ON SILENCE AND CHASING DESIRES

What can I say to your letter; it was more than a letter, more than a poem, an expression of the inner silence, as gentle and as deep as I have found you to be through your beautiful writings.

I have often repeated to myself the answer to man's misery, in the words, "Ye have asked enough" — for only when man stops asking and is ready to 'give' will the universal brotherhood of God's creation come into being. When will man stop asking for himself, stop the mad race for chasing transient desires, stop hating and wanting, stop the constant chattering of his mind that deafens him to the voice of God? That is to me most symbolic of Baba's Silence.

Baba once said, "When I break my Silence I will speak the One Word and the whole universe will hear. But man has yet to go through much suffering before he is ready to listen."

Makes me think of the story I read about Gautama Buddha. He was once walking through the jungle, and was accosted by a dacoit who earned his living by murdering and pillaging passersby in that remote wood. The thief ran after Buddha as a possible victim, but hard as he ran he could not come up to Buddha who was walking at a slow and leisurely pace.

At last in desperation he cried, "Stop, stop!"

Buddha stood still and turned round smiling, saying "I stopped long ago, son. It is you who must stop."

The end of the story is that the dacoit fell on his knees in anguish and gratitude. He stopped his nefarious deeds, spent many years in meditation under a gnarled tree where Buddha asked him to sit, and finally became spiritually enlightened.

            Mani