Fwd: Satya: Truthfulness

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Satya: TruthfulnessThe second yama is satya, truthfulness. It seems that little childrenare naturally truthful, open and honest. Their lives are uncomplicated,and they have no secrets. National studies show that children, even atan early age, learn to lie from their parents. They are taught to keepfamily secrets, whom to like, whom to dislike, whom to hate and whom tolove, right within the home itself. Their minds become complicated andtheir judgments of what to say and what not to say are often influencedby the possibility of a punishment, perhaps a beating. Therefore, tofully encompass satya and incorporate it in one's life as a teenager oran adult, it is quite necessary to dredge the subconscious mind and insome cases reject much of what mother or father, relatives and eldershad placed into it at an early age. Only by rejecting the apparentopposites, likes and dislikes, hates and loves, can true

truthfulness,which is a quality of the soul, burst forth again and be there in fullforce as it is within an innocent child. A child practices truthfulnesswithout wisdom. Wisdom, which is the timely application of knowledge,guides truthfulness for the adult. To attain wisdom, the adult must beconversant with the soul nature.What is it that keeps us from practicing truthfulness? Fear, mainly.Fearof discovery, fear of punishment or loss of status. This is the mosthonest untruthfulness. The next layer of untruthfulness would be themischievous person willing to take a chance of not being caught anddeliberately inventing stories about another, deliberately lying whenthe truth would do just as well. The third and worst layer is calculateddeception and breaking of promises.Satya is a restraint, and as one of the ten restraints it ranks inimportance as number two. When we restrain our tendencies to deceive,to

lie and break promises, our external life is uncomplicated, asis our subconscious mind. Honesty is the foundation of truth. It isecologically, psychologically purifying. However, many people are nottruthful with themselves, to themselves, let alone to others. And thecalculated, subconscious built-in program of these clever, cunning,two-faced individuals keeps them in the inner worlds of darkness. Toemerge from those worlds, the practice of truthfulness, satya, is initself a healing and purifying sadhana.What is breaking a promise? Breaking a promise is, for example, whensomeone confides in you, asks you to keep it to yourself and not to tellanyone, and then you tell. You have betrayed your promise. Confidencesmust be kept at all costs in the practice of satya.There are certainly times when withholding the truth is permitted. TheTirukural, Weaver's Wisdom, explains that "Even falsehood is of thenature of truth

if it renders good results, free from fault" (292). Anastrologer, for instance, while reviewing a chart would refrain fromtelling of a heartbreak that might come to a person at a certain timein his life. This is wisdom. In fact, astrologers are admonished bytheir gurus to hold back information that might be harmful or deeplydiscouraging. A doctor might not tell his patient that he will diein three days when he sees the vital signs weakening. Instead, he mayencourage positive thinking, give hope, knowing that life is eternal andthat to invoke fear might create depression and hopelessness in the mindof the ill person.When pure truthfulness would injure or cause harm, then the first yama,ahimsa, would come into effect. You would not want to harm that person,even with the truth. But we must not look at this verse from theTirukuralas giving permission for deception. The spirit of the verse is wisdom,good judgment,

not the subterfuge of telling someone you are going toMumbai when your actual destination is Kalikot. That is not truthful. Itwould be much better to avoid answering the question at all in some wayif one wanted to conceal the destination of his journey. This would bewisdom. You would not complicate your own subconscious mind by tellingan untruth, nor be labeled deceptive in the mind of the informed personwhen he eventually discovers the actual truth.

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