The Silence of Sound

Every year in the first week of May the state of Kerala witnesses numerous processions at the occasion of the festival of St. George. You can notice churches decorated with myriads of light bulbs, fireworks and crackers in the evening hours, the sound of music groups and devotional songs played over loudspeakers. Since there are plenty of St. George churches, there is also a countless number of processions taking place every year. In one of them I took part.

Our church made grand arrangements for this year's procession. After the evening prayer, people slowly gathered at the starting point of the procession. A small girl told me that she had heard, there were even processions with elephants. Ours didn't have any though. But apart from this small draw back, there was nothing else missing: Two traditional drummer groups, a brass orchestra, and two jeeps with installed loudspeakers playing devotional music were ready to accompany the procession.

The procession of a festival is supposed to have meditational character. During the walk the participants are meant to pray and ask the saint for his or her intercession. Honoring the exemplary life of the saint, people hope that the saint might intercede on their behalf to God and help their petitions to be heard.

My position in the procession was somewhat in the thick of it. I could simultaneously hear the intense drum beating, the loud trumpeting of the brass orchestra and the blaring music from one of the jeeps. All this mixed into a dreadful cacophony. I did not know whether to laugh or to cry. Instantly this urgent thought came to my mind: how on earth could I solemnly take part in this procession and put myself into a prayerful mood???

The procession started, and after a few minutes, the sounds surrounded me almost like a cloud. And inside this cloud, I could detach myself from the things happening around. I was carried by the sounds into a very spiritual experience, that made me calm down and become very silent inside. I did not notice the cacophony but rather felt the sounds a soothing background for my prayers.