Date: February 19, 2024
Venue: Online
Watch recording HERE.
As part of the celebration of the 147th birthday of the Mother, AuroYajna department of Sri Aurobindo Society conducted a special session on the afternoon of February 19, 2024. They invited Dr. Beloo Mehra from BhāratShakti to share a few insights on the topic ‘Austerity of Speech’ incorporating the important insights given by the Mother on this.
Dr. Mehra began the session with a disclaimer that she would be sharing her understanding of this topic based on the Mother’s essay titled Four Austerities and Four Liberations with a full awareness that she too like everyone else present in the satsang has to sincerely work towards the kind of austerity the Mother wants us to practice. And that working on this session has been an important reminder for her, and in this spirit she wants to share a few thoughts.
Dr. Mehra summarized briefly how the austerity of speech is part of the mental austerity or Tapasya of knowledge which is discussed by the Mother. She also highlighted the deeper meaning of austerity as a means for transformation, and in that regard it is not about the complete abandonment of speech but control of speech which is we must practice.
She then went into the way the Mother defines Idle Talk and the various kinds of idle talk that we must avoid. Starting from the physical domain to the spiritual domain there is a lot of useless or unnecessary talk in which we all engage. It is important that we must become conscious of that and gradually develop greater control over this tendency.
Special emphasis was given on the kind of talk we engage in when speaking about others. Dr. Mehra highlighted the specific advice Mother gives in this regard – “In all cases and as a general rule, the less one speaks of others, even to praise them, the better” (CWM 12: 59).
Highlighting the significance of austerity of speech in intellectual domain, Dr. Mehra brought the participants’ attention to two important insights from the Mother – 1) “Every idea contains a little of the truth or one aspect of the truth. But no idea is absolutely true in itself” and 2) “Certain ideas are capable of transforming the world. They are the ones that ought to be expressed.”
Dr. Mehra then reminded the participants how the Mother cautions about idle talk on spiritual matters, which she says is most dangerous. She concluded her presentation with a brief discussion of the work we must do upon ourselves so that our speech gradually acquires the power of truth.
The presentation was appreciated by the participants. A highly engaging question and answer session followed the presentation, which facilitated a deepening of the experience for all participants. About 45 participants joined the online session.
WATCH