A famous proverb says, “Don’t see evil, you will think evil. Don’t think evil, you will talk evil. Don’t talk evil, you will do an evil work”. In all the classic literature, there is present a bulk of sayings about the importance of controlling one’s tongue or in other words, controlling the words one utters. It was said, “What is the best and worst organ of body?” Its answer was given as tongue, as if it speaks good words, it is the best organ but if it is polluted by bad words, it turns out to be the most dangerous organ of the body.  It was also said that tongue is the one that takes you to the heaven or the hell, depending on the way you use it.

All these sayings and proverbs show us the importance of controlling our tongue or the words uttered by it. It was the power of tongue used by the prophets to transmit their messages to the people and change their fate and it was also the tongue that violated people and became the cause of the flow of rivers of blood.

Effects of words on the life and character of a person has been found to be more than any other factor in the world. If a person utters good words, it prepares a way for him to think good and then act good. In the same way, when a person listens bad words, he talks about bad things and this in return mould his intentions and deeds and he falls into bad habits or works.

Controlling the tongue has been thoroughly studied by the psychologists and they have come up with very interesting findings. First important factor in this regard is the environment. When a baby starts learning from the environment, he learns the words uttered by the people around him. In the same way, when a person listens good and bad words, he gives them place in his mind and once became available, he starts using them on different occasions.

If we observe the different environments, people’s thoughts are molded by the air of words that fly in the environment. Let’s take the example of an institute where good manners and ethics are given the top priority and where sincere teachers and dedicated students have a strong sense of responsibility to uphold a good environment and the air is always filled with good words or thoughts and thus we never come to know about the bad words or thoughts.

Let us consider a bar or disco club where every limit has been crossed in the name of wild excitement. Loud music, the frenzy of drinks and many more makes an environment where air is filled with exaggerations, boastings and baseless remarks and comments about each other.  This is a kind of environment where we often witness people getting into verbal disagreements and in some cases, they become serious enough and change into a quarrel.

The environments created by the people let or force its members to behave accordingly. If a person is in a place of worship, everyone would talk about good things and if anyone tries to utter stupid things, he would be greatly discouraged by the rest of the members. Similarly, we might have never seen a person giving lecture on good manners in a bar and if one tries to do so, he would be regarded abnormal by the others.

In our neighborhood, there lived a person who collected garbage. His work was too much filthy and all the time, he was noticed to be wearing dirty clothes. This condition was not limited to his external appearance only, rather he had got used to eat in dirty plates, sit on dirty places and things like these. With all these, he had developed a dangerous and dirty habit of using bad language. His six small sons who all aged from 6 to 16 helped him in his shop. He had developed habit of using bad language against his sons on pity things. Every second day, we heard of his fight with a passerby or a customer because he could control himself and abused every second person. People, who were aware of his habit, ignored him but strangers definitely got angry with him and then the quarrel started. When his sons also passed an year or more with him, they also developed the same habit and repeatedly abused each other. It looked as if their minds were full of bad words, which repeatedly started flowing out.

A student of mine came crying one day. One of his class fellows had said something bad to him. This was not something very odd as students in this age may say such words. On inquiry, it came out that he had not heard any such word in his whole life and it had come very strange and painful to him. This was a very good example of how good environment moulds the minds of people.

This has always been my advice to the students to be very careful of their language and not to utter any bad word at all. If someone said something bad to you, there needs to be a difference between you and him and thus you should not return the same words rather silence is the best reply on all such instances.

Once you uttered a single bad word, it would open a way for the entry of more such words and thus you will be using them far often and every passing day would make your tongue more polluted.

In the beginning, everyone believes in good and bad nature of words and thus tries to adopt the good ones and avoid the bad ones. Saying or uttering the bad words comes a bit difficult in the beginning but the more you use it, the more you get acquainted with it and your fear dissipates and you feel yourself more comfortable in using any such language. It is thus necessary that the feelings or beliefs of goodness of words should be protected and not let to be easily spoiled.

However, once this habit of abusing or using bad words becomes permanent, you not only spoil your thoughts but also create an environment where everyone thinks and acts accordingly. I witnessed a family where everyone, big or small, was in habit of using such bad language and it was something of routine to them.

Here, role of parents, elders and teachers is of extreme importance. According to social sciences, environment or culture of a place is decided upon by the conduct of influential elders present there so in the same way parents can make environment in the house, elders or bosses in workplaces and teachers in schools and educational institutes where young and fresh minds are molded and turn their environments into positive ones.