'Bhagavan says that to be still means to be ever active, and that to be silent means to be ever speaking. I don't understand how this can be so.'

'Is that so?' answered Bhagavan. 'Can you see that "I am"?'

'Yes, I can see,' I said.

'How do you see?' asked Bhagavan

I confessed that I do not know how it was seen.

Bhagavan gave me an explanation: 'Just like that, "to be still" means "to be ever working". Working does not mean working with a hoe in one's hand. Working means to shine always as "That" [the Self]. Only silence is ever speaking. Moreover, both are the same. This is just what the great sages have expressed as, "I am remembering without forgetting," "I am worshipping without becoming separate," "I am thinking without thinking," "I am telling without telling," "I am listening without listening," and so on. If you don't speak, God will come and speak. The greatest scripture is the silent exposition. Only if you read this scripture will all doubts cease. Otherwise, even if you read crores of books countless times, doubts will never cease'.

Bhagavan once gave a similar answer to a devotee who began by complaining, 'I do not know where this "I" is.'

Bhagavan answered him by saying, 'Be where the "I" is'.

The following day the same man told Bhagavan, 'I do not know whether to go back to my village and do my work or just keep quiet'.

Bhagavan said, 'Eating, bathing, going to the toilet, talking, thinking, and many other activities related to the body are all work. How is it that the performance of one particular act is alone work? To be still is to be always engaged in work. To be silent is to be always talking'