If you hear something that hurts your feelings, why did you have to discuss it with others and hurt their feelings too? When you know a statement to be irresponsible or untrue, it is natural that your feelings should be hurt. So, why pass it on to others? Keep it to yourself or, better still, dismiss it from your mind. Don’t talk to others and hurt their feelings, particularly when it concerns a person you love or revere. The greatest damage a person does to himself and to other devotees is to discuss slander. You must not in the first place listen to unpleasant or slanderous attacks against anybody. Even if you do so inadvertently, you should just ignore it, instead of becoming a post office. It is a sin to hear slander and it is a greater sin to indulge in facile talk and then gossip about that slander. It is best to avoid the company of those who indulge in such gossip.

If you have true devotion, show it by talking of good things. You can discuss Swami’s teachings or other spiritual subjects. That is the way to spiritual progress. By discussing and repeating bad or unpleasant things you taint your mind and spoil the minds of others too! And then you, too become a slanderer. (DG, p. 38)