Sri Ramana Maharshi: Teaching through Silence

Sri Ramana Maharshi is a self-realized master recognized as such in the Indian religious tradition from Tamil Nadu, South India.His presence as a spiritual teacher in the lineage of the cosmic root-Guru Dakshinamurthi is eloquent through silence (mouna, in Sanskrit; mounam, in Tamil). The highest teaching is transmitted speechlessly. This ineffable experience is described by prominent disciples and presented by Sri Ramana Maharshi himself in many of his discussions and teachings. What is the meaning and the role of speech when transmitting spiritual knowledge? How can one talk about the divine? Can language transmit spiritual states, apart from meaning, understanding, or emotion? Is language an appropriate vehicle for religious discourse? As the divine has no form, but it engenders all forms, including language, how can someone teach about the divine? In the vision of Sri Ramana Maharshi, the highest teaching is enabled by silence. Silence is the perfect, veracious, and complete language, overcoming any other particular language through subtlety, intensity, and adequacy. But how come that silence is more eloquent than particular languages? What is the relationship between knowledge and being, between fullness and contextual meaning, between first-person and second-person account? The grammar of silence as non-dual speech is rooted in the first person. It is a subject-only grammar – without objects, without a second. Relevant fragments from Talks, Padamalai, and Guru Vachaka Kovai will be brought into discussion and analysis.The conclusion will point out the (un) importance of language as a vehicle in religious discourse.