The Vice President of the
American Management Association who had his dream of writing a book from the
early age of six, had it fulfilled at the age of 55. Part of his plan was to
interview a dozen people at all levels in Sears and Company. Such adventures on
the part of writers are quite an annoyance to companies. The author prepared
various arguments as to why that interview could be granted. They were 1. Sears
will be written about in an excellent light, 2. His study will throw light on
their own strength, 3. The management will better understand their own workings
from the book, 4. It will be an opportunity for their own executives to know
the company better, and six other arguments. The author armed himself with
enough explanations for each argument and felt solid inside.
The PRO whom the author met was placid
and his own heart sank considering the $ 30 billion sales of the company. It
occurred to him that the PRO
must be meeting endless persons like him and he felt that there was justice in
the PRO's refusal, if he refused. He
derived no encouragement from the calm face of the PRO. He was in despair.
Silent will came to his
mind. He had learnt that thoughts are not our own but travel in the atmosphere.
If he did not express his own formulated thought, it would get expressed from
the other. He needed no persuasion to become silent in his mind. It was already
silent from the impossibility of the context. Those two minutes before the PRO were unbearable to him.
Yet, now that his ambition of half a century was about to be consummated, how could
he turn his back with a faint heart? Anyway, everything in him had gone
silent.
He had no courage to
persuade the PRO with any of the arguments
he had come with. Instead, his mind dwelt at length on the powers of Silent
Will, a spiritual principle, potent to accomplish for men who were pushed to
the wall. The principle here is, if the mind is made silent or it goes silent,
the Spirit awakens. When man refuses to ask, life gives him what he needs more
copiously. What one man consciously refuses to speak, is spoken by another
man to his own delightful advantage. He had known several examples of its
power. In his own experience, he had enjoyed the benefits Silent Will confers
on the practitioner.
Once he desired to engage a well-known
speaker at one of his performances. For local reasons, in his own organisation
that speaker, who was otherwise famous, fell into disrepute. So, he knew he
could not propose that name without evoking bitter resistance. He vividly
remembered how that very name was tabled by another and was accepted. But Sears
was no ordinary occasion. There was no need to practise silent will. Everything
inside him was silent.
He saw the PRO was endeavouring to speak.
He was all attention. When he heard the PRO speaking, 'Of course, after these interviews, Sears
will be written about in an excellent light', for a moment he became stone
still. They were his very words, studied over many hours. Then, he
thought, the Silent Will worked. Now something in him stirred. He was desirous
of articulating his next argument if not explaining how Sears would be written
about. No longer was there SILENCE inside. Everything was astir. It was a job for him to remind himself
anything about Silent Will. Now he heard the PRO saying, "Your study will throw light on our
strength." It was pleasant to hear, though still unbelievable. The inner
struggle grew in strength. The PRO faithfully recited all the arguments of the author
and ended up securing all the interviews he had sought. The Vice President was
able to publish his book The Vital Difference. It was a success and was translated into
French, Japanese, Danish, Spanish, and German.
Silent Will works all the
time in various ways--
1.
When
we consciously practise it.
2.
When
circumstances prevent us from speaking our thoughts;
3.
As
we wait for another to finish his speech, we see the silent will working when
he speaks out the ideas we wanted to voice later.
4.
Out
of politeness or reticence, we often refrain from speaking and then we witness
this phenomenon.
5.
Out
of pride, we decide not to ask for what is our due. There also, the other
person takes initiative to speak our thoughts.
At least
one SSI who effectively followed this method has succeeded in expanding his
company over several states in India during his own lifetime.
A Sanskrit
poet who was a disciple of Ramana Maharshi desired to write a thousand verses
on Uma – Uma Sahasram. With the Guru's blessings, he sat before him and wrote.
When he successfully finished, Maharshi, who had been sitting silently
all the time, asked him, "Have you written all that I told you?"