Triveni Spotlight: 5 October 2024

morning bird song—

my paddle slips

into its reflection

Michael Dylan Welch

Modern Haiku XXIV:1, Winter–Spring, 1993

As a resident of New Delhi, India, I live in the midst of noise. More so over the last decade. As a spiritual seeker, I am exposed to the practice and understanding of silence. Often, I am torn apart between the two. My spiritual teacher instructed me to initially “listen to,” “recognise,” “understand,” and then, “dwell’ in that silence. Most of our deepest moments occur when we are alone in silence or in silence with others and our environment. It is a gateway to nurturing, of healing, of renewal, and sometimes of revelation. The reverence for silence has been emphasised in most religious and spiritual texts. Sri Ramana Maharshi remained in silence and taught through silence.

As the poet steps out to commune with nature, even with stones, he or she incorporates ma—the artistic balance of the physical and psychological space existing between people and things. This empty space pulls us in, inviting us to connect our minds to it. Then the mind becomes space.

My selections this month are about the three S’s—Silence, Solitude and Space. The underlying silence that is the background or the substratum of any manifestation. The poems are about opening windows to that silence within us and outside of us, both visible and invisible. Join me on this journey with the Masters, and poets from India and around the world.

—Rupa Anand