"Sisters and brothers of America" thus came the clarion call from Swami Vivekananda while addressing the delegates to the congress of religions in Chicago on the memorable day 11 Sept, 1893. In that address he underlined as a basic tenet of Hinduism , love , friendship , compassion and service mindedness which are applicable to the entire humanity irrespective of caste, creed, race and religion. But foul words and derogatory remarks by leaders and their followers in elected bodies and in public, lead to avoidable confrontation resulting in social disturbances which often cause undesirable bloodshed and loss of innocent lives.

The simple panacea for these maladies lies in speaking to everybody sweet and kind words with a purity of thought and honesty of intention. The virtues of this have been emphasized down the ages by several sages and savants through their writings, moral stories and even by personal examples like Bhagawan Bhuddha, Ramana Maharishi, Shri Ramakrishna to name only a few.  

In that long line comes Thiruvalluvar, a Tamil poet-cum-philosopher who wrote his immortal book - Thirukural nearly 2500 years ago. Thirukural consists of 1330 couplets, each containing seven words written in two lines.  The book is divided into three parts extolling the virtues to be followed in personal, public and domestic life.  1330 couplets are arranged in 133 chapters of 10 each. Each chapter highlights one virtue emphasizing the various dimensions of it. In that order comes the tenth one under the heading - affability - in chol - which elaborates the features of and benefits derived from using sweet and kind words.

The meaning of the couplets are as follows

1. Virtuous persons use sweet words mingling with love and sincerity.
2. Sweet words spoken with a smile is the most gracious gift
3. Real charity is a smiling welcome.
4. Pleasant words dispel all wants and sorrow.
5. Sweet words and humility are prized jewels
6. Well chosen sweet words increase virtue.
7. Helpful words spoken with courtesy breed justice and virtue.
8. Sweet words spoken without meanness give perennial joy.
9. One cannot use sweet words for oneself and harsh words for others.
10. Using harsh words in the place of sweet ones is like preferring raw fruits to ripe ones.

An in-depth study of the glory of this virtue clearly gives guidelines to all.
Love and affection between husband and wife, parents and children will certainly avoid all family feuds and create domestic joys. Friendship and understanding between the teacher and the student will eliminate student indiscipline and school drop outs helping the students to discipline their careers along the righteous path. Affable way of interaction with all through sweet and kind words, without enmity to anyone will create societal harmony and global peace.

Subramonia Bharathi says that we should pray for the welfare of even those who are inimical to us since having adopted the path to climb to the pedestal of puritanical life one should not degenerate to the level of derogatory words and thoughts. Jesus Christ prayed to God to pardon those who crucified him. Lord Rama never spoke any harsh words against anybody including those who attempted to harm him. Thousands of years back a Tamil poet Kaniyan Poonkuntanar wrote the whole world is one country and we are all citizens of that country.  It is not a tall order but can be achieved by mutual love and affection expressed through sweet and kind words. That is also the quintessence of Swami Vivekananda's message.

What do you think?

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