Within each of us is silence.
Some of us are unaware of it, some are afraid of it.
Still, others are in search of it for life and call it God.

We all emerged from the same inner Source. At a certain moment in our lives, we become conscious of an aspiration to know that Source and to become one with It—or, in other words, to be illumined. The way is the silence of meditation. In meditation, the Source speaks through silence. We listen to the silence, we grow into silence, we become silence. Silence and our inmost being are one. Meditation is not a goal nor the highest state of consciousness; it is a path of self-discovery.

“If mankind only caught a glimpse of what infinite enjoyments, what perfect forces, what luminous reaches of spontaneous knowledge, what wide calms of our being lie waiting for us in the tracts which our animal evolution has not yet conquered, they would leave all and never rest till they had gained these treasures. But the way is narrow, the doors are hard to force, and fear, distrust and scepticism are there, sentinels of Nature, to forbid the turning away of our feet from her ordinary pastures.” —Sri Aurobindo

Silence is not a mental state of consciousness. It is a mystical experience of unimaginable peace, vast space and light beyond the mind – and nothing is more breathtaking than that. I would leave meditation undefined, for otherwise we spoil the mystery and fragrance of the word. The ancient scriptures of India say, ‘It is far and it is near; it is within and it is without, it moves and it moves not…’ and ‘Lead me from the unreal to the Real; lead me from darkness to Light; lead me from death to Immortality’. Once experienced, it is never forgotten.

Vedaham etam purusham mahantam adityavarunam tamasah parastat

“I have known this Being, effulgent as the sun,
Beyond the boundaries of tenebrous gloom.”
—Shwetashwatara Upanishad, 3.8

“The aim of life is to become conscious of the Supreme Reality. 
The aim of life is to be the conscious expression of the Supreme Being.” 
—Sri Chinmoy

…and take care of the Creation, which is the Creator’s body. For this we need to commit ourselves to a lifetime of selfless service in the way our soul wants.

“The stillness of the inner Divinity
Has the power
To challenge and conquer
The pride of time.”
—Sri Chinmoy (5,107.)