Siva Is Silence

Today while walking along the Path of the Saiva Satgurus we came across a bird sitting on the black granite murti of Satguru Yogaswami. It reminded us of a story he told that one day "I was in meditation under the Illupai tree and a bird came and sat on my head." The unspoken implication is that he was seated so unmovingly, drawn so far within, that the bird did not take him to be human, so rested on his head."

Silence, Summa Iru, was a major teaching of the Lion of Lanka. Yogaswami taught it often, urging seekers to quiet the mind more and more perfectly, a meditative exercise that proved a life-long sadhana for many.

When he established the upstairs meditation hall in the Sivathondu Nilayam, in the late 1930s, he had a sign installed with three short sentences that summarized his requirements for all those climbing the steps to the room. "All words are in silence. All doing is in silence. Everything is perfect within silence." He would nnot allow a single word to be uttered in that space.

Read more of this story by following this link to The Guru Chronicles chapter on Yogaswami. Click Here.

ChatGPT imagines the moment.

Today, August 22, a bird sits atop a meditating Yogaswami.

Yogaswami is unmoved by the intruder.

}

];