Satya, the second yama, means nonlying or truthfulness and extends to the responsibility of keeping your promises. We all know the importance of being truthful. One of the benefits of following the yamas is peace of mind. Have you ever tried to lie and maintain peace of mind? It would be nearly impossible! You can't keep peace of mind when you are trying to remember what lie you told and to whom you told it!
The yama satya is based on the idea that honest communication and keeping promises provides the basis for any healthy relationship, community or government, and that deliberate deception, exaggerations and untruths harm others.
I believe, most importantly, satya applies to your relationship with yourself. Everything, satya included, starts with you, moving from our inside world to the outside world. When you are honest with yourself, you remove delusion and the filters through which you see your own behavior and your world. Sometimes it isn't easy to be honest with ourselves. We have had years of practicing habits, patterns of perception, and beliefs which work together to color our understanding of ourselves at any given moment. These are our filters. By practicing satya, we, over time, eliminate our filters and increase actions which arise from the truth in our relationships with ourselves and others. We act from a place of truth, not from a place of the fears and assumptions we learned through using our filters. Then we can think, speak and act from truth and in accordance with our highest goals and beliefs. When we consistently practice satya, we have no reason to fear our behavior and we have no regrets. In his book "Raja Yoga," Swami Kriyananda says it all.
An attitude of truthfulness means to try always to see things as they are, to accept the possibility that one may be mistaken in his most cherished opinions, to entertain no likes and dislikes that might prejudice his perception of reality as it is.
We practice satya in the same way we practice ahimsa, with truthfulness in thought, truthfulness in word, or speech, and truthfulness in deed, our actions.
Most of us would agree that it is not always desirable to speak the truth on all occasions. It could harm someone unnecessarily. We have to balance satya with ahimsa. Sometimes, when speaking the truth, we have to consider what we say, how we say it, and realize how what we say can affect others. At times, when the truth would have negative consequences, it is best to say nothing at all!
This week's assignment is to think before you speak and ask yourself the question, "Is this really the truth?" Then ask again before speaking.
Next week we will talk about asteya (nonstealing).
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