Enlightenment - Reaching Silence On The Way

Atma Kriya Insitute of Swami Vishwananda and Mahavatar Babaji: (Teaches A Way To The Silence - Enlightenment)
Mahavatar Babaji and Swami Vishwananda speak about the importance of silence as it pertains to enlightenment:

Mahavatar Babaji:
Dear Internet Friend, as to your comment/questions asking about silence as it is applicable to self-realization/enlightenment, do you know that the adage, “Silence is Golden,” comes to you in contemporary times from days long ago as recorded by a monk in a monastery in ancient Greece? In modern time the phrase generally means to say nothing, to keep silent. The Himalayan sages align with the same meaning as the monk who originated the phrase in his writings from long ago.

This is my translation from Greek to English--Babaji:
“Oh, we long to walk the silent way to God and his heavenly abode,
Where wind and rain and sun and sky merge into One along our way.
And when the day and night converge at dawn into eternal life, Amen.
The weary traveler will be home at last, having journeyed along that
Ancient Path of...Silence Is Golden...within the heart and Soul of man.
For therein rests access to the Kingdom of God, the Master Key to
Eternal life to be forever spent with Him. Amen.”

Comment placed on VBV Blog pertaining to the VBV Blog post of October 2, 2009 wherein Swami Vishwananda spoke of “Silence – The Way to Spiritual Advancement”: Dear Babaji, Dear Guruji, is this meant with the words of the Bible: "in God - with God - through God"? Is Silence in Love the road - to hear Him - to see Him - to understand Him and with His Grace - to come home in light with self realization (and the end of all our incarnations on mother earth)? Is this right and in case it is so? Is this the same like self realization? Is this also the same as enlightened?

Swami Vishwananda spoke to you in the entry on this blog from which your questions about silence arise: “That’s what Christ said, “It’s not what goes inside the person that makes a person polluted, but what comes out of the person.” The Gita says: “A controlled mind is your best friend; an uncontrolled mind is your worst enemy.” Like I said, ‘The way we think is the way we are.’ . . . First we have to control our thoughts. Prayer and remembering the Divine continuously helps us to control our mind and helps us to bring calmness and silence into the thoughts which are always running. Through silence the thoughts will disappear. When your thoughts are negative and you let them out, all around you becomes negative; there will be nothing positive. But if you control thoughts through prayer and through silence inside, the thoughts will dissolve.”

Babaji Continues: To the Questioner: Your thinking along these lines is on the right path. You ask: - . . . to come home in light with self-realization… Is this the same like self- realization? We respond: Reaching silence within the mind leads you to the heart and soul of you, of God. Master Christ Jesus taught: The Kingdom of God is within!

So, true silence is much more than not speaking; do you see? It is to this deeper sadhana and practice of silence that we wish to guide you. When you more and more allow thoughts to pass through your mind like wind blowing through willow tree branches, without lighting upon or clutching onto any branch as a bird might do, you will begin to discover this pervading silence of which the Greek monk is speaking about. It is the silence of the void from whence all manifested life springs forth in your terms. You have that silence, that Kingdom of God within you. But first, you must still your mind through silencing your thoughts. For what causeth a man to lament his demise from this plane, but fear of annihilation upon death’s door. Arise, Oh man of Earth, and walk in your own true light of Divinity’s door. -Babaji

Utpalavati: A reader of this Blog after reading the comment/question addressed herein kindly translated a talk from German to English for us wherein Swami Vishwananda speaks of enlightenment/self-realization and the year 2012. Since the comment/questions asked about enlightenment as well as silence, we are including Guruji’s talk our reader translated and emailed us. Thank you!

Swami Vishwananda often is asked about the year 2012. People want Him to reveal if such prophecies as the world will end at that time will actually happen. Another prophecy for 2012 is that all humans are going to be enlightened at that time.

Recent Swami Vishwananda Talk about Self-Realization / Enlightenment:"Yes, it is true that in 2012 there will be happy people and enlightened people. The world will come to an end as every day, in a way, the world comes to an end. And there will be Olympic Games also in 2012.

Enlightenment cannot be reached or accomplished so easily. You really must do something in order to achieve it.

I am happy to learn that so many people have made it their goal to achieve God realization by the year 2012. Your determination will make it come true. But it does not happen just by your sitting and waiting till 2012. No, you must do something for it. You must be determined to get it. Today you have shown your determination by accepting and mastering the long trip to Springen. You decided to attend the Darshan and have come. The same is true if you have made up your mind to realize God, to become enlightened and achieve and get self-realization. The time is now to work for this decision and the proper time to work on it and to make it happen. You are expected to work on it now. Don´t wait till 2012, and don´t think that God in His Love will give you self-realization just like that.Everything that we get from God is given when the time for it has come and we are able to handle the gift properly. There will be no self-realization until you know how to handle it.

Don´t put on a label or signboard that says, “I am self-realized; it doesn´t work like that. Self-realization means great responsibility, and you first have to undergo certain purification in order to get it. And of course, the world will end as all negative qualities that are inherent in this person also come to an end. That will be the end. But they [the negative qualities] will end little by little and we must do something, in order to really make them come to an end. We must accept the path.

Spirituality works in an individual way. We cannot look at other people and compare ourselves with them, but we have to look at ourselves. Spirituality takes its own way. Whether 2012 or later, the decision depends on each person individually, as everyone has his or her individual spiritual path. In a figurative sense, metaphorically speaking, in case I eat something it doesn´t mean that the stomach of the other person gets filled. Krishna did this and for Divine Personalities this is possible. Christ also did this. In the Bible He said:" I will send my spirit upon you." And at Pentecost he sent the Spirit of God upon His Apostles.

A Master can make it happen and can give you enlightenment just like that; but this depends on the grace of the Master.