Happy moments are usually associated with celebrations, laughter, being with friends and family, acknowledging a milestone in life etc.
My recent happiness quest however was a little different – “Can I find happiness while being silent?”
The 10th of July every year is acknowledged as “Silence Day” at Meherabad which is where I was last weekend to experience and observe what it means to be silent for 24 hours.
Avatar Meher Baba observed silence for 44 years until he passed away – this year was the ninety second anniversary of when he started his silence.
In order to make the quest interesting and a little challenging, I decided to maintain radio, audio, reading and internet silence in addition to mandatory ‘vocal’ silence and simply observe and experience the day.
Long walks were in and during those moments, I feasted visually on nature pretty much like the butterflies I saw or the sound of the wind rustling through the trees and the various types of birds with their brilliant acoustics – all this made me very happy.
I meditated in short and long bursts as I wandered around and this gave me moments of inner bliss, peace and happiness. Reflecting upon fond memories brought back several small moments of joy.
I watched others struggle to communicate in gestures and had lots of fun watching them as people used hands, legs, eyes, cell phone keyboards, post its and notepads to get messages across to each other !
Moments of serious contemplation about larger issues of life also happened as I wandered through without a specific agenda – thoughts came more naturally and brought in some great insights and small breakthroughs which made me very happy.
During meals, I gave full attention to the food in a hall full of silent strangers and I found I was able to bond better with the food and relish it more instead of eating through a conversation.
There was also unique experience of being with wonderful friends and strangers and connecting with them without saying a word or a dialogue or an argument during the entire day.
As I sat and watched a beautiful sunset sitting under a tree with a friend, the wind whistling around and clouds and sun displaying different colors, pictures and hues, it was a blissful grand finale while remembering Baba.
Well, that was my twenty four hour experience on finding ‘flow’ of happiness through several silent moments – truly an unforgettable experience thanks to abundant love of the Ancient One….