WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

Control of Speech
7 April 1954

This talk is based upon Mother's essay "The Four Austerities and the Four Liberations", Part II.

"When a thought is expressed in speech, the vibration of the sound has a considerable power to bring the most material substance into contact with the thought, thus giving it a concrete and effective reality. That is why one must never speak ill of people or things or say things which go against the progress of the divine realisation in the world. This is an absolute general rule. And yet it has one exception. You should not criticise anything unless at the same time you have the conscious power and active will to dissolve or transform the movements or things you criticise. For this conscious power and active will have the capacity of infusing Matter with the possibility to react and refuse the bad vibration and ultimately to correct it so that it becomes impossible for it to go on expressing itself on the physical plane.

This can be done without risk or danger only by one who moves in the gnostic realms and possesses in his mental faculties the light of the spirit and the power of the truth."

What is the "the gnostic realm"?

It is just another way of speaking about the Supermind. Gnostic--it means Knowledge, but the true knowledge. It is the knowledge aspect of the supramental realms.

"... cultivate the habit of not externalising yourself constantly by speaking aloud, and you will notice that little by little an inner understanding is established between yourself and others; you will then be able to communicate among yourselves with a minimum of words or even without any words at all."

Can an inner understanding be established in every instance between two people, even in material things?

Um!... And so? What do you want to know?

Whether this inner understanding can be established.

Yes, words serve merely as a means of communication between one mind and another. That is their only justification. But if the mind is clear and powerful enough to communicate without using words, it communicates much better, much more clearly and precisely and much more exactly. And then words are not needed.

Even in altogether material things?

Yes, one may try an experiment. For instance, when two people have attuned their minds, if one thinks, "Why, that object ought to be here instead of being there", the other goes quite naturally looking for the object and puts it in its place. He understands quite clearly, he doesn't need to be told. Or else one thinks,"It is time to go out", or else, "I need such and such a thing", the other will understand perfectly well and does not need to be told. Before reaching so far, something happens very frequently--I am speaking of those who exercise a control over themselves and are conscious, people living together--one answers a question that the other has not pronounced. He had it in his mind, and the other answers: "Why, yes, that's how it is; no, that was not done." The other person has not asked but he has heard, has understood, received the message. That happens often, doesn't it? And then, even in things where it is necessary to pronounce words, well, instead of saying ten you may say one, and it is sufficient, the rest is understood, known. And this direct communication is an experience which may be had very easily. If you speak with a new person and don't have a sufficient mental contact with him, he will use words which you are accustomed to use in a particular sense and you won't understand him at all, it is as though you did not speak the same language. After a while, if you meet several times and are attuned mentally, you begin to understand each other.

Indeed, words serve only as a vehicle for something that is beyond words and can be expressed without words for those who have a sufficiently developed and precise instrument. When one is truly in the realm of thought, words diminish the meaning. They reduce it, make it narrow, limited, they take away its power. Thought which is projected directly is much more powerful than that expressed through words. Words reduce, limit, harden, take away the suppleness and true strength--the life. It is simply because men's apparatus is ill-adjusted that we can't have telegraphy without words. If the sets were very well tuned in, one would not have to say even ten words in the whole day, and yet be understood all the while.