The Sage Who Hears Silence

Have we developed the sensitivity to see the unmanifest?

- Devdutt Pattanaik

While in American families , one is encouraged to verbalise, ‘I love you’, in most Indian families you don’t need such overt expressions to feel loved and included. Through silence, many things can be communicated: love, hatred, acceptance, rejection, suffering, understanding. The unmanifest (Nirakar) is seen as more potent than the manifest (Sakar); provided you develop the sensitivity to see it. However, silence is now a bad word – equated with complicity, cowardice, inaction, even fear and submission. We have forgotten the Muni, the sage who values silence (Mauna).