Is
being quiet a sign of self-control? Does it signify that we are the masters of
our environment and that we are unfazed in adversity for we know what to do?
These
are interesting questions, but not certainly the first time someone has asked
them. Psychologists would give voluminous explanations and psychiatrists
perhaps would schedule sessions to help us discover the answer. I think even
religionists would like to be in the pantheon of experts. They may tell us that
a mind that dwells in God fears nothing, for it is His will that guides us and
destiny therefore is not to be scared of, but prayed for. I am neither a psyche
nor a shrink or for that matter consider myself religious enough. Though being
neither does not seem to inhibit me from having an opinion.
Life
is a lesson that we continue to learn, whether we are conscious about doing so
or pretty well unconscious. From childhood we gather impressions, by impulses
and by indoctrination. Five physical senses give the impulse and we act or
react; environment comprising of parents, neighborhood, school, friends and the
society at large indoctrinates us with a sense of right-wrong, do-don’t, and know-ignores.
Some people learn about most of everything. Some master some, and average at
others. Some ignore most and best at few. Some others die without making much
effort at anything. That is the permutations and combinations, but the
opportunities to learn neither multiply nor diminish. They remain constant,
while we individually make it in some combination. Depending on which strata we
achieve we manage to handle things well pertaining to the strata that we have
made it to. When we faced with a situation that we have managed not yet to deal
with, we have a choice: we can set about learning to handle or we can be ‘quiet’.
Quiet in this sense does not mean being comfortable with the situation. It
simply means that we do not see the opportunity to unravel something more about
life and therefore choose to remain quiet.
People
who manage to learn about most are also quiet sometimes. They are quiet not out
of the inability to sense an opportunity. But the ability to sense that
something they not yet know is in front and they need to collect the wisdom of
their cumulative learning and energies to go about discovering their new
lessons. They are about to become Columbus of the unknown – the dimensions in
their own self that they have not as yet discovered.
Being
quiet of the second kind is the choice of those who seek life. For in the words
of Khalil Gibran:
Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days
and the nights.
But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's
knowledge.
You would know in words that which you have always
known in thought.
You would touch with your fingers the naked body of
your dreams.
And it is well you should.
The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise
and run murmuring to the sea;
And the treasure of your infinite depths would be
revealed to your eyes.
But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown
treasure;
And seek not the depths of your knowledge with
staff or sounding line.
For self is a sea boundless and measureless.
Say not, "I have found the truth," but
rather, "I have found a truth."
Say not, "I have found the path of the
soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow
like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself like a lotus of countless
petals.
