If we sweep too many things under the rug, then what we end up with is not a rug but a lumpy path that only makes us trip and hurt ourselves more. Sometimes we all tend to sweep unpleasant realities under the rug. While that is sometimes necessary from a functional perspective, if that’s what we are doing repeatedly, then the amount of things under the rug will soon become so many that not only we but others will also start tripping and falling and injuring themselves. That’s why while there is a time when to express verbal restraint, there also needs to be a time when there can be verbal candour whereby issues can be addressed and not just swept under the rug.

Watch this content at: Verbal restraint and verbal candour

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17.15 Austerity of speech consists in speaking words that are truthful, pleasing, beneficial, and not agitating to others, and also in regularly reciting Vedic literature.