15 Nov 2011 - QA 1

Jai Gurudev Guruji. What is moun and how to follow it? What are things that we should avoid during moun?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Moun means silence. You are mixing English and Hindi.
How to be in silence? First, by not talking and second is antar moun, quieting the mind.
For that when you sit in an advanced course a number dharanas or pratyahara are given. A number of techniques are given to quite the mind.
In silence it is better to look at the creation. Look at the trees and birds and less at peoples’ faces. You look at peoples’ faces and you feel like talking, expressing or doing something. If you observe the creation it brings quietness to your mind. Nature can evoke thoughts inside you. It can bring out some poems, some poetry, or some new ideas but only human beings evoke more thoughts in you.
This mind constantly is on the run, to quite that down doing pranayama, observing nature, being conscious of every step you take, eating less food and drinking plenty of water, all of this will work. Some good sleep and satsang music too is good.