The Hidden Cost of Constant Noise Nobody Talks About...

 

The Hidden Cost of Constant Noise Nobody Talks About...

It is written somewhere that we need to find God, but we cannot find God in noise and restlessness. I feel this is so true in today's world. We have so many distractions in our lives that sitting quietly, praying to God or meditating with complete focus has almost become unimaginable. With social media and smartphones constantly around us, even focusing on our prayers for a few minutes can become difficult. Earlier, saints and gurus would literally move away from the real world and meditate deeply in their search for God. It used to take years for them to pray, meditate and connect with God. Today, we do not even have a few seconds to spare. Life has become so fast-paced that we sometimes get completely lost in our daily routine. Where do we think of God in all this? I have seen many people who are at home and spend time praying, but their minds are still moving around household responsibilities and day-to-day worries. The noise of our busy lives does not allow us to connect with God or even with our own inner self.

Recently, we had two highly qualified professionals who had been experiencing hearing difficulties for many years. One of them, a doctor, told us that one of his ears would sometimes have discharge. He would take medicines, feel better and move on with his life. He was advised to undergo an operation, but he kept postponing it because he felt he was not getting the time. Two or three years passed, and now his difficulties have increased and he feels that he needs to pay attention to the problem. Many times, if we do not act when action is required, the chaos of our lives makes us pay a much higher price later. We keep postponing our health, our relationships and even our own needs because we feel there is no time. But timely treatment and timely action can help us live a healthier and happier life.

We deal every day with people with hearing loss and with those for whom medicines or surgery cannot restore hearing. In such cases, we recommend hearing aids. The purpose of a hearing aid is not simply to make sound louder. It should help a person hear conversational speech better in a noisy environment, during group conversations or even when people are speaking from a distance. Many times, people tell us that they still do not hear well even though their hearing aids are good and appropriate for their hearing loss. Sometimes, the reason is also the difficult situation at home. There are people who consciously or unconsciously choose not to hear certain unwanted conversations because they feel that listening to them disturbs their mental peace. But when we start choosing not to hear, slowly we also reduce our connection with our family and society. Hearing is not only about the ears, it is also about communication, relationships and being connected with the people around us.

Today's generation is moving in a direction where many people feel they cannot live without noise. Parties with loud music, constantly listening to something through headphones, doing activities online and being connected to our phones throughout the day have made silence almost uncomfortable for us. Excessive exposure to loud sound can affect our hearing over time. The World Health Organization says that more than one billion young people aged 12–35 are at risk of hearing loss due to recreational exposure to loud sound.  A 2022 study also estimated that between 0.67 and 1.35 billion young people could be at risk from unsafe listening practices such as personal listening devices and loud entertainment venues.  This is the medical point of view, but if we look at it beyond hearing, another question comes to my mind: with so much noise around us all the time, what is happening to our inner peace? How many people will develop stress, restlessness and mental health difficulties over the years because their minds never get an opportunity to become quiet? We may not have the answer today, but it is something we should seriously think about.

When we talk about noise, I am not talking only about the sound that reaches our ears. There is also the noise of competition, comparison, jealousy, self-interest, the selfie world, taking shortcuts in everything we do, earning fast money and wanting fast fame. Everything has reached such an extreme level that there seems to be no space left for the human soul to remain peaceful. Even when people try to bring a change or spread peace, the flow of society is such that they are often not noticed. Today, people notice glamour, crime, controversy and human suffering very quickly. We are constantly consuming such content through television, social media and our smartphones. We do not even realise how we are slowly flowing into it with our subconscious mind. We need to ask ourselves whether all this noise is actually taking us towards a better life or simply taking away our ability to think, feel and remain peaceful.

Our mythology tells us about Lord Krishna, who, although he was surrounded by challenges throughout his life, remained calm and centred. There were people who wanted to kill him, there were calamities around him, and later he became an important part of the Mahabharata war. Yet his calmness, the melody of his flute, his innocent smile and his kindness brought smiles to so many faces. His presence itself made people feel connected and gave them strength. I often look at the word KRISHNA as a beautiful reminder of the qualities we need in our own lives — K – Knowledge, R – Revolutionary thinking, I – Intelligence, S – Satisfaction, H – Humility, N – Networking and A – Attitude with simplicity. These qualities can help us reduce the outer noise and find some inner peace. Lord Krishna's teachings remind us that even when the world around us is full of challenges, we can choose how we respond to them. But how many of us actually stop and think about these teachings in our daily lives? Perhaps, instead of waiting for Lord Krishna to arrive and guide us, we need to understand the guidance that has already been given to us.

 

Today, we are busy making rallies, creating a ruckus around power and politics, filing petitions, going on hunger strikes and creating all possible kinds of chaos. Through media and social media, negativity spreads very quickly. There may be genuine reasons behind many of these actions, but somewhere we also need to sit quietly and think: How can we actually make a change so that we lead a more beautiful life on this planet? Our noise, both outside and inside us, has already contributed to so many conflicts, environmental problems and the loss of human and natural life. Global warming and water shortages have already given us an alarm. If we continue in the same direction, even the basic things we take for granted, clean air, food, water and a healthy environment, may be affected. We have become so busy trying to control the world around us that we have forgotten to control the noise within ourselves.

The scientific and technological revolution created by human beings has given us tremendous progress, but the same progress can become costly if we do not learn to use it wisely. Technology is not the problem, our inability to disconnect from it and our constant need for more noise, more information, more attention and more achievement is the real concern. We need to understand that silence is not emptiness. Sometimes, silence gives us the opportunity to hear what our busy life does not allow us to hear, our own thoughts, our conscience, our relationships and perhaps even our connection with God. If we continue running behind competition, comparison, quick money, quick fame and endless distractions, the cost will not only be our hearing or our health. We may slowly lose our peace, our relationships, our compassion and our connection with nature. The greatest scientific revolution should therefore not be only about creating more technology; it should also be about learning how to use that technology without losing our humanity. Otherwise, the progress we are so proud of may one day take us towards our own non-existence on this earth. That would be a price far too costly for humanity to pay.