The story goes on saying that there once was a farmer who discovered that he had lost his watch in the barn. It had sentimental value for him. After searching high and low among the hay for a long while; he gave up and enlisted the help of a group of children playing outside the barn. He promised them that the person who found it would be rewarded. Hearing this, the children hurried inside the barn, went through and around the entire stack of hay but still could not find the watch. Just when the farmer was about to give up looking for his watch, a little boy went up to him and asked to be given another chance. The farmer looked at him and thought, "Why not? After all, this kid looks sincere enough. So the farmer sent the little boy back in the barn.
After a while the little boy came out with the watch in his hand! The farmer was both happy and surprised and so he asked the boy how he succeeded where the rest had failed. The boy replied, "I did nothing but sit on the ground and listen. In the silence, I heard the ticking of the watch and just looked for it in that direction.”
Silence is a much discussed possibility in life. The story of the farmer tells us how silence was effectively utilised in recovering a lost watch. Generally, the purpose of silence is limited to maintenance of some sort of inner peace. However, silence can be meaningless and at the same time meaningful; silence can also be positive or negative, inner or outer. For me, silence is not simply a situation of no sounds or absence of any communication. I believe in the theory that silence begins where mind and intellect ceases. It is in silence that we establish our connection with the subtle elements of existence and I am talking about a world beyond rational assumptions, where silence is a state of total communication. Whenever I brood over the concept, it comes to my mind that silence is the most powerful force in the world. A big roar can be dealt with a loud boom. But, how shall we deal a person who consciously practices silence in life? Shall I say, beware of silence? Silence is so powerful, the more we eat it the more it will swallow us.
