Question: Does our outer silence help us to establish true inner silence?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, to some extent it does. But in outer silence we have to know if the mind is really silent. Otherwise only the body is silent while the mind is constantly moving here, there and everywhere. This is of no use. But if the body consciousness itself is not offering its capacity or light to the sound-world, then it is a great help. At that time the body that is outwardly silent becomes a kind of reflection of the inner silence, or let us say, the result of our inner silence. If you have the seed you can have the fruit and because you have the fruit there is the seed. The culmination of the seed is the fruit and the source of the fruit is the seed. The source will always be there and the movement of the source will also always be there. Otherwise the source is incomplete and the movement is incomplete — the race is incomplete.