Eknath Easwaran was an Indian spiritual teacher from the last century. He knew Gandhi and was his contemporary. Eknath Easwaran wrote a book about Gandhi called Gandhi the Man: How One Man Changed Himself to Change the World.
Gandhi was known for having days of silence. Here is a story about one of those days.
“Once, while Mahatma Gandhi’s train was pulling slowly out of the station, a European reporter ran up to his compartment window. “Do you have a message I can take back to my people?” he asked. It was Gandhi’s day of silence, a vital respite from his demanding speaking schedule, so he didn’t reply. Instead, he scrawled a few words on a scrap of paper and passed it to the reporter: “My life is my message.””
~ Eknath Easwaran from Your Life Is Your Message: Finding Harmony With Yourself, Others & the Earth
Silence as a spiritual path is usually respected by everyone. Meher Baba had a long period of silence from 1925 until he died in 1969.
Retreatants in the Vipassana meditation tradition of S. N. Goenka maintain silence for ten days, speaking only to retreat leaders.
The most important silence, however, is the silence within. To get to that silence, you have to abandon all hope of stopping your thinking, your worrying, your imagining, your planning, and your scheming. Enter there and you will know just who you are.
Books by Eknath Easwaran
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Your Life Is Your Message: Finding Harmony With Yourself, Others & the Earthby ***COURTESY OF TWOBEARS BOOKS*** Once, while Mahatma Gandhi’s train was pulling slowly out of the station, a European reporter ran up to his compartment window. “Do you have a message I can take back to my people?” he asked. It was Gandhi’s day of silence, a vital respite from his demanding speaking… [Read More…] |
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