Joy of Fine Speech

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Joy of Fine Speech

Sunday, 07 November 2021 | Radhanath Swami

Joy of Fine Speech

Krishna defined four qualities for a fine speech — non-agitating, truthful, pleasing and beneficial, shares Radhanath Swami

Words carry great power. When spoken or written by inspired leaders, they create revolutions that can topple empires. Ordinary words, on the other hand, don’t carry such power. They are forgotten and rejected after a short period of time. For example, words printed on a newspaper become trash after a few hours; magazines become irrelevant after a week or a month; annual publications need to update themselves with latest information and bring out newer issues every year. Books advocating a certain ideology and lifestyle may stand the test of time for a few years or decades. But all such works have a limited shell life.

Scripture, which contains words spoken by God himself, doesn’t become stale or outdated even after several ages. They continue to remain fresh and relevant across all times, irrespective of culture, geography and religion. They are timeless — which means the wisdom contained in these words will remain relevant eternally.

Bhagavad Gita is literally the “song of God.” Throughout the Vedic literatures, Krishna is described as God, the original source of everything in the universe. Krishna himself declares his supreme position, “O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.” And to convince the faithless who cannot appreciate Krishna’s position as God, Krishna displays the vishva-rupa, the Universal Form, so that in the future people will not retain doubts about Krishna’s identity.

About speech, Krishna makes an interesting statement in Gita (17.15). He says a good speech is characterised by four qualities:

l Anudvega-karam (non-agitating): Unless we are in a position of authority like a parent or teacher, we should not admonish anyone or try to correct anyone. Such words will simply agitate the other person, and our words will not have the desired effect of transforming the person. In contrast, the person is likely to develop deep hatred and anger against us and even take revenge at an opportune time.

l Satyam (truthful): Truth is relative — what is true today need not be true tomorrow. It is therefore recommended that we speak about the Absolute Truth as described in the Vedic literatures.

l Priya (pleasing): In the name of speaking truth, we don’t want to hurt people and break their hearts. We should speak palatable truth. If at all we have to speak unpalatable truths, we may use either humour or stories in order to convey the hard messages. As writer Mary Hirsch says, “Humour is a rubber sword — it allows you to make a point without drawing blood.”

l Hitam (beneficial): Ultimately, our speech should uplift the life of the audience by enlightening them with transcendental wisdom. Otherwise, our speech will simply add cacophonic vibrations into the atmosphere that will benefit no one.

Krishna also recommends a powerful method by which we can control useless speech — by regularly reciting Vedic literature. Vedic sound is called apaurusheya, “not originating from a mundane source.” Therefore, when we recite these shlokas and messages, which are mostly composed in Sanskrit, we are actually purifying the atmosphere that is filled with so much useless sound. Even if we don’t understand their meanings, merely vibrating these sounds transforms the quality of the atmosphere from material to spiritual.

Traditionally, this was done by regularly reciting scriptures like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavata Purana. Our ancient sages and seers have left behind a limitless stock of transcendental wisdom. It will be a good habit to regularly recite them and apply them in our lives.

Let us remember this immortal advice of Lord Krishna and begin a positive transformation of the world around us.

The author is the Spiritual Guru of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousnes

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