SILENCE

Silence is the condition of the being when it listens to the Divine.
THE MOTHER

In silence lies the greatest receptivity. And in an immobile silence the vastest action is done. Let us learn to be silent so that the Lord may make use of us.
THE MOTHER

With words one can at times understand, but only in silence one knows.
THE MOTHER

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.
SRI AUROBINDO

Silence
The ideal condition for progress.

Passiflora Incarnata X cincinnata 'Incense'
Passion flower
Striking royal purple intensely fragrant medium- sized flower composed of two rings of numerous filaments banded with white towards the rose pink centre; the three prominent styles and five anthers arise from the centre on a short staminal column; borne singly or in pairs from the leaf axils. A robust perennial vine with deeply cut three-lobed leaves.

Photo Courtesy: amy_b

Integral Silence
The source of true force.

Passiflora foetida
Running pop, Love-in-a-mist, Wild water lemon
Small delicate white flower backed by three viscid hairy green bracts and filled with numerous curled filaments; the pale green anthers and styles arise from a short staminal column; borne singly or in pairs from the leaf axils. A small perennial wayside vine with densely hairy stems and soft downy leaves that are shallowly three-lobed.

Photo Courtesy: Brewbooks

Expressive Silence

Certain silences are revealing and more expressive than words.

Linaria maroccana
Toadflax, Spurred snapdragon
Small bilabiate flowers with a short pointed spur, an erect upper lip that is shallowly divided into two rounded lobes and a lower lip that is crimped, then spreading and slightly scalloped and ruffled; in shades of blue, pink, purple and gold; borne in erect terminal racemes. A slender- stemmed annual herb with narrow linear leaves.

Photo Courtesy: Isfugl

Aspiration for Silence in the Mind
Too noisy to be effective.

Eranthemum pulchellum
Blue sage
Small sky blue salverform flower with five rounded lobes; borne on a dense variegated bracted spike. A colourful winter-flowering subshrub.

Photo Courtesy: Toptropicals

Aspiration for Silence in the Physical Mind
Does what it can, but cannot do much.

Eranthemum pulchellum
Blue sage
Small blue violet salverform flower with five rounded lobes; borne on a dense variegated bracted spike. A colourful winter-flowering subshrub.

Photo Courtesy: Toptropicals

Silence in the Vital
A powerful help for inner peace

Achimenes grandiflora
Monkey-faced pansy, Orchid pansy, Japanese pansy, Cupid's bower
Small light violet to red violet salverform flower with a curved corolla tube and a spreading limb divided into five shallow lobes; borne singly or in small clusters from the leaf axils. A rhizomatous perennial herb with pubescent leaves.

Photo Courtesy: Scott