Ideal speech

Those men who are not dumb, as per normal behavior, they need to speak something or other every day to make others understand what is in their mind, and to understand what is in others mind. In this aphorism, four characteristics of a gentleman’s speech have been enumerated:-

First characteristic is truth. Whatever we speak must be true, real, not imagination – not untruth.

Second characteristic is benevolence. Speech should be such, which does well to others, not bad.

Third characteristic is conciseness. We should not make our speech lengthy by using unnecessary words. We should strive to use minimum words to express our opinion.

The last characteristic is understandability. Our speech should be so simple and easy that the listener is able to understand its significance immediately.

In this way, enlightened have presented the ideals of speech for the general public through the four characteristics of speech: true, benevolent, concise and its understandability.

- Prasnavyakarana 2/2