Silence in Ramana Maharshi’s teaching is not a mere absence of speech, but the very heart of his spiritual communication. It is presented as the highest and most direct form of instruction, superior to verbal explanations, which are regarded as a concession to those not yet able to receive the truth non-verbally. In this perspective, silence is both the mode of teaching and the content taught: it is the living expression of the Self, beyond conceptual thought. Many accounts describe how simply sitting in his presence, without words, brought clarity and peace, suggesting that this silent influence worked more powerfully than any spoken discourse.

This silence is identified with the true nature of the Self, a state of pure, thought-free awareness. It is not limited to external quiet or the suppression of mental activity, but signifies the cessation of the ego-thought and the sense of individual doership. When the identification “I am the body” subsides, what remains is an inner stillness that is described as the natural, ever-present condition of being. Such silence is thus not something newly acquired; it is the revelation of what has always been, once the noise of misidentification falls away.

Within this framework, self-inquiry functions as a disciplined return to that silence. The question “Who am I?” is employed to trace the “I”-thought back to its source, until the questioning mind itself becomes still. When this process reaches its culmination, the mind’s activity is absorbed into the silent awareness that inquiry was pointing toward from the beginning. In this way, silence is simultaneously the path—inner stilling through inquiry—and the goal, the abidance as non-dual, silent awareness.

Because ultimate reality is held to be beyond words and concepts, silence is also regarded as the only fully adequate “answer” to the deepest metaphysical questions. Speech can only gesture toward truth, while silence directly reveals it by removing the very framework of subject and object, teacher and student. In that wordless space, the non-dual nature of reality is disclosed, not as a theory but as immediate presence. Thus, in these teachings, silence is the supreme instruction, the direct manifestation of what is sought, and the atmosphere in which genuine understanding flowers.