Question: What is the relationship between music and silence?

Sri Chinmoy: Silence is the nest and music is the bird. The bird leaves the nest early in the morning and returns to the nest in the evening. Similarly, in the spiritual world, divine music comes from the inmost Soul of Silence. It is Silence that embodies real music, divine music.

Ordinary music comes from the vital, the gross physical consciousness, or from something subtle in our existence. This subtle existence need not be very high or very deep. It may only be an inch deeper than our gross physical.

But when we compare divine music and silence, we must say that silence is the all-encompassing nest. All peace, all joy and all confidence are inside that nest and from there the music bird comes out and flies all over the world. While flying in the firmament, it offers delight to the lovers of music as well as to the universal Consciousness. The universal Consciousness is fed constantly by the immortal, divine and supreme Music of the Absolute.