Lord and a
few extend this silence for a week or month still some for a year. Without
going into the religious aspect of this festival we can say even the Lord created the Universe in silence.
“True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the
spirit. What sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.”
William Penn
No comments:
Post a Comment