It is in silence or quietude that we feel most firmly the Something that is behind the world shown to us by our mind and senses. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/reality-and-the-cosmic-illusion#p24</ref>
= Why is Silence Important? =
The quietude and silence which you feel and the sense of happiness in it are indeed the very basis of successful sadhana. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace#p4</ref>
I said once that, to speak usefully for ten minutes, you should remain silent for ten days. I could add that, to act usefully for one day, you should keep quiet for a year! Of course, I am not speaking of the ordinary day-to-day acts that are needed for the common external life, but of those who have or believe that they have something to do for the world. And the silence I speak of is the inner quietude that those alone have who can act without being identified with their action, merged into it and blinded and deafened by the noise and form of their own movement. (The Mother, 26 May 1929) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/26-may-1929#p30</ref>
But even before reaching this point, silence in itself is supremely useful, because in most people who have a somewhat developed and active mind, the mind is never at rest. During the day, its activity is kept under a certain control, but at night, during the sleep of the body, the control of the waking state is almost completely removed and the mind indulges in activities which are sometimes excessive and often incoherent. This creates a great stress which leads to fatigue and the diminution of the intellectual faculties. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/mental-education#p20</ref>
But for the knowledge of the Self it is necessary to have the power of a complete intellectual passivity, the power of dismissing all thought, the power of the mind to think not at all which the Gita in one passage enjoins. This is a hard saying for the occidental mind to which thought is the highest thing and which will be apt to mistake the power of the mind not to think, its complete silence for the incapacity of thought. But this power of silence is a capacity and not an incapacity, a power and not a weakness. It is a profound and pregnant stillness. Only when the mind is thus entirely still, like clear, motionless and level water, in a perfect purity and peace of the whole being and the soul transcends thought, can the Self which exceeds and originates all activities and becomings, the Silence from which all words are born, the Absolute of which all relativities are partial reflections manifest itself in the pure essence of our being. In a complete silence only is the Silence heard; in a pure peace only is its Being revealed. Therefore to us the name of That is the Silence and the Peace. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-purified-understanding#p18 </ref>
Philosophy knows nothing about peace and silence or the inner and outer vital. These things are discovered only by Yoga. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-intellect-and-yoga#p2</ref>
But Yoga is not a mental field, the consciousness which has to be established is not a mental, logical or debating consciousness—it is even laid down by Yoga that unless and until the mind is stilled, including the intellectual or logical mind, and opens itself in quietude or silence to a higher and deeper consciousness, vision and knowledge, sadhana cannot reach its goal. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/doubt-and-faith#p1</ref>
The silence of the mind does not of itself bring in the supramental consciousness; there are many states or planes or levels of consciousness between the human mind and the Supermind. The silence opens the mind and the rest of the being to greater things, sometimes to the cosmic consciousness, sometimes to the experience of the silent Self, sometimes to the presence or power of the Divine, sometimes to a higher consciousness than that of the human mind; the mind's silence is the most favourable condition for any of these things to happen. In this Yoga it is the most favourable condition (not the only one) for the Divine Power to descend first upon and then into the individual consciousness and there do its work to transform that consciousness, giving it the necessary experiences, altering all its outlook and movements, leading it from stage to stage till it is ready for the last (supramental) change. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/the-divine-force-in-work#p7 </ref>
Obviously to live in the silent Brahman, the best way is to live within where one can have the silence and resist all outward pulls. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p57</ref>
In silence lies the source of the highest inspirations. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/letters-to-a-young-sadhak-xii#p8</ref>
Silence: the ideal condition for progress. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/silence#p1</ref>
Integral silence: the source of true force. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/strength-force-and-power#p4</ref>
In silence lies the greatest devotion. (The Mother, 6 April 1972) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/6-april-1972#p1</ref>
It is in silence that the soul best expresses itself. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/silence#p22</ref>
In the silence of our heart there is always peace and joy. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/silence#p8</ref>
In a quiet silence strength is restored. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/silence#p10</ref>
In peace and silence the Eternal manifests. Let nothing trouble you and the Eternal will manifest. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/peace#p19</ref>
To take this step towards the new creation, one must learn to silence the mind and rise above into Consciousness. (The Mother, 2 April 1972) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/2-april-1972#p1</ref>
Silence in the vital: a powerful help for inner peace. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/the-vital#p26</ref>
It all depends on the quality of the silence—if it is a luminous silence, full of force and conscious concentration, it is good. If it is a tamasic and unconscious silence, it is harmful. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/10-june-1963#p3</ref>
It is out of this Silence that the Word which creates the worlds for ever proceeds; for the Word expresses that which is self-hidden in the Silence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/reality-omnipresent#p4</ref>
== Inner Silence ==
It is really an inner silence that is needed—a something silent within that looks at outer talk and action but feels it as something superficial, not as itself and is quite indifferent and untouched by it. It can bring forces to support speech and action or it can stop them by withdrawal or it can let them go on and observe without being involved or moved. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p76</ref>
This condition you had of the inner being and its silence, separated from the surface consciousness and its little restless workings, is the first liberation, the liberation of Purusha from Prakriti, and it is the fundamental experience. The day when you can keep it, you can know that the Yogic consciousness has been founded in you. This time it has increased in intensity, but it must also increase in duration. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p82></ref>
The condition you describe shows precisely the growth of this inner silence. It has to fix itself eventually as the basis of all spiritual experience and activity. It does not matter if one does not know what is going on within behind the silence. For there are two conditions in the Yoga, one in which all is silent and there is no thought, feeling or movement even though one is acting outwardly as others do—another in which a new consciousness becomes active bringing knowledge, joy, love and other spiritual feelings and inner activities, but yet at the same time there is a fundamental silence or quietude. Both are necessary in the development of the inner being. The absolutely silent state, which is one of lightness, voidness and release, prepares the other and supports it when it comes.
<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/silence#p25</ref>
Remain very quiet, open your mind and your heart to Sri Aurobindo's influence and mine, withdraw deep into an inner silence (which may be had in all circumstances), call me from the depths of this silence and you will see me standing there in the centre of your being. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/letters-to-a-young-sadhak-iii#p12</ref>
All experiences come in the silence but they do not come all pell-mell in a crowd at the beginning. The inner silence and peace have first to be established. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p79</ref>
== Fear of Silence ==
I have seen many cases in which Sri Aurobindo had given silence to somebody, had made his mind silent, and that person came back to him in a kind of despair, saying: "But I have become stupid!" For his thought was no longer excited. (Sri Aurobindo, 30 January 1957) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/30-january-1957#p19</ref>
A silence, an entry into a wide or even immense or infinite emptiness is part of the inner spiritual experience; of this silence and void the physical mind has a certain fear, the small superficially active thinking or vital mind a shrinking from it or dislike,—for it confuses the silence with mental and vital incapacity and the void with cessation or non-existence: but this silence is the silence of the spirit which is the condition of a greater knowledge, power and bliss, and this emptiness is the emptying of the cup of our natural being, a liberation of it from its turbid contents so that it may be filled with the wine of God; it is the passage not into non-existence but to a greater existence. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/the-divine-life#p16</ref>
= Effects of Silence =