Ramana Maharshi says, “Silence of the mind is higher than the silence of the eye and the ear,” because even if the eye and the ear are not compulsive about sucking in sensual inputs, still something will reach the mind. A silent mind is the one that is not under any internal pressure, any internal compulsion to react to what comes to it. Stuff has come; the mind says, “Alright, you have come. I am inert towards you. I am non-reactive!” “Real silence is silence of the mind.”
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“Silence is of four kinds: silence of speech, silence of the eye, silence of the ear, and silence of the mind. Only the last is pure silence and is the most important.”
~ Shri Ramana Maharshi
Questioner: Acharya Ji, What is silence of the ear?
Acharya Prashant: Silence of the ear just means that the ear is not too eager to hear, that the ear does not start hearing its own echoes.
All the silences that the Maharshi is talking of come under one classical term; that is ‘uparati.’ ‘Rati’ means an attraction, a greed, a reaching out, an association with the external.
