Real communication is not verbal

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Words are needed for exchange of information -- yes. But real communication between people is not verbal. For establishing and maintaining relationship, affectionate awareness in direct action is required. Not what you say, but what you do is what matters. Words are made by the mind and are meaningful only on the level of the mind. The word "bread": neither can you eat it nor live by it; it merely conveys an idea. It acquires meaning only with actual eating. In the same sense am I telling you that the Normal State is not verbal. I may say it is wise love expressed in action, but these words convey little, unless you experience them in their fullness and beauty.

Words have their limited usefulness, but we put no limits to them and bring ourselves to the brink of disaster. Our noble ideas are finely balanced by ignoble actions. We talk of God, Truth and Love, but instead of direct experience we have definitions. Instead of enlarging and deepening action, we chisel our definitions. And we imagine that we know what we can define!