Lord Krishna
Divine TeacherThe Supreme Lord, the charioteer and divine guide of Arjuna. Krishna delivers the eternal wisdom of the Gita, revealing the nature of the soul, duty, and the path to liberation.
Speaking: Chapter 17, Verse 15
Verse 15
The Yoga of the Three Types of Faith
Speech that is non-agitating, truthful, pleasant, and beneficial, together with regular study of scripture — this is called the austerity of speech.
Context & Meaning
The austerity of speech (vāṅmaya tapas) is defined by four qualities that every word should carry: anudvega-kara (non-agitating — words that do not create unnecessary distress or turmoil in the listener), satya (truthful — aligned with what is actually the case), priya (pleasant — delivered with care for the relationship), and hita (beneficial — actually useful to the one who hears them). These four are not easily reconciled — truth can be harsh, pleasantness can be dishonest, benefit can require agitation. The austerity of speech is precisely the discipline of holding all four simultaneously: saying what is true, in a way that is genuinely kind, that genuinely serves the other person, without creating unnecessary disturbance. This is the most demanding and most important discipline of daily life.
Scholar Commentaries
1 commentary · Public domainMadhvacharya
DvaitaThe austerity of speech is perhaps the most immediately applicable teaching in the chapter — because speech is the primary medium through which human beings affect one another. Every word is a small act of creation: it shapes the inner state of the speaker and the listener, it ripples outward into relationships and communities. The person who has genuinely mastered these four qualities of speech has mastered the most powerful instrument of human influence.