Sheep in the Crowd, Saint in the Self. Brahma in Silence, Fool is the Communicator

In the opening line, "sheep in the crowd," we encounter the archetype of the individual lost in collective delusion. A sheep does not question; it follows. So does the average person when surrounded by societal noise. This is the first bondage of Maya: the seduction of conformity.

"Andhenaiva niyamānā yathā andhāḥ"
(Katha Upanishad 1.2.5)
"Like the blind led by the blind, so are those attached to ritualistic knowledge and social consensus."

To be a sheep is to surrender one’s discernment (Viveka) to the inertia of the masses. Social media, political trends, and mass opinions shape identity more than introspection. But the crowd offers comfort, not clarity. The Taittiriya Upanishad warns:

"Na preyo niyo yarthāḥ, sreyo hi vidyā"
"The pleasant is often not the good; the good often not the pleasant."

To choose sainthood is to walk away from the pleasant lie of the crowd.


Opposite the sheep stands the saint—not one adorned in robes or titles, but one immersed in self-knowledge. This self (Atman) is not the ego, but the witnessing consciousness beyond mind, emotion, or body.

"Ātma vā are draṣṭavyaḥ śrotavyaḥ mantavyaḥ nididhyāsitavyaḥ"
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.4.5)
"The Self must be seen, heard about, reflected upon, and meditated upon."

To be a saint in the self is to move from the world’s noise into inner stillness. Solitude is not isolation—it is alignment. It is in solitude that sages like Ramana Maharshi found silence, and in silence, found the Self.

"You need not aspire for or get any new state. Get rid of your present thoughts, that is all." – Ramana Maharshi

The true saint speaks less, listens more, and resides within.


When the Upanishads speak of Brahman, they often speak of what cannot be spoken.

"Yato vāco nivartante aprāpya manasā saha"
(Taittiriya Upanishad 2.4.1)
"From which words turn back, along with the mind, unable to grasp it."

Brahman is not a theory, not a deity, not an object of worship—it is the substrate of all things, and it reveals itself not in discourse, but in silence. This is why the Mandukya Upanishad, describing the fourth state (Turiya), says:

"Amātraś caturthaḥ avyavahāryaḥ prapañcopashamaḥ śivo advaitaḥ"
"The fourth is without measure, ungraspable, the cessation of phenomena, auspicious, and non-dual."

When speech ceases and mind rests, the fourth state is glimpsed. The seer becomes silence. And silence becomes the Seer.

"Silence is the language of God; all else is poor translation." – Rumi

In this silence, Brahma is not heard—it is known, and in knowing it, one becomes it.


To speak without wisdom is not only futile—it is destructive. The fool communicates not to reveal, but to conceal ignorance with noise. In Vedanta, the ego often masquerades as the teacher. But the wise always know:

"Yasya nāsti svayaṁ prajñā, vāk tasya na phalapradaḥ"
"He who has no direct wisdom—his speech bears no fruit."

The fool rushes to speak what he has not lived. He quotes scriptures without tapasya. He preaches silence but fears solitude.

"The wise speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something." – Plato

In today's age, where communication is instant and constant, the fool has the microphone and the sage has the mountain. But only in stillness is truth found.

What then is the message of this poetic line? It is a path: move from the sheep to the saint, from sound to silence, from ego to Brahman.

"Maunam tapasya uttamam"
"Silence is the highest form of austerity."
– Bhagavad Gita 17.16

Every great mystic tradition has praised silence—not as emptiness, but as the fullness of the real. In the Yoga Vasistha, it is said:

"The self is revealed in silence. The noise of becoming must stop for being to be known."

Let the sheep bleat. Let the fool shout. Let the crowd roar. The saint sits alone, and in his silence, the Brahman speaks.

To walk the path of inner truth is to unlearn the world. It is to leave the crowd not with hatred, but with understanding. To become a saint is to sit in the fire of one's own being. And to know Brahma is to dissolve into the silence from which all sound arises.

Final reflection:

Let us then be sheep no more, nor communicators of illusion. Let us be silent, for in that silence, the Real waits—not outside, but within.

"Sheep in the crowd, saint in the self. Brahma in silence, fool is the communicator."

In this, the whole journey is contained. The journey home.