The Silence After the Word

Sit before your home altar or in any quiet corner. Slowly chant a few lines you already love, a verse from a stotram, a line from a bhajan, a single sacred name spoken aloud. Then stop, and sit absolutely still. Do not start the next line. Listen to the silence the words have left behind in the room. That silence is not empty. It is shaped by the words that just rested there, the way a pillow keeps the shape of a head. Stay with that warm, sounded silence.