[Advaita-l] Re: BGBh and yoga - yama-niyama - II

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

>There are two parties involved in any act of communication - the
>speaker and the audience. There may be one satya common to both
>parties - think of us as being entitled to our set of opinions, but
>not our set of facts. But when we say priyahitam and anudvegakara, is
>it referring to the state of the speaker or the audience? Something
>that is udvegakara to the audience may, in fact, be anudvegakara to
>the speaker, no?

I would think it is the audience that is meant. As far as the speaker is 
concerned, it would be hard to find an example of speech that is hurtful to 
oneself, at least immediately upon utterance. One might regret one's words 
later, but feeling immediately hurt by one's own speech would be rare.

Here, I would like to point to another common verse quoted with respect to 
speech. I think it is from the mahAbhArata, although not in the gItA proper.

satya.m brUyAt priya.m brUyAn na brUyAt satyamapriyam.h |
priya.m ca nAnR^ita.m brUyAd esha dharmas sanAtanaH ||

One should speak what is the truth and what is pleasing, but not the truth 
that is unpleasant, nor an untruth that is pleasant - this is the eternal 
law.

Since the truth is usually unpleasant, and it is not easy to find ways to 
sugar-coat bitter truths, the upshot of this verse is to recommend silence, 
for the most part!

Best regards,
Vidyasankar

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