First, we need to define what is the Word, as there are so many words floating around today in the Public Space, that it has become a cacophony…
In the Beginning, as we all know, There was Silence before the Word.
In the words of India’s great poet, philosopher, revolutionary and Yogi, Sri Aurobindo:
“It was the hour before the Gods awake.
Across the path of the divine Event
The huge foreboding mind of Night, alone
In her unlit temple of eternity,
Lay stretched immobile upon SILENCE’s marge…”
Thus, the first primeval sound, coming out of Silence, as the Animate, started replacing the Inanimate, is the sound ‘Hmmmmmmmm’, like a cosmic humming.
Out of this original sound was born the first mantras: OM for the Hindus, AUM for the Buddhists and Jains, Amen for the Christians, Amin for the Muslims…
What is it meaning of AUM or OM or AMIN? Don’t intellectualize it: just close your eyes, watch your breath for a few seconds and pronounce it thrice slowly and clearly, and then observe what’s happening in you. You will now have had the experience of the first sound of this Universe and understood why it remains the most important one, out of which all other sounds, in whichever languages, today and yesterday, derive….
Then we need to define what is Public Space…
For a long time the Public Space was largely unoccupied and there still was mostly silence. Though writing was invented, some say in Mesopotamia, 5000 years ago, some say in the Saraswati-Indus civilization, in 5400 BC, it did not occupy much space and led to no cacophony. In France, in the old days, heralds would announce royal decrees at each street corners of cities, along with the beating of the drums.. .
After that came the invention of the Printing Press – which the West credits to Gutenberg – but which existed much before him in Asia , though Gutenberg’s Bible was probably the first mass produced book. A corner of the Public Space became occupied.
Then, the newspapers appeared. The Romans had some form of newsletters (the Senate’s proceedings), but it’s only in the 16th century, in Germany and Italy, that the first public-circulated newspapers saw the light.
Henceforth arrived the Radio, invented by Marconi officially, but actually experimented by many before him – including the Indian JC. Bose in Calcutta in 1896. And the cacophony of the world started. By the mid 20’s, 605 radio stations were broadcasting to millions in the USA.
Then Television made its entry in Scotland in 1926, invented by John Logie Baird. But it’s not till the 50’s that it became popular specially, in the mid 60’s as colour TV first appeared in the US. The Public Space started not only getting crowded, but influencing people’s opinions.
The birth of Internet Protocol Suit happened in 1982, again in the US, and by the mid 90’s, thanks to the birth of Social Media, the Public space had become a cacophony.
Yes, the Word is occupying it. But it’s overcrowded there. Not only that, but we live now in a virtual world of second hand opinions, which have a huge sway on billions of people, who lack first hand knowledge. Whoever reads what is said on India in mainstream newspapers or televisions in the West, knows that it’s mostly about the sensational, the clichéd and sometimes even the false. It is true that the freedom and the lack of politically correct control in the Social Media have made it the space which reflects in the most faithful manner the feelings of the People at large. But the cacophony remains…
How to go back to the some harmony? How does a journalist or a writer find his or her true inspiration, that is not fuelled by alcohol, drugs or sleepless nights?
We need to revert back to the Silence to find true Intuition. In India there are tools that can help you do that: Pranayama meditation, or Hata yoga. These tools can be practiced by all, regardless of their ethnicity or religion: does the air we breathe around us have a religion or a race, asks @SriSri? The simple silent repeating of your God’s name in your heart region will also induce a quieting of the mind, that will leave space for true inspiration. And 20 mnts of daily of yoga will help the body be the vessel of a quieter mind.
Then in this Silence will we find our own Private Space and be able to communicate in a better and true manner onto the Public Space
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