Our scriptures call this faculty of silence mounam, derived from the expression ‘munihi’, munehebhavammounam: the attitude of a sage. It is a state used by sages for internal growth and spiritual wisdom. Krishn also talks about mounam in the twelfth chapter of the Gita where he glorifies the wise man as a mouni. We can effectively use mounam for internal growth.
A youthful sage, radiant with illumination, is sitting in meditation under a banyan tree. A disciple, old and weary with life’s cares, approaches him with mind and heart full of doubt and depression. The disciple asks many questions, but even though the teacher ever remains silent, the doubts of the disciple are decimated and he goes away in peace.
Ramana Maharshi had testified to his innumerable visitors that silence is ever speaking as it is the perennial flow of ‘language’. The visitors would often receive answers to their asked and unasked questions through Maharshi’s silence.
By using the value of silence, we can enhance the quality of our life and also employ our faculty of speech in a positive and healthy manner, about which Krishn has referred to in the eighteenth chapter of the Gita.