IT IS THE LIVING GOD THAT SPEAKS ... 4
So long as monks/nuns/lay devotees preach spirituality from the intellectual plane without supportive personal spiritual experience to lend substance to their speech, the talks will fail to inspire the audience with any noble sentiments or uplifting thought as is the intent behind the conducting of such lectures. It is the personality of the speaker that shines through the words spoken much more than the message implicit in them. It is the imprint of the preacher's character that is borne by his voice, gestures, manners and modes as he speaks and these either attract or repel the audience by their quality.
It is highly inspiring to hear a speaker speak from personal experience something rather than hearsay or from his readings in books. In other words, primary experience and expression thereof is more appealing than secondary recounting of events. To make matters worse, when a preacher delivers his talk in a dull and unimpressive diction and in a manner that lacks force of conviction, the audience is put off by it and the address falls by the wayside. Such is more often than not the case when men are selected to speak not on the basis of their oratorical ability or spiritual excellence but on an arbitrary basis with little forethought given to the consequences of such potentially insipid delivery in the offing on the future prospects of a spiritual movement. Such a casual approach to propagation of the message of a movement is unfortunate and care ought to be taken to see to it that the best possible speakers are first groomed and then selected for delivering important addresses.
Even on television programmes on special days of the year such as the birth anniversary celebrations of the Holy Trinity of Thakur-Ma-Swamiji we get to see the same old faces, men who have earlier severely bungled and spoilt what could otherwise have been exquisite audiovisual shows. This is regrettable and happens as much because of the lack of critical understanding of what constitutes a good lecture or an interview and what does not. This is a cultural lacuna and is almost universal in our country. Mediocrity gains its passport everywhere with effortless ease and the result is there for all to see in every sphere of our national life from which we can hardly exclude intellectualism and spirituality.
But this must change. We must equip ourselves to be more proficient in speech, more articulate and with better diction, more rationally tenable and more spiritually convincing as we carry the message of the Ramakrishna Movement to the masses. For this I say, awake, friends, awake!
Written by Sugata Bose
So long as monks/nuns/lay devotees preach spirituality from the intellectual plane without supportive personal spiritual experience to lend substance to their speech, the talks will fail to inspire the audience with any noble sentiments or uplifting thought as is the intent behind the conducting of such lectures. It is the personality of the speaker that shines through the words spoken much more than the message implicit in them. It is the imprint of the preacher's character that is borne by his voice, gestures, manners and modes as he speaks and these either attract or repel the audience by their quality.
It is highly inspiring to hear a speaker speak from personal experience something rather than hearsay or from his readings in books. In other words, primary experience and expression thereof is more appealing than secondary recounting of events. To make matters worse, when a preacher delivers his talk in a dull and unimpressive diction and in a manner that lacks force of conviction, the audience is put off by it and the address falls by the wayside. Such is more often than not the case when men are selected to speak not on the basis of their oratorical ability or spiritual excellence but on an arbitrary basis with little forethought given to the consequences of such potentially insipid delivery in the offing on the future prospects of a spiritual movement. Such a casual approach to propagation of the message of a movement is unfortunate and care ought to be taken to see to it that the best possible speakers are first groomed and then selected for delivering important addresses.
Even on television programmes on special days of the year such as the birth anniversary celebrations of the Holy Trinity of Thakur-Ma-Swamiji we get to see the same old faces, men who have earlier severely bungled and spoilt what could otherwise have been exquisite audiovisual shows. This is regrettable and happens as much because of the lack of critical understanding of what constitutes a good lecture or an interview and what does not. This is a cultural lacuna and is almost universal in our country. Mediocrity gains its passport everywhere with effortless ease and the result is there for all to see in every sphere of our national life from which we can hardly exclude intellectualism and spirituality.
But this must change. We must equip ourselves to be more proficient in speech, more articulate and with better diction, more rationally tenable and more spiritually convincing as we carry the message of the Ramakrishna Movement to the masses. For this I say, awake, friends, awake!
Written by Sugata Bose
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