Saint of silence

Sadhu, as he was popularly called by my father’s generation, was revered for four things. His philosophy of love. His great intellectualism. His magnetic mysticism. And his pragmatic social reforms.

“Go, go and get drowned in the ocean of love,” he would whisper so softly, that the very silence would vibrate with a heavenly emotion of love. Then he would explain the meaning of love, “To love is to give. To give is to live”.

He was famous, first as a great teacher. He was tutor to the royal family of Cooch-Bihar, then as the principal of Mahindra College of Patiala. Later, he made a mark as a contemporary of Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi. An associate of Keshab Chandra Sen, he became a true disciple of his nephew, Promotholal Sen.

Yes, I am referring to a simple humble man – Sadhu T L Vaswani. Born on November 25, 1879 at Hyderabad Sind, Sadhu Vaswani had a brilliant academic career. At the age of five he had a vision of light, but as a devoted son, he deferred his `renunciation’ till the death of his mother.

Sadhu Vaswani lived amidst people as a tapasivi. He often said, “A woman’s soul should lead us upward, onward, Godward.” He gave a call for new education, the Mira Movement in education. For him, Mira symbolised devotion and revolution.

“Three things I learnt at the feet of my guru – silence, guidance from within and sharing with others in the service of love. I regard these as the three jewels of life. These three release the spiritual force which are indeed more than plans, methods and systems, to transform man into new beings who may each day be the healers of our bleeding civilisation”.

Lover of silence, he often narrated the following anecdote, “An ancient story tells of a city sunk in the sea. In the depths the bells are ringing, the song is singing. In silence alone may be heard the bells and the song. The sea is the heart. In its depths is the city of God. If thou will hear the song that is singing, go into silence. Pause and reflect! Silence will sing to thee”!

What did silence sing to him? The laughter of plants, the anguished cry of animals in the slaughter houses, the chit chat of forest trees. Almost as a prophecy, he declared, “Believe me. One day meat eating will be condemned as murder!”

To the depressed he said, “Every soul is royal! In you is a hidden shakti, an eternal energy. Express it and you will move the world. This shakti is expressed in the measure in which you are unselfish, disintegrated.” Sadhu talked very little but when he did, he stirred the heart. “Religion? Let’s talk of it less and practise it more,” he would say.

For hours he would sit in silence under the tree. “Temples, churches and mosques have their value, indeed, but God is the silent spirit and dweltheth within. And you must be quiet as the growing blade, quiet as the morning light, to reach the Silent One.” He appealed to his devotees to sit in silence for at least 15 minutes.

Not by means of thought, but in and through silence, may God be attained. When we enter more and more into silence, our desires are gradually eliminated, purity is attained and the body and the mind are sanctified. And we taste the Name Divine and know how sweet the Name is. “To sit in silence is to commune with God”!