Tuesday September 16th, 2025

The Teaching and Message of “Loud and Noisy”

“…the way the world is, is nothing but the goddess herself; and behind it, the one body of Atman, Brahman always exists; and in order to enjoy herself with that immovable Atman, or Brahman, the goddess is disporting herself, manifesting herself in the forms of this world and in all things.”
—Shri Mahayogi,  From Pranavadipa Vol. 129. Testimony: “1 – What is Tantra?”

How Loud and Noisy!
The weekly gathering in the home of one of the gurubai begins with a one-hour meditation. We gather around the very spot where Shri Mahayogi took a seat on a number of occasions and gave Satsangha.

I look forward to that time of quietude each week, and the serene touch of Shri Mahayogi that seems to rekindle there again and again. And one particular week was no different, especially after what seemed like a rather busy period of time where daily life matters that needed to be dealt with just kept coming one after another and it seemed hard to make space and quietness in my mind, which was getting tensed up.

As the gurubai arrived, and the time to begin approached, the small gathering of neighbors in the backyard, just below where we were gathering on the second floor, seemed to also have more people arriving, and that small gathering was quickly growing into a party. As the time for meditation began, so too did the festive party music…and its volume was increasing!

I thought to myself, surely this is a difficult atmosphere to gather the mind for concentration and meditation, as if we are all sitting right in the middle of the party itself. But how fitting that I had been wanting to step away from the “loud and noisy” characteristic that daily life seemed to have as of late, but now the “loud and noisy” has followed me in the form of this party! Whether the reflection appears in the internal environment, or in our external environment, just as Shri Mahayogi always teaches, the mind follows no matter how we go from place to place, and no matter how much we wish for things to be one way or another, there is nothing that can be done to control the things or the people around us, the only thing we can do is work to transform our own mind itself.

How Perfect is This?!
In that moment, I suppose there were two paths for the mind to take. On one path, there would be the struggle of the mind to pull away from the loud environment, and the frustration or annoyance of these loud, unsuitable circumstances. And on the other path, there would be the full embrace of this circumstance, and the giving up of what my mind thinks of as suitable or not, or what I need or don’t need. But, I didn’t really think about any of that, and rather what dawned in my mind was a thought of amazement, “How perfect is this?!!”

It is as if Shri Mahayogi himself is superbly orchestrating a perfect moment for us to try to plunge into the meaning of the teachings most recently introduced in Pranavadipa (Vol. 129)!

“…and in order to enjoy herself with that immovable Atman, or Brahman, the goddess is disporting herself, manifesting herself in the forms of this world and in all things.”

These were the words of Shri Mahayogi that stood up and took the center stage of my mind. The goddess unrestrainedly manifesting into all things to enjoy that immovable Brahman—this noise itself must be the clue, the goddess Shakti taking us by the hand and showing us the way to Lord Shiva, and certainly, behind the noise and activity of the party, the immovable Brahman must be there—expansive silence and stillness without bounds.

How can I come to grasp, to sense and to feel this “loud and noisy” as the playful nature of the goddess, the immovable ever-present Brahman that reverberates in every sound and movement of that surface, and the joy inherent in that stark juxtaposition? This is the moment for trying to dive into that. This opportunity is given, and it is not just about this moment, or the next one hour, but this is symbolic of all the surface activity of daily life where it is so easy to get caught up, and a shift I need to make, is it not?!

While trying to throw myself in that direction, at the same time, there was an incident of Swami Vivekananda that also came to mind, as if to overlap with this moment. When Swami Vivekananda was learning under his Guru, Shri Ramakrishna, he complained one day to his Master that he couldn’t concentrate during his morning meditation due to a shrill noise of a whistle coming from a nearby mill. Shri Ramakrishna instructed him to concentrate on the very noise itself, and it is said that by doing so, he soon overcame the distraction.

Is this too a clue?

This anecdote, well, there is barely half of a sentence written about it in the biography of Vivekananda.[1] Perhaps it came to mind in this very appropriate moment because, in a way, when I was reading the biography most recently, I was wanting to know what Vivekananda’s meditation was like, what kind of mind he had as he approached meditation, what his concentration was like, and how he took his Master’s words.

Shri Mahayogi teaches that when it comes to the lives of saints, and this certainly includes the lives of the disciples of Shri Ramakrishna, there is much we can learn from the anecdotes that remain about their lives before the point of attaining realization or accomplishing some great works, for these are the times when their states are more like ours, in the process of learning. In the struggles that they faced, what they felt, how they thought, the guidance they received, that’s where there are many clues for us to pick up and use on our own journey.

Vivekananda was disturbed by a noise—just like us who are surely disturbed by a whole variety of “noises” that overtake our concentration, not only when we sit for meditation, but in the many things we do in our everyday lives. Why did Shri Ramakrishna instruct him to concentrate on the noise itself? He could have told him to meditate at a different time of day or in a different place. But he didn’t. Does concentrating on the noise itself then mean just literally that? Or, what is the reason behind why Shri Ramakrishna gave this instruction? If we look at the symbolic aspect of it, there may be much more to it than that. So, what is it, what’s the secret behind it?

Perhaps it really is as simple as it sounds, but, it’s a curious thing, because, thinking about Shri Ramakrishna, he worshipped the Divine Mother in the form of the goddess Kali, and he guided Vivekananda in this way too. Is there some hint here too about that very relationship between the disporting goddess and the immovable Brahman that Shri Mahayogi mentioned?

The time for meditation passed quickly, and I remain thinking about the message, about what Shri Mahayogi is trying to help me see and understand through these circumstances that were truly perfect—this hint that transforms the seemingly opposite surface of daily matters into a gate that opens to the underlying Brahman.

– Sadhya

[1] Vivekananda: A Biography. “In the Company of the Master.”

 

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