Rusen Kumar : Let’s us appreciate the secret power of words

We cannot survive without language. There are thousands of languages and dialects. Man has always used language to communicate his feelings. Today, the richness of one’s language is a parameter for man’s growth and prosperity. A person gains respect, who is adept in his language. And those who are multilingual, are a class apart.

Addition of each word to a language enriches it. We need a good vocabulary to express our emotions. When we are short of words, we fail to convey our emotions compellingly. Those who can express well, often become good speakers, poets, authors, preachers and singers.

Our words are our spokesmen. The way we speak and the kind of words we use, people understand as they tend to see through the lens of their feelings. A few carefully chosen words convey the feelings of a person across the seas. Few people have realized the secret and poignant power of words. Students particularly, must learn and appreciate the unlimited power of words.

There is a famous saying that goes, “It takes much longer to heal the wound inflicted by a sharp tongue (harsh words) than one inflected by a sharp sword”.

Ironically, the person injuring another, using a sword, can be legally tried and punished; unfortunately one who hurts someone’s heart with his caustic tongue attracts no penalty. Therefore, we should always be wary of and take care, not to use words that may hurt others’ feelings.

Words and manner of speech, good or bad, always have lasting impact on the listener. If we speak against the dignity of a person, it goes deep down, disturbing his mental peace and causes pain. On the contrary, kind words can win over even strangers and adversaries. We can motivate people with our kind language, and we can handle difficult situations by using kind words. We should always aspire to keep adding to our vocabulary and knowledge of words. This will help us and will take us a step closer to our all round prosperity.

Our feelings and emotions rule the words we use. We are required to use the appropriate word that goes with the emotional state we are in. Thus, in order to be able to use the right words and language, we need to control and be in-charge of our emotions first. So far so good. But who controls our emotions? Emotions are directed by our assumptions, beliefs, our memories and experiences.

All these reside in our body and mind in abundance, which sometimes leads to slippage of some undesirable words prompted by these emotions, without us realizing it. It is therefore difficult to control our speech all the time. We need to be attentive and conscious, especially of our emotions all the time, in order to bring moderation and appropriateness in our speech.

We need to use words and language judiciously. Our language and speech are quite precious. As we are careful about each Rupee spent by us, similarly, we need to be equally careful and attentive in usage of each word uttered by us. The core of many industries like newspapers, radio, TV, News Channel, Book Publishing, is words, language and communication, thus they have huge demand for language experts.

Summarizing, we need to enrich our vocabulary, language as well as emotions. We need to pay attention so that we have control over our speech so that it always remains polite and moderate. We can share happiness with others by being equipped with the gift of gab and keeping commitment to our words. It is said that polite, sweet and considerate speech can heal even mental wounds. Meaningful and caring words can alleviate misery and suffering. Our mental state of emotion reflects in our speech; thus it always helps to remain calm and in control.

We should always aspire to have a pure heart, pure and auspicious thoughts, which will in turn lead to polite speech. Using words to form a considerate speech is like meditation. Reading high quality books, literature and writings will help us achieve this meditation. We need a huge repository of words to express ourselves well.  Our mastery over caring and appropriate language and speech will help us succeed and excel in life. 

Article is authored by Rusen Kumar. The article first published in Hindi. 

Translation by Arun Arora, a renowned communication professional, who is fond of reading, writing, and learning, all the time. 

(Note: Please take author’s permission to reproduce this article in newspaper or web-mediums. The request may be sent to rusenk@indiacsr.in)

Photo courtesy: https://cartoonmovement.com/cartoon/power-words

Read the same article in Hindi: दैनिक चिंतनः रुसेन कुमार । शब्दों की गुप्त शक्तियों को समझिए