It Came From Silence

I was standing under the covered area opposite the shrine hall at the ashram when she asked me what I did for work.

I’d seen her around, I could see she was a serious meditator but this was the first time we’d spoken. And even then, it was more of a whisper than a conversation. You’re not really supposed to talk in the ashram.

I didn’t get into detail about my past work, there wasn’t the space for that but I told her that before coming to India, I’d been planning to apply to be a police officer. And then I said I’d asked Ramana what I should do because deep down, I knew I didn’t want to go back to Australia and start down that path. It just didn’t feel right. I said I’d sat in meditation later that week, and something entirely unexpected emerged, a spark of inspiration more radical than anything I could have come up with on my own. It was like being handed a blueprint I never would have dared to imagine. Like it wasn’t mine but meant for me to receive.

A little later, someone else who had been nearby someone I know and respect came up to me. He said he’d been thinking about what I shared, and he wanted to show me something. He pointed me to Talk 190 – 13 May 1936 from Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, where Ramana responds to someone who says their actions arise effortlessly and without thought.

He told me gently that what I’d experienced didn’t come from God, it came from me.

And honestly?

I didn’t feel the need to explain myself. I wasn’t rattled. I wasn’t defensive. I could see he was just sharing what felt true for him maybe even trying to help, in his own way.

But I also knew with that quiet kind of knowing that doesn’t need to speak that he was mistaken.

I had asked Ramana. I had sat still. And what came to me didn’t feel like some ego trip or clever plan. It felt like an answer. Like a response from that same silence I had asked into.

It wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t “divinely inspired” in some dramatic way. It just felt real. Clear. Alive.

A Quiet Note on Context

I understand why my friend pointed me to Talk 190. In it, a visitor says something like, “I act without thinking. There is no effort. I have no mind.” Ramana gently but clearly points out that if someone is truly beyond ego, they wouldn’t need to declare it, the very claim suggests the ego is still speaking.

But the difference is this:

I wasn’t claiming anything.

I wasn’t saying I had no mind, or that I act from some divine authority. I had simply asked Ramana for guidance. I sat in stillness. And something clear, unexpected, and alive came through. I shared it quietly, in a moment of connection not as a teaching, not as a performance.

Where the visitor in Talk 190 was declaring a spiritual state, I was just receiving a direction. No labels. No ego.

Ramana’s words in that talk are powerful but I also know they weren’t meant for me.

It reminded me that people will always offer reflections. Some will feel kind. Some might sting.

But if you know where something came from and you’re willing to keep checking in honestly then there’s no need to defend it.

Let others speak their truth.

But don’t abandon yours to meet them there.