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Spirituality in Speech
Spirituality in Speech
Speech In Worldly Interactions
1. Forms Of Hurtful Speech Questioner : This tongue says one thing one time and something else another time.
Dadashri : The tongue is not at fault. The tongue constantly lives and works within the thirty-two teeth. It does not rebel or fight back. The tongue is fine, but it is we, the organizers, who are awkward and at fault. The fault lies with us.
The tongue is very good. Although it lives between the thirty-two teeth, does it ever get crushed or bitten? It gets bitten when we are eating and our chit (the component of the mind composed of knowledge and vision that wanders outside) has gone somewhere else. The chit only wanders when we are inattentive. If the chit stays focused on the task at hand, the tongue will function well, but it gets bitten when the organizer is inattentive.
Questioner : Please help me control my tongue because I talk too much.
Dadashri : It is because of words that this world has come into existence. When words come to an end, so will the world.
Words have been the cause of all the wars in the world. Words must be sweet or else they should not be spoken. You can become one with someone again even after you have fought with that person, if you use sweet words to assuage him.
Some people tell their elders they have no sense. How can one say such a thing? Who are they to assess commonsense in others? Such words will inevitably create conflicts. You should not say anything that would hurt others because you will be held liable for it. People who understand this will not take on such a liability, instead they will always say the right thing, whereas those who lack this understanding speak recklessly, taking on the liability. The responsibility is yours.
By telling a person, "You do not understand," you create the worst of the knowledge-deluding karmas (gnanavaran). You cannot make such a statement because it hurts the other person. Instead you can say, "I will help you understand."
If you are sitting peacefully and someone comes and says to you, "You have no sense," these words will shatter your peace of mind and you feel will hurt but it is not as if he has thrown a rock at you!
In this world, words have a tremendous impact. The scars they leave behind cannot be erased for hundreds of lifetimes. People say their hearts have been wounded by words. This is nothing but the effect of words and this world perpetuates because of these effects.
Some women tell me they still bear scars on their heart from what their husbands said to them twenty or thirty years ago. What kind of a 'rock' did these men throw with their speech that the wound has not healed to date? Such wounds
Dadashri : I too, talk all day long. As long as your speech does not hurt anyone, there is nothing wrong in talking.
Questioner : But many conflicts arise because of the words I use
