SILENCE IS ALL
by Sri Aurobindo


Silence is all, say the sages.
Silence watches the work of the ages;
In the book of Silence the cosmic Scribe

has written his cosmic pages:
Silence is all, say the sages.

What then of the word, O speaker?
What then of the thought, O thinker?
Thought is the wine of the soul

and the word is the beaker;
Life is the banquet-table

as the soul1 of the sage is the drinker.

What of the wine, O mortal?
I am drunk with the wine

as I sit at Wisdom’s portal,
Waiting for the Light beyond thought

and the Word immortal.
Long I sit in vain at Wisdom’s portal.

How shalt thou know the Word when it comes, O seeker?
How shalt thou know the Light when it breaks, O witness?
I shall hear the voice of the God within me

and grow wiser and meeker;
I shall be the tree that takes in the light as its food,

I shall drink its nectar of sweetness.