The Truth About Truth

I have briefly introduced readers to the 8 fold path in my earlier blog. Today I will briefly touch on the first of those and specifically focus on one of the key requirements underlying the first step.

The first limb, yama, deals with one's ethical standards and sense of integrity, focusing on our behavior and how we conduct ourselves in life. Yamas are universal practices that relate best to what we know as the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

The five yamas are:

1. Ahimsa : nonviolence
2. Satya: truthfulness
3. Asteya: nonstealing
4. Brahmacharya: continence
5. Aparigraha: noncovetousness

In this blog I want to focus on the aspect of Satya or Truthfulness. Every religion talks of being truthful. The questions related to truth are whether one should tell the truth all the time or is it acceptable to lie at some times? Is there something called a transactional  truth and an absolute truth? To analyze the first question I would like to try and build a model to help in analyzing. As covered in detail in earlier blogs, we as a living entity are composed of  (i) Gross body consisting of the 5 action and 5 sense organs; (ii) Subtle body consisting of the Mind, which houses emotions, gets signals from the sense organs and directs the action of the action organs and the Intellect which is able to conceptualize and decide; (iii) Causal body consisting of our innate desires which causes us to take a particular body to fulfill our desires.

Let me use the structure above to build the model to analyze Truth. Let's say I am a lone bystander waiting to cross a road. In front of me i notice a car pulling back and as it does, it knocks down a 2 wheeler and speeds off. Soon a man comes and asks me me if I saw what happened. Since I had seen what happened I tell him the details. Let us see the above using the model. My eyes saw something and conveyed the signals to my mind. My eyes, by themselves do not know what happened. The mind gets the signal and the mind also does not know what has happened or who is wrong. It checks with the Intellect. The intellect, through past experience and/or training knows it is an accident and who is responsible and tells the Mind accordingly. The mind then tells the mouth to tell what happened. All these happen so fast, we do not realize the interaction of sense organs (eyes), the mind, the intellect and the action organs (mouth) in the whole process. 

Now let me change the situation slightly. Instead of the car driver being an unknown person, assume it is my best friend who knocks down the two wheeler and speeds off. Now, if i am asked what happened, would I as easily blurt out the truth or say, I do not know, which is a lie? Let us use the same model as above. In this case, though the intellect has told the Mind what has happened, the mind because of its emotion of love towards my best friend, instructed the mouth to tell a lie. So, an act of the mouth where the mind has overpowered the intellect has resulted in a lie.

Let me take another situation. I am walking on a lonely street and suddenly I notice a lady running towards me and in the distance, i notice couple of men running towards me. The lady tells me that they are trying to snatch her jewelry and goes and hides behind a wall. The men come up to me and ask if I have seen a woman and describe her. Should I be truthful and tell them where she is hiding or should i tell a lie and say, I dont know. Now it depends on whether I believe the woman told me the truth. If the woman had told me a lie and had really stolen the jewels from a shop, truthfully I will have to reveal where she is. Else, if she was telling the truth, i will have to tell a lie and protect her. Now, the sense organs cannot determine the truth/false of the situation and neither can the mind. It is up to the Intellect to make its best guess and based on that it will tell the mind and the mind will instruct the mouth accordingly. So, even if I do not reveal the woman, but later on it turns out she was really a thief, I have not told a lie because my mind was fully under the control of the Intellect  and Intellect is the final arbiter.

Now comes a question, is the Intellect always right? This is like asking if the mirror always reflects? The mirror reflects perfectly when it is clean. If there is a bit of dust on it, a mere wiping with a wet cloth will clean it and it will reflect perfectly. If it has got stained,  a more rigorous cleaning is needed to make it reflect properly. But none of this takes away from the fact that the very nature of a mirror is to reflect and it is only extraneous things that may have caused it to cease to reflect and with right effort at removing the dirt, will cause it to reflect properly again. In exactly, the same way, the very nature of the Intellect is purity, truthfulness, ability to discriminate, make proper judgement etc. Similar to a mirror, the Intellect may appear to be failing in its function due to accumulated dirt of emotions, greed, anger, attachments etc. In the same way as the mirror could be cleaned, the intellect can be sharpened and cleaned through study of scriptures, being in company of saintly people etc. When the mind is under the control of such an intellect, it will always ensures that the action organ tells the Truth.

The above discussion pertains to transaction based truth where the concept of a relative truth comes into discussion. But then what is absolute truth? That which was true yesterday, is true today and will be true tomorrow is absolute truth. That which is true in waking state, dream state and in deep sleep taste is absolute truth. The absolute truth is something that is subtler than the Intellect too and hence Intellect cannot sit in judgement of this truth. This absolute truth is nothing but the fact that we in reality are nothing but the Brahman or Consciousness or Truth or Divine Light. Due to a massive ignorance, we believe that we are measly human beings and that is the biggest "lie " we are telling ourselves.

In conclusion as part of being Truthful in the context of Yama, the first step of Astanga principle,  is to ensure that any action of the action organs be done as directed by the mind which is under the control of a well developed Intellect. Secondly it is critical to remain focused on the Absolute Truth and work towards achieving it, which is finally the aim of the Astanga process.


Please buy and read any of these books:


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

The Spirit of Spirituality

The Real Cleansing To Absolute Purity

We have often heard the words, Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Most of us have kept our bodies clean, our houses clean, our vehicles clean and many other physical objects with which we are in contact. We smugly congratulate ourselves on our cleanliness and sneer at the dirt in many third world countries or in poor neighborhoods. But, let us reflect back on the so called cleanliness that we feel is the end of our quest for cleanliness.

