Question: I couldn’t follow one sentence in the purport of Bhagavad Gita verse (10.38): “Among the confidential activities of hearing, thinking and meditating, silence is most important because by silence one can make progress very quickly”. Could you please elaborate this?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
Krishna describes silence or “maunam” – also translated as gravity — as one of the austerities of the mind in BG 17.16. Srila Prabhupada explains there what this silence is: “Silence means that one is always thinking of self-realization. The person in Krishna consciousness observes perfect silence in this sense.”
Unless one refrains from the urge to talk mundane topics, it is not possible to completely think about and meditate on the activities and glories of the Supreme Lord.
But the so-called vow of silence adopted mostly by impersonalists — without any positive engagement — is not very much appreciated by great devotees such as Prahlada Maharaja; following this Prabhupada also often criticized this mundane silence as he did meditation on void, but for the transcendentalists, silence means to speak only about Krishna and not otherwise. As with every negative injunction there is also a positive injunction, we are recommended to refrain from prajalpa and simultaneously practice talking only in service to Krishna.
