Grievous gossip

It is said that gossip need not be false to be evil, even if there is lots of truth in it, passing it around as gossip is evil enough to cause much pain and mental trauma to the affected person.

The things that go in one ear and out the other ear do not hurt as badly as the things that go in one's ear, get all mixed up with unnecessary extra ingredients in the mind and then slip out of one’s mouth – the effect can be disastrous.

A woman spread some gossip about her neighbour and in a short time it spread far and wide which caused much pain to the person concerned.

The woman later, came to know that the rumour she had spread was totally untrue and she felt very sorry and guilty.

She went to a wise sage to find out some way to rectify and repair the damage done by her.  The sage listened to her problem.

The sage told her to go and buy some fowl feathers from a bird shop and on her way back, he asked her to drop the feathers one by one on the way.

She did exactly as told by him, though surprised by such an unusual advice of the sage. The next day she went to him and said that she had done as told by him.

Then the sage said, ‘Go collect all the feathers and bring back to me’.
After searching all day long, she returned only with one or two feathers – all of them have blown away. “Now you see, how words once uttered carelessly as gossip are impossible to bring back and rectify the damage caused by them.

It does not take much to spread gossip, but it is impossible to undo the wrong completely’ – it is always better to have restraint and use caution while speaking’.
Gossip can boomerang very strongly and hurt the one who started it in the first place to hurt others.

 Gossip can ruin and tear down relationships, wreck lives and friendships as gossip stems from ‘jealousy, mistrust, dishonour, selfishness, suspicion and many more such traits.
We must be very careful not to listen to a person who is gossiping about others, because, whoever gossips to you, will easily gossip about you’.

It seems Benjamin Franklin asked himself each day – ‘What good thing can I do today?’ – Let us ask ourselves the same and do good by ‘not’ gossiping and spreading negativity in the world around.

‘When you hear an evil account about anyone, halve it and quarter it, and then say nothing about the rest to others.’

This policy will bring in peace and calm in homes and in society as a whole.