Letter # 9: "Listen to the Silence"

There's rejoicing in Judges 5.3: "...I sing to the Lord, I will sing ..."

While I was visiting the town of my birth, Moga in India, some years back, the annoying blare of speakers would wake me up every morning at around 3 am. The Sikh priests meant well. They were singing verses from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy scripture. Unwanted sound is stressful, no matter how well meant. You can reduce the level of your stress hormones by taking some silent time for yourself. Turn off the radio, the stereo, the TV and cherish some quiet minutes. Sit and listen to the silence. There you will hear the "hum" or the "om" sound (linguists will appreciate the similarity of these two words). The word om also appears in Ek Omkar, which means the One Creator. Lord Krishna says, "I am the transcendental om..." Bhagavad Gita 10.25.

Here's my poem : "Listen to the Silence" (2001)

LISTEN TO THE SILENCE


I close my eyes
Let black descend
Listen around
To quiet sound

Raucous caws of crows
Chirping sparrows
Distant drone of airplane
Roar draws near
Sound fills my ears

Air of blowing fan
Breathing yoga prana
Reverberating hums
Maya’s heartbeat drums
Eternal energy

Just listen around
Om abounds
Merge in the surround
With eyes closed

Calm your soul
Jas, pray for all
Healing the whole.

Healing the whole.

Listening to music might help even better. Here's a research paper published this year: A study of fifty-six college students showed that listening to self-select or classical music, after exposure to a stressor, reduced negative emotional states and physiological arousal compared to listening to heavy metal music or sitting in silence. (PMID: 17965934 PubMed).

God Bless; Allah Hu Akbar; May The Forces Of The Universe Bring You Harmony; Hare Krishna; Radha-Swami; and Nanak Naam Chardi Kala Tere Bhane Sarbat Dha Bhalla.

I wish to express my gratitude for your comments, which inspire me to carry on writing. Please forgive my fallibilities in presenting this material. Also, feel free to send this message on to someone that you might think would like to receive it. If you do send it on, my only request of you is that you send it as it is, in its entirety, and to not alter or modify any of the text, references or authorship information. Thus you will help to give credit or liability to where they are properly due.

Jas Bhopal
Copyright© 2007
“Practicing goodwill makes for a good life."
Tel: 604 273 6641 (also for fax on request)

http://jasbhopal.com/

References: "The Holy Bible" Online version; "The Koran" as translated by SV Mir Ahmed Ali 2005 ISBN 0-9761870-0-0); "The Bhagavad Gita As it Is" as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN 0-89213-268-X; The Srimad Bhagavatum as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN0-89213-259-0; "I Am That. Talks With Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj” ISBN 0-89386-022-0; The Dhammapada ISBN-10:1-84483-344-5; The Sacred Sukhmani ISBN 81-7205-098-4; Wikipedia.