Satya: Truthfulness

Satya - or truthfulness - is one of yoga's moral observances. It is about being truthful in action, speech, and thought. What we say and do should agree with what we think. Being truthful not only applies to our interactions with others, it also means to be truthful to oneself. If we are working a job that we hate, or remaining in a relationship that has gone sour, or pretending to enjoy things that we do not just to please others, we are lying to ourselves. The person we are harming in this case is none other than ourself.

Mohandas Gandhi once said, "Happiness is when our thoughts, speech and actions are in harmony." Humans are complex creatures; This is not always easy ... or even practical or desirable in some situations. For instance, if we get an evil thought, does this mean we should put it into action? We can see the benefit of being truthful, but just how truthful do we need to be? As serious practitioners, are we required to be truthful one hundred percent of the time?

Can one be "too truthful?"

There is a story about a yogi who, after years of dedicated practice, perfected satya. He was no longer capable of telling a lie. He retreated into the mountains to become a hermit. One day, as he sat near his tiny shed, a distressed man came running up a trail. The man clutched a bag tightly in his arms and kept looking back, as if he were being chased. Upon seeing the yogi, the man yelled out, "Please, help me Sir. Bandits are chasing me and trying to steal my money. I will hide behind those bushes, so tell them I went in the other direction!" Before the yogi could reply, the man jumped behind the bushes.

A minute later, three machete-wielding bandits came running up the trail. Upon seeing the yogi, one of them asked, "Hey, you! Did you see a man clutching a bag come up this trail?" The yogi replied. "Yes, I did." Another asked, "Which way did he go?!" The yogi, pointing to the bushes where the man hid, said, "he is hiding behind those bushes." The bandits forcefully dragged the man out of the bushes, killed him, and took his money.

Let wisdom guide you

Satya, like all the other yoga observances and restraints, are only meant as guidelines. They were never meant to be -- nor is it possible to-- adhere to them one hundred percent of the time. We must evaluate each situation on its own merit instead of trying to follow a rule book. This is where our wisdom comes in.