Avatar Meher Baba kept silence from July 10, 1925, until he passed away on January 31, 1969. Baba gave many messages regarding his silence and its import. But perhaps the simplest explanation was when he said that he knew one day he would have to break his silence, so he began keeping it.
What does that mean, to “break his silence?" What significance could that possibly have for any of us?
There are several cosmologies that depict the beginning of Creation as a spoken “Word” or, you might say, a vibration. It is my understanding that this is what Meher Baba intended to convey when he referred to “breaking his silence." He was referring to the impetus that begat Creation and stating that it would be renewed or "re-uttered." What would that look like? I haven't the slightest idea.
Even so, I offer this deeply esoteric message from
Meher Baba on the meaning and import of “The Word.”
God in the Beyond-Beyond state
is likened
to a soundless, shoreless Ocean.
The “whim” of God for knowledge of Himself (“Who
Am I?”)
manifested
as sound.
This Oceanic Sound
is of
God and is God
and
contains, and is
His
experience of power, knowledge, bliss.
The emergence of this sound
through
what is called the “Om-Point,”
or
its creative utterance,
produced
the worlds of Mind, Energy, and Matter.
This Primal Oceanic Sound
is the
root of all forms
and
creatures
and
men,
and
they are continuously connected with it
and
derive their life from it.
When one closes one’s lips and expresses sound,
an “m-m-m”
is produced.
This “m-m-m”
is the
foundation or ground of all spoken words
and
contains all feelings
as
when it expresses pain and anguish
or
joy and happiness,
or
all thought when expressed during thought,
and
is capable of containing
the
whole of a question and its answer.
This “m-m-m”
is a
drop of faint sound of the Oceanic Sound:
the
“M-m-m” or “Word” of God,
separated
from the Ocean by seven shadows of separation.
If the whole physical universe was a huge bell,
the
sound of it in comparison
with
the sound of the Oceanic Sound
would
be as the furthermost point of audibility
of
an ordinary bell.
This sound-drop is not different
from
the Oceanic Sound;
it
is that Ocean and can never be anything but Ocean –
but
it experiences itself as a drop
because
of separation.
This separation is not a separation by division,
but
a separation through impression.
(As
words are expressions of this drop-“m-m-m”
separated
from the Oceanic “M-m-m” –
so
are sense-actions, expressions, and experiences
removes
from Oceanic Experience:
seeing
and seen from Oceanic Sight,
hearing
and heard from Oceanic Hearing,
smelling
and smell, taste and flavor, touching and touch
from
corresponding Oceanic Faculties.)
This Original Oceanic “M-m-m”
is called
Brahm-Nad (Sound or Word of God)
or
Unhud-Nad (Limitless Sound or Word).
It is continuous
and
is the eternal Root and continuous Cause
of
all causes and effects.
It experiences
All-power,
All-knowledge, and All-bliss.
But the drop “m-m-m,”
although
of the same substance
and
not in any way different
from
the Oceanic “M-m-m,”
and
although continuously connected with it,
feels – because of its separation through seven
shadows of separation –
most
weak,
most
ignorant,
and
most unhappy,
even
though at times it asserts
strength,
knowledge, and happiness.
In this present age
when
words,
through
accumulation and accretion,
have
become meaningless,
and
all my previous words in the form of precepts
are
neglected and distorted,
I maintain Silence.
When I break my silence and speak,
it will
be this primal Oceanic “M-m-m”
which
I will utter through my human mouth.
And because all forms and words
are
from this primal sound or Original Word
and
are continuously connected with it
and
have their life from it,
when
it is uttered by me,
it
will reverberate in all peoples and creatures,
And all will know
that
I have broken my silence
and
have uttered that sound or Word.
The effective force of this Word in individuals
and
their reaction to it
will
be in accordance
with
the magnitude and receptivity
of
each individual mind.
And the reaction will be
as instantaneous
and as various
as
the reaction of people in a room
through
which a cobra suddenly and swiftly passes,
when
some would nervously laugh,
some
lose control of their bowels,
and
some feel great courage
or
reasonless hope and joy.
