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023 and 024. Silent Will

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



story | by Dr. Radut