Capital Punishment for Backbiters

Swami Sivananda: (Backbiting) is a dirty, abominable habit of petty-minded people. Almost all are victims of this dire malady. This has become an ingrained habit of narrow-hearted, mischievous people. This is a Tamo-Guna Vritti. The Lila of this world is kept up by this evil habit of man. It is Maya's strong weapon to spread restlessness throughout the world. If you see four men sitting in a group, think that some backbiting is surely going on there.

"The root cause of backbiting is ignorance or jealousy. The backbiter wants to pull down or destroy the man... by false vilification, slander, calumny, false accusation, etc. There is no other work for a backbiter except scandal-mongering. He lives on backbiting. He takes pleasure in backbiting and mischief-making. This is his Svabhava. Backbiters are a menace to society. They are worst criminals. They need capital punishment. Double-dealing, crookedness, diplomacy, chicanery, quibbling, tricks and artifices are the retinues of backbiting. A backbiter can never have a calm, peaceful mind. His mind is always planning or scheming in wrong directions. An aspirant should be absolutely free from this dreadful vice. He should walk alone, live alone, eat alone and meditate alone. If a man who has not removed jealousy, backbiting, hatred, pride, selfishness says, "I am meditating for six hours daily," it is all nonsense. There is no hope of getting a meditative mood even for six minutes unless a man removes all these evil Vrittis and purifies his mind first by selfless service for six years."

Sources:
1. pgs. 192-193, Concentration and Meditation by Swami Sivananda.
2. pgs. 177-178, Practice of Bhakti Yoga by Swami Sivananda
3. pgs. 266-267, How to Cultivate Virtues and Eradicate Vices by Swami Sivananda