Are we free of mass murders, gang rapes, jealous colleagues, angry spouses etc? If we are honest, our answer is a resounding NO. I am not speaking rhetorically here, nor am I am trying to become a preacher and tell people how to live. I will, as the article progresses, try to draw attention to the real dirt we should be cleaning, the impact of not cleaning and techniques for cleaning. When we talk of a despot doing mass murders, what should we look to clean? For a person jealous of his colleague and plotting some political game for his downfall, what should we clean? Surely not the physical body ! No amount of soap, shampoo or detergent can cleanse this.

Before deciding on cleaning, should we not look at the source causing the dirt in the first place? We can spend millions cleaning up a dirty pond. But if the factory nearby continues to pour its waste into the pond, how can we ever clean the pond? The solution is to either cut off the inflow of dirt from the factory or to clean the factory process to eliminate dirt. Either way, the solution is not where the dirt is seen, but in the source causing the dirt. This is obvious, one may yawn and say. But then, for the type of human dirt, I mentioned above, what is the source?

To understand this, we have to understand basics of any action. Action does not happen in a vacuum. Action is preceded by a desire and desire is preceded by a thought. So, for a dictator, there has to be a desire to kill and before that a thought of killing should arise. This process of thoughts and desires happen in our subtle body and is controlled by the Mind. The mind is relentlessly active with tens of hundreds of thoughts, some of which translate into desires, which the mind then commands the action organs to fulfill.

In addition to creating havoc on the outside world, an impure mind has a more deleterious  effect on the individual. As stated earlier, each of us is nothing but the Supreme consciousness. It is the mind that creates an illusion of separation and causes all the problems we face. As the mind becomes cleaner, it is able to reflect the pure consciousness better and be able to direct all action towards realizing the oneness of the individual with Supreme. An impure mind cannot do this. As human beings, we are the only species which can think and analyze and take steps to achieve the ultimate purpose of human life, which is to realize the Oneness with the Supreme. Without this, we are doomed to multiple lives of sorrow and suffering.  

So, if dark or bad thoughts arise in the mind, some of them get converted to burning desires which then get converted to dark actions. So, just as we had to cut off the flow of waste into a pond or clean the factory waste  so as to keep the pond clean, the only way to clean the dirt of violence, rape, anger etc is to cut off such thoughts in the mind or to fill the mind with good thoughts. It is not possible to have a mind that is empty of thoughts just as it is impossible to have an ocean without waves. The only way a mind can be cleaned of bad thoughts is to gradually replace it with good thoughts. But how can this be done? There are a variety of techniques to ensure that the mind is occupied with something good and prevent the rising of bad thoughts.

1. Visit to holy places

A visit to a holy place like a temple, church or whatever place depending on the individual belief will potentially reduce the flow of bad thoughts and encourage the flow of good thoughts. It could also include places of pilgrimage. The sheer exposure to so many people in a worshiping mode can potentially replace bad thoughts with good thoughts.

2. Attending lectures on spirituality

Any action that will ensure that the mind does not think of bad thoughts is a positive to reduce negative action. While it  is fine to even attend a lecture on physics, maths or on any worldly topic, it is better to attend lectures on spirituality, philosophy so that the mind at least gets exposure to higher aspects of life.

3. Doing social work

Whether a social work is done with a pure intention to serve or not, the very act of doing service to others, will create flow of thoughts that are positive and curb the negative thoughts.

4. Reading uplifting books

Again, so long as a good book is read, be it physics, history or whatever, anything that takes the mind away from negative thoughts is a big plus. However the  most benefit can come by reading books about morality, spirituality, biographies/autobiographies of great people.


The level of effort needed to clean the mind depends on the personality of the individual. Assume we have a mirror with a thin coating of dust. To make it reflect properly, all that is needed is a gentle wipe with a cloth. Similarly for people who are at a significantly high level of positive thinking, a simple prayer daily may help remove lingering negativity. These are technically called as Satviks or those who have a predominance of Sattva or goodness. Then, there are the next set of people who are not so evolved on the good thought scale and probably have a significant proportion of bad thoughts. These people are like a reflecting mirror which has been disused for a long time and has cobwebs and dust covering it up. So a gentle wipe with a cloth may not be enough. The glass may need to be cleaned with a jet of water and then wiped so as to reflect well. Similarly, for such people, a simple prayer may not be enough. They may have to follow a couple of methods from the list above, like reading a book daily and attending lectures daily. Such people are called Rajasik. Finally we come to another class of people who are totally steeped in ignorance. They do not care for anything or anyone's advise. They are like a mirror which not only has been disused, but has been exposed to so much dirt, that it has a thick coating of grime on it. For such a mirror, even a jet of water may not be enough. It may need chemicals to melt the grime and then water to clean and then a polish to restore the surface. Similarly for the absolute Tamasik people, it is unlikely that any of the above methods could work. They may need all of it. However, since they are so deeply ignorant, they may need to be forced into doing those activities. Just as a animal is trained using the carrot and stick approach, such people may need a mixture of pressure and gentle persuasion to get them on the path and once on the path, all of the above to make their minds clean.

This article broadly covered the necessity of cleaning the mind, the ways to clean the mind and the type of methods to be used depending on personality types. Readers are encouraged to mull over the article and after reflection, select the best method for cleaning their minds.



As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality