We seem to be drowned in an ocean of words, and the world is deafened by the sound of useless talk. It has become so much of a habit that most often we do not even realise it, and very happily contribute to it. But whenever we are a little quiet, or are able to step back from the surface and go a little within, we feel how oppressive it is. The question arises why is it so.
The Mother was once asked by a child:
Question : Why does one always go in for useless talking? Why do we speak uselessly?
Here is the Mother’s answer as she explained it to the children:
“Why do people speak uselessly? That’s probably because man is instinctively very proud of being able to formulate words. He is the first being on earth who can speak, who emits articulate sounds. So it is like a child who has a new toy it likes to play with very much. Man is the only animal on earth who has articulate sounds at his disposal, so he plays with them, you see… I think it’s that….
Some persons can think only when they talk
And then there’s all the stupidity…. You know, I also said that some people could begin to think only when they talked…. When they do not speak, they do not even think! They are not able to think in silence, so they get into the habit of speaking.
But the more developed one is, the more intelligent one is and the less need one has to express oneself. It is always at a lower level that one needs to talk. And truly, a being who is very conscious, who is mentally, intellectually, very developed, talks only when it is necessary. He does not utter useless words.
In the social scale it is like this…. Take people right at the bottom of the scale: they talk the most, they spend their time in talking. They can’t stop! Whatever happens to them they express immediately in words. And to the extent that one is developed and on a higher level of evolution, one feels much less need to speak.
It comes from two causes: one, because it is a new faculty which naturally and instinctively has the attraction of new faculties; the other, because it helps you to become aware of your own thought. Otherwise one doesn’t think, one is not able to formulate his thought unless he expresses it in words, aloud…. Except those who are talkers by profession—that is, those who are in the habit of giving lectures or political speeches, or taking classes, giving lessons—except these people who, obviously, can be both intellectual and talkative at the same time, as a general rule, the more talkative people are, the less are they intellectually developed!
What should be done to refrain from talking?
Think! You have only to reflect a little more. If only you make it a habit to think before speaking, that saves you at least half of what you say. To think before speaking and to say only what seems absolutely indispensable to you—then you very quickly become aware that very few words are indispensable, except from the practical point of view, in work, when one is working with somebody and is obliged to use words: “Do this”, “Give me that”, or “Like this”, or “Like that”. And even so, this can be reduced to a minimum.”
The Mother
