Two contrasting incidents of Silence come to me. They are from two different concepts in life. They also represent different explanations to the title of this Blog.
The first, is the older story. The silence of Bhishma , also known as Pitamaha, Gangaputra and Devavrata, someone who was present during the entire Mahabharat, even before the protagonists were born. He was greatly respected by everyone. Now, Bhishma had a long history of keeping quiet on many occasions. His silence , during the disrobing of Draupadi by the Kaurava prince Duhshasana, is what I am going to concentrate on.
Even Draupadi questioned his silence and cursed him for it. Now, even to a peripheral viewer like me, Bhishma was no coward . Then why the silence? How could this man, who had sacrificed so much and had seen so much, stay silent in the face of what happened in front of him? While I understand that the reasons behind the silence are many and different writers give different reasons, one of the most common is his anguish when he states that, he had no option but to remain silent as his blood was polluted by eating the food given by Duryodhana. He states, at the end, that you should be careful of whom you are obliged to.
Of course, there are many other explanations but what is important is that The Silence of Bhishma left such an imprint on everyone. No one wondered why other elders kept quiet, no one was surprised at the insults of Karna when the incident happened. However, The Silence of Bhishma spoke a great deal more than anything else.
Being silent is so difficult. It haunted Bhishma but Dharma is subtle and his Dharma on this occasion was to stay silent due to his obligation to Duryodhana. To keep silent on this occasion is not something that spoke well of Bhishma. Most laymen would say that Bhishma should have acted and then this whole episode may have not happened. Was his silence misplaced, in this case?
Now we come to the other Great Silence – The Silence of Christ. I speak about the time after Jesus was betrayed by Judas and was questioned by Pontius Pilate and the Jewish Priests. He was mocked, spat at, physically assaulted and yet stayed Silent. He refused to defend himself or seek protection against his enemies by asking his Father in Heaven to save him.
Here again, we are not going into spiritual matters but looking at the strength that he showed by keeping silent in front of the crowds, the Romans and the spiteful Jews, his very own people. Wouldn’t it have been easier for him to have replied and justified his actions? What did he do wrong to deserve this kind of treatment?
In our normal lives we are often placed in situations of both Bhishma and Christ. Bhishma, when our parents, guardians , children ,siblings or maybe even friends do things that we do not accept but we have no option but to keep quiet due to our inability to go against these people who have helped us or of whom we are obliged. Our obligation stops us from speaking up. I have seen this often. I also believe that we are often quiet because we do not want to wash our dirty linen in public.
I often cannot keep quiet in the face of allegations but I find that silence works better. At that moment your silence may seem like acceptance of guilt – a common Indian saying is “Silence is assumed as acceptance “, but trust me, it is a sign of strength that you are able to keep quiet.
Then when we get into situations like Christ, where we do not want someone weaker to be hurt and we take the blame upon ourselves by staying silent to charges that are laid out against us. In the school I studied in, we were often bullied by our seniors. Often the physical signs were left on our faces but we explained it away and did not ‘rat out’ on the perpetrator. As a child to keep quiet shows tremendous character.
Opposing injustice through actions is often what we believe we should do but if we can do it without violence and without revenge on our minds, we get a result that lasts longer. When we win, instead of shouting or screaming, if we just smile and move ahead and shake the hands of the loser or commiserate with the defeated, we feel much better deep inside.
If we help someone and keep quiet about it, we do a lot better as anonymously helping others gives you more personal happiness. After we have witnessed something wrong done by someone we love or are obliged to, we may keep silent at that moment, but we need to have the courage to speak to the person in private and tell the antagonist that what he/ she did was not right.
People often admire others when they call them The Strong and Silent Type. Your actions often speak louder than words. Most often History treats people better than the present does. Do we have the ability to walk away and do the right thing by staying silent or not reacting? If we have that, I feel we have a strength that many do not have. It is a very valuable strength.
Would Christianity have been better received if we had an argumentative Christ or what we read he actually did?
Silence is very difficult. It takes a lot out of us to stay silent. We all view matters differently on so many subjects and this is one subject that I ask you to ponder on. Is Silence cowardly or is it a great strength?
So please do comment on the comments section. I really want to hear from you.
20
20
20
20