Inner Realm: Mouna vratha, spirit and science

Mauna vratha is a daily period of silence in yoga, which can extend to days. It fosters self-discipline, self-regulation, and self-realization, and is a tool for mental and physical health. It provides an opportunity to observe the activity of the mind, and from deep within the stillness and silence, a perceptive awareness arises. Mauna vratha is also a great healer and purifier, and not speaking ill of others is an important vow. Positive psychology and mental health now emphasize the importance of mauna vratha as a tool for treatment and growth.

The Sanskrit word “mouna” loosely translates to “silence”. Mouna vratha, in yoga, then is a daily period where one does not speak. With some yogis, the period may extend up to days altogether.

A very important aspect of mouna vratha is self-control. (Shutterstock)

In Hatha yoga, postures and diet provide us physical fitness, pranayama or breath control provides a balance in energy and together they foster the third stage or pratyahara; the withdrawal of the senses.

This is where mauna vratha holds significance. Scriptures say that mauna begins as not-speaking and progresses to “stillness” inside. Thus, giving us an opportunity to observe the activity of the mind. When we simply observe our thoughts and how they activate our emotions and drive our behaviour without getting involved, eventually the ego mind settles a bit and something else very precious arises. From deep within the stillness and the silence, there arises a perceptive awareness; where the super-conscious reveals the very nature of life, of all being alive and connected.

Mauna Vratha is thus a very important path to our inner voyage, our journey to self-realisation.

Modern research is using mouna vratha as a technique of self-regulation in counselling and psychotherapy. Helping patients and normal people to explore their inner-selves in the realm of silence. Even though, William James, the father of modern psychology had explained a lot about human self, it was only around 1990 that researchers began to focus on Mauna as an important key to inward insight.

A very important aspect of mouna vratha is self-control. We become masters of our urge to speak. Speaking is in many ways a reward to oneself, a continuous expression and communication to the outside world.

Mauna pauses that cycle and allows the inner journey to begin.

Roy Baumeister, a researcher, says that self-control is powerful and well-supported as a cause of personal success. Mischel et al found in their study that children who were able to delay gratification as early as early as four years were successful in their work and social lives.

In Hinduism, self-realisation is possible only when the mind is in control. Bhagavat Gita affirms that pleasure from senses is like a nectar, but it can be poison without control. The Bible says that a person without self-control is like a city with broken walls. The month of Ramzan is a month of fasting where one refrains from eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset. This helps not only in gaining self- control but also resilience.

Mauna vratha, for its part, fosters self-discipline. The real import of mauna is the silence of the mind, which otherwise keeps ruminating by thinking too much about the past or the future.

Another form of mauna vratha is not just to be quiet, but also not to speak ill of others, even after the vratha ends. This is a very important vow as science has conclusively established that ill talk instantly alters the cellular mechanism and indeed the neural network.

Thus, Maun Vratha is a great healer and purifier.

Both positive psychology and the psychology of mental health now emphasise on the importance of Mauna Vratha as a tool for treatment and growth.

Research shows that practising Mouna Vratha once a fortnight, for a few hours helps in better mental and physical health.

It is through Mouna and a state of deep surrender within that we can begin to know what our ears and senses cannot perceive. Mauna is deep listening, an experience of surrender inside. Merging with the eternal symphony.

In his poem, Khalil Gibran says

“You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;

And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.

And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.”

For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.”

(The writer is the former principal chief commissioner, Income Tax.The views expressed are personal.)