Antarvacna
It is a single profound psychological and spiritual resonant Sanskrit term translating to \”inner speech\”. However, \”self-talk\” captures its meanings and nuances and conveys its inner profundities at all. Instead, it is a broad psychosocial phenomenon comprising the continuous, subjective inner voicing that co-opts our sense of self and self-identity, narrating ongoing life experiences and situations. In the face of our current avalanche of external \” noise,” harmonizing the Antarvacana is the most serving master craft of relishing inner tranquility, lucidity, and inner direction.”
Beyond the Monkey Mind: What is Antarvacna?
Antarvakna gives inner speech an enduring quality. This is a stream of consciousness \” accounts\” and modern psychiatry’s \”dissociative phenomenon \”. For cognitive psychologists, there is much to analyze. There are inner dialogues to negotiate. For the \”sages of the east\” there are folds of lived experiences to integrate. For wise sages, there is inner speech to disentangle. It is an essential aspect of our humanity, situated between the unprocessed sensory experiences of being and the final constructions of overt speech. Of expression.
Picture your mind as a courtroom. Each external event serves as evidence. Your Antarvacna plays all roles—lawyer, juror, judge—interpreting, arguing, adjudicating, and rendering verdicts on every piece of evidence. It is the internal voice that commends you for the accomplishments and criticizes you for the minutiae. It is the voice that rehearses dialogue, frets about challenges that the future may hold, and overthinks the past. This omnipresent dialogue is so constant that it becomes background noise, ultimately going unnoticed. This is so much the case that the voice of the Antarvacna convinces the individual that she is the voice.
Self-identification in this manner generates one of the most significant sources of suffering. When your Antarvacna is filled with predominantly fear of criticism and anxiety about the world around you, the world feels small and threatening. When, on the other hand, it is filled with compassion, curiosity, and hope, the world feels filled with expansive possibility. The first step to inner mastery is heightened awareness, pulling back the curtain, and realizing you are not the lawyer, the judge, or the jury, but the quiet noticing presence around which the whole drama unfolds.
The Two Faces of the Inner Voice: From Critic to Guide
Antarvacna is not, and can not, be a homogenized entity; there are various intonations and personifications; the two most prominent are as follows:
The Saboteur (Vikalpa): This aspect of the voice is the most dysfunctional, drawing on fears, old conditioning patterns, and the ego’s self-preserving instincts. This voice is particularly good at catastrophizing (“This only setback is going to ruin my entire career”), personalizing (“That person did not respond to my text message and is comfortable hating me”), and black-and-white thinking (“If I do something and it is not done perfectly, I am a total failure”). This is the inner voice referred to in Yogic traditions as vikalpa: a false or imaginary conception that shrouds one’s inner essence. This inner voice projects a negatively biased filter to one’s sense of self, causing stress, anxiety, and low self-esteem.
The Sage (Viveka): This represents the discernment and wisdom discussed. This voice is so dignified and understanding that it can cut through the distractions created by the Saboteur. Neutral and conciliatory towards the doubting voice, the Sage silently inquires whether specific thoughts are true, whether they can be learned from the problems faced, and so on. This voice draws from our inner wisdom and higher values. In Sanskrit, it is called viveka, the ability to distinguish the real from the unreal. An inner balancing is essential for cultivating this aspect of Antarvacna, and this balance is the real essence of inner and outer transformation.
The shift from the Saboteur to the Sage is the empowerment aspect of inner transformation.
Lifeworks and Cultivating Conscious Antarvacna: In this section, several practices and methods that have stood the test of time are listed to address inner dualities and foster a more positive, constructive inner dialogue. These will enable practitioners to gain consciousness and compassion in the dialogue fostered.
- Sakshi Bhava: Witnessing
This is the primary step. Each day, make it a point to step back and listen to the stream of thoughts without becoming involved. The goal is not to control or stop the thoughts, but to note them. While driving, if your mind says, \”I’m running late, and the traffic is awful. I’m so disorganized\” note it without stress: \”Oh, the thought is that I’m disorganized.\” This slight shift can create distance between you and the Antarvacna thought stream and halt the unconscious fusion.
- Journalling: Giving Form to the Formless
The Antarvacna stream of thoughts can feel overwhelming and chaotic. To use the mental energy that such a stream of thought generates, you can transform it into something tangible through journaling before examining it with objectivity. \”Morning Pages\” is a technique that can be particularly useful. It is freeform, stream-of-consciousness writing that occurs first thing in the morning, usually for three pages. A method of dialogic journaling is also helpful: write down a self-critical thought you can attribute to your Saboteur, then counter it with a line from the Sage perspective. This externalizes the internal conflict and gives the wiser side a foothold.
- Mindful Meditation: Meditation functions as a mental workout. When you’re breathing and concentrating on a specific mantra, you’re not trying to think of nothing. Instead, you are, again and again, training yourself to recognize a thought as it enters, then gently return to your focal point. This “internal observing muscle” gets a workout with every iteration. This makes it much easier, over time, to notice your thoughts without getting lost in them. 4. Conscious Language Reframing: Your inner dialogue is a product of language, and it can be transformed by changing the words you use. When you notice that your inner dialogue says, “I have to go to that meeting,” you can flip that to “I have the option to go to that meeting, and I know it will help me in the long run.” Burdened feelings are switched for feelings of autonomy. “I’m such an idiot” can be flipped to “I made an error, and I can use that to help me grow.” Your internal monologue is not inconsequential; it creates the structure that frames your experience.
The Ultimate Goal: From Dialogue to Silence
Antarvacna brings about a beautiful paradox. As one learns to observe and refine one’s inner ‘self-talk’ and work dialogue, it begins to lose its power over one’s mind. Like all forms of self-talk, mental diatribes start to settle. One begins to meet something previous, and it is an emerging silence.
This silence is not an abandonment of awareness, but an inner void of astonishing and transcendent presence. It is from a being’s ground awareness where all thoughts sprout. In the Vedantic and Yogic traditions, this inner, transcendent awareness is at the core of one’s nature: Purusha, or Atman. In all practices of Antarvacna, this is the core realization: the dialogue you observe is not you, but the awareness from which it emanates.
It is a complete transformation experience; your relationship with your inner world is fundamentally changed. Inner-world self-talk becomes the most helpful and least tyrannical. Its divisive structure and self-imposed hierarchy; its inner discourse becomes self-control, becomes more defined, and exerts a stronger ‘hold’ over a person’s freedom.
In this ultimate goal of self-inner silence, a person becomes the master of their inner self.
Antarvacna is not just an abstraction. It is an essential part of what it is to be human. Focusing on inner speech allows us to take back control of our lives. We learn to soothe the inner critic of the Saboteur, while aiding the Sage. We know that hidden within the ceaseless turmoil of our minds is an endless stillness. All other journeys will be subservient to the one taken within. Traveling to the center of our Antarvacna, to the core of what it means for us to be human, is where we discover the ability to live authentically, with awareness and genuine compassion.
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