Mandukya_Upanishad

Brahman, the Absolute; and as the Supreme Creator,Preserver, Destroyer, it is the paramātman; as the Belovedof devotees, it is Bhagavān. It is all this – dvaita,viśishtādvaita and advaita points of view come togetherhere in this Ātman, and the conclusions of the schools ofthought merge into the single truth of a blend of variousstandpoints. Quarrels cease, arguments come to a stop,philosophies are hushed, silence prevails. This Ātman isSilence, said a great Master. When a devotee came, andasked the Guru, ‘Tell me the Ātman’, the Guru kept quiet.When the disciple queried again, ‘Master, tell me theĀtman’, the Guru kept quiet, again. A third time thequestion was raised, and the Guru kept quiet, once more.When for the fourth time the disciple put the samequestion, ‘Tell me the Ātman’; the Guru said, ‘I am tellingyou, you are not hearing; because Silence is the Ātman’. Inthat Great Silence, all the turmoil of the cosmos is calmed.All the clamour of the senses, all the noise of the universe iscontained and absorbed in this Silence. The Silence here isbetter than all the sounds that one makes, and it explainsthings better than all the speeches that one utters. ThisSilence is a fuller explanation than all the logical argumentsof the philosophers. This Silence of all silences connotesReality in a more comprehensive manner, than anythingelse, because when we express it in words, we come downfrom its level to a lower grade, and begin to think of it as anexternal object. The Kena Upanishad warns us when it says,“It is not known to those who know it; it is known to thosewho do not know it”. If you think you know it, you do notknow it, and when you know it, you do not think, but you104