By Banji Ayoola
When people gather in twos or threes almost everywhere on earth today, we indulge in one of the most dangerous and harmful pastimes; we mainly gossip about our absent neighbours.
Because we generally have nothing serious, ennobling, or uplifting to say to one another when we gather, we turn such gatherings into abattoirs of human souls; where we coldly and mercilessly slaughter our absent neighbours usually out of envy, malice, unfulfilled selfish wishes, bruised ego, any other hidden agenda and the pernicious urge to undermine the reputation of the other person; to put him or her in bad light before others, to destroy the other person.
We coldly and mercilessly attack the absent persons with unimaginable meanness.
Wickedly and unscrupulously, we weave false tales, damaging and scandalous stories around our victims and spread these abroad to harm our usually absent neighbours, just to satisfy this evil urge to undermine the reputation of the other man, the other woman.
We tear our absent neighbours to shreds and reduce them to nothingness before our fellow gossipers. Worse, we spread these false stories abroad to poison the air around our victims, and cause further damage to the entire environment, the beautiful Creation of the Lord.
It is very unfortunate that men and women on earth today generally find gossiping, tales bearing or scandals mongering so attractive; that we indulge in these evils with an unimaginable passion and forget all else.
It is sad, very sad, that men and women who should otherwise be weaving in harmony, beauty and love, in the joyful service of our fellow men and women, of our ever loving Creator, have degenerated to this low, most unworthy and dishonourable level, contrary to the Holy Will of our Creator, Who cautions us against bearing false witness against our neighbours.
Akin to earthly physical murderers, men and women who indulge in this evil habit equally are murderers. The difference is that they are worse than the gross material physical murderers. For the crime they perpetuate is against the soul, which cannot be easily redeemed unlike the gross material physical murder.
Gossiping, tales bearing, scandals mongering, or bearing false witness against the other person, which all amount to the same thing i. e. damaging the reputation of the other man, the other woman, is not as harmless as we erroneously believed. It is one of the worst infractions against our neighbours. It is murder.
Usually, the perpetrator of this crime, which indeed is a sin, evades earthly punishment. But the heavy penalty for this wanton violation of one of the Lord’s Holy and Supreme Commandments “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour!” awaits the culprit for atonement.
If only we can really open our eyes and reflect, and see how we entangle ourselves in many evil threads of fate, which usually take several years or decades, or even incarnations of laborious struggles and needless suffering to live through or redeem, and see how we get ourselves into the mess of our prevailing earthly circumstances, we will be shocked beyond words and we will always avoid or shun all gossips, tales bearers and scandal mongers, together with their evil profession of undermining the reputation of others, as we do gross material earthly physical murderers.
We will then sit back and reflect and see how, by violating This or any of the Other loving Commandments of our Creator, we plunged ourselves into the unhappiness, suffering and chaos that generally prevail on earth today.
We will then in our own interest, if we are open and genuine enough, see the need to change our wrong ways and seek always the well-being of our neighbours and not how to harm them, and in reciprocity harm ourselves.
By this change, we will then be able in time before it is too late, to avert the self-incurred destruction, disaster and sorrow which in strict accordance with the incorruptible Natural Laws, may lawfully be our lot.
We may then be permitted to see the emptiness of most of the indulgences of the modern man and woman which really hinder and harm, rather than help us.
This may then be an incentive for us to really examine ourselves and ask serious questions about our past and present, and how we must live henceforth, if we really want to be happy on earth in this wonderful Creation of the Lord.
And glorious be that hour.
