What if Mahākavi was our Coach Educator?
- Krishna Prakash
- Jan 19
- 2 min read
In coaching, speech is often mistaken for communication, but truth is, it is an intervention.
And like any meaningful intervention, it is required only when there is an absolute need.
Mahākavi Subramania Bharatiyār offers a profound reminder here. For him, speech (Vāk) is not merely an expression. Vāk is Śakti.
It carries force, consequence, and responsibility.
When truth and clarity withdraw from our words, grace withdraws too, no matter how refined our techniques or whatever our credentials may be.
Bharatiyār repeatedly warns against:
Altering meaning for cleverness
Ornamentation at the cost of truth
Obscuring clarity in the name of mastery
For him, these are not stylistic flaws. They are violations of Vāk-Dharma, the ethical discipline of speech.
What this means for coaching
When viewed through Bharatiyār’s lens, coaching conversations become sacred terrain. Every word either serves clarity or disturbs it.
This translates directly into practice:
A question that avoids the client’s truth is not a powerful question.
Jargon that impresses but does not illuminate is violence on clarity.
Compassion without honesty is not compassion, it is disservice.
Silence, when truthful, is superior to eloquence without integrity.
Bharatiyār’s central declaration captures this precisely:
“For literature, clarity and truth alone are life.”
The same holds true for coaching.
Clarity and truth alone give life to a conversation. Without them, even the most sophisticated frameworks fall hollow.
When speech carries both truth and clarity, it becomes Arul Vāk.
Words that transform without force.Guidance that lands without coercion.Presence that heals without performance.
Perhaps coaching is not about saying more.Perhaps it is about saying only what is true, only what is clear, and only when necessary.
And sometimes, about choosing silence when silence is the most truthful response.
To learn more: https://www.shrimathyoga.com/coachness
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