History Religion

Silence Is Golden: Exploring The Tradition And Benefits Of Maun Vrat

Explore the worldwide belief in the power of silence, and  its benefits to mental and emotional health.

While the practice of ‘vow of silence’, or ‘maun vrat’ is often related to saints and monks, it has been a pretty common practice in the Indian society. Old saints and religious figures understood the value silence in a life which is saturated with speech. They understood the power that can be gained from learning how to monitor ones speech. This doesn’t necessarily require long duration of months and years, or even weeks. In modern times, people have realized the tremendous benefits out of embracing silence for as long as a day or a weekend. Let’s explore some of the benefits which can be gained in a short duration of maun:

 

Control over thoughts and speech: By not allowing thoughts to convert into words, and word into sounds, we can over time learn to exercise better control over our thought processes and in turn, speech. When our thoughts don’t find a release, the mind automatically reduces its mindless chatter and only allows important and valuable thoughts to enter our minds.

Introspection and Inner-peace: The conscious choice to not allow our thoughts be expressed outwardly for a fixed duration of time helps us monitor its contents and delve deeper into the workings of our own mind and filter through them, helping us work towards attaining inner-peace.

Emotional (Anger) Management: A lot of us are familiar with the overwhelming emotions, especially the negative ones, overtaking our mind and behavior. Anger is one such emotion which many individuals find hard to gain control over. Through maun vrat, as one declines reacting to emotional impulses, good or bad, they learn to analyse the origins of them. Understanding one’s emotions better and refraining from action or speech under their influence can help many manage their emotions better.

Energy Conservation: The introverts might understand this the best. Communication can be taxing and we do spend a lot of energy in our daily lives just communicating our thoughts and ideas to people. By allowing oneself to remain silent and not engage in intrapersonal communication we give ourselves the time to replenish and rejuvenate.

Enhanced Creativity: Creativity flows through silences and emptiness. It is in the nature of creativity to fill in empty spaces and bring about change. It is when our minds are at their calmest that our creativity soars. By attaining a moun vrat, we provide our creative side the room it needs to expand to its fullest potential.

Refined Personality: Silence has been considered an art and one who understands its usage is respected in all walks of life. This is because silence grounds us and helps us attain a more calm and centered personality. Maun vrat can prove to be a helpful tool.

Silence is indeed golden and the benefits from its practice are a lot more than the ones listed above. Try it for yourself, you never know what you’ll find as you explore the sounds of silence.