Significance of mounam or silence

[sridatta]

Silence is called as Samadhi and the person adopting silence (Mounam) is called as the sage (Muni). Silence does not mean the deep sleep, which is total unawareness. The deep sleep involves the unawareness of the awareness of this world and also the unawareness of this world. Silence involves the awareness of your unawareness of the absolute unimaginable God. The deep sleep is the climax of unawareness or ignorance. The silence is the climax of the knowledge, which is awareness. This silence is the next step after concentration (Dhyana) as per the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Concentration here means the deep analysis about the knowledge of the absolute God.

The Veda also says that there are four stages. The first stage is called as ‘Vaisva’, which is the awareness of the world in the awakened state (Jaagrat). The second stage is called as ‘Taijasa’, which represents the awareness of the world created by mind in the state of dream (Swapna). The third stage is called as ‘Praajna’, which is the total non-awareness involving the non-awareness of awareness and non-awareness in the state of deep sleep (Sushupti).

These three states are common to all the living beings and the concept of God does not exist here. The fourth stage is called as ‘Turiyam’, which is the awareness of non-awareness of the absolute unimaginable God. This fourth state is limited to very few people, who are the seekers of God as said ‘Turiyam Brahma’. This is the final concept of the spiritual knowledge and is the foundation of the world peace.