Thursday, October 2, 2014

OUTER SILENCE and INNER PEACE – SELF HELP for STRESS MANAGEMENT

OUTER SILENCE  THE FIRST STEP TO INNER PEACE
WORDS ON A BENCH IN MUSSOORIE
Meditation
By
VIKRAM KARVE

I am feeling hassled. 

I close my eyes. 

I sit in silence.

I relax. 

And I remember those insightful and profound words engraved on a bench in Mussoorie.

I read those words long back, but those meaningful words that have remained etched in my mind forever.

Agar Aap Shanti Chahate Ho To Pehele Shaant Rehena Seekho 


अगर आप शांति चाहते हो तो पहेले शांत रहेना सीखो


Long back, around 20 years ago, I visited Mussoorie.

During one of my long walks, probably on Camel’s Back Road, or maybe near Lal Tibba in Landour, I saw some words inscribed on a bench.

Those words were a truism that has had a profound impact on me ever since.

I will never forget those interesting words written in Hindi on a bench in Mussoorie:


अगर आप शांति चाहते हो तो पहेले शांत रहेना सीखो 


(Agar Aap Shanti Chahate Ho To Pehle Shaant Rehna Seekho)


Roughly translated into English this means:

IF YOU DESIRE PEACE THEN FIRST LEARN TO REMAIN SILENT 

Of course the word  शांत  (shaant)  also means PEACEFUL 

Yes, SILENCE is the sine qua non for PEACEFULNESS.

Once your mind is calm and peaceful you will experience a sense of inner peace.

If your inner peace is disturbed, you will be stressed out.

The root cause of stress is lack of inner peace.

The first step to stress management is to restore your inner peace, and not allow your inner peace to be disturbed.

And why does your inner peace get disturbed?

Your inner peace gets disturbed because there is too much “noise” in your life.

There is Physical Noise, Information Overload Noise, Emotional Noise.

There is internal noise and external noise.

There is noise around you and noise within you.

There is all sorts of noise and cacophony. 

Noise hassles you, disturbs your tranquility and is the biggest impediment to attaining peacefulness. 

The first step to inner peace is to get rid of all that noise around you and within you. 

Yes, if you want peace you have to shut out the noise from your life.

Go to a quiet place where there is minimal external noise, switch off your noise-making gadgets like cellphones, shut out the cacophony on TV, shut out all the emotional noise which hassles your peace of mind. 

Sit silently in solitude, close your eyes and see how your inner silence dissolves the noise within you and you will experience inner peace and you will be in harmony with yourself.

That’s what I do every morning. 

I sit in silence in the spacious airy balcony of my ninth floor flat in Wakad.

I absorb the tranquil scenic view of the placid waters of the Mula River quietly flowing below, the peaceful verdant hills in the distance, the still atmosphere, the pure fresh air, and I feel a halo of soothing serenity permeate within me. 

Then I close my eyes and let my silence dissolve the internal noise in my mind and body.

It is only then that I experience inner peace and I realize that I am in harmony with myself.

Yes, if you want to be in harmony with yourself, you must have inner peace.

And, outer silence is the first step to inner peace.


अगर आप शांति चाहते हो तो पहेले शांत रहेना सीखो 

If you want peace then first learn to remain silent


Remember this simple piece of wisdom.

Try it. 

Experience the power of silence in calming your mind.

It works. 

You can take my word for it.

Remember the mantra: Outer Silence is the first step to inner peace.

VIKRAM KARVE
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Disclaimer:
All stories in this blog are a work of fiction. Events, Places, Settings and Incidents narrated in the story are a figment of my imagination. The characters do not exist and are purely imaginary. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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