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Chapter 3

Ahimsa: Non-Violence

Ahimsa is a public code of conduct, and it means “non-violence”. “Himsa” means

violence, and when you put an “a” in front of the word, it makes it “not”, or “non”.

Non-violence is not as simple as not hitting somebody. Obviously not hitting someone

is non-violence too, but true ahimsa is much deeper than that. It means non-violence

in physical action, in speech, and in thought.

Non-Violence in Thought

Non-violence in thought is so important because thought can carry energy that

penetrates the “akash” (the atmosphere) and can travel through it towards an intended

target. Thus, through thought alone, you can cause harm.

Our minds are a lot stronger than we think. We don’t realise that when we consciously

or subconsciously put out negative energy or bad vibes towards someone, it could

damage them. If you give enough focus and attention to a negative feeling for another

person, and that person is vulnerable in some way, vacant, intoxicated at the time, or

not in control of their mind in that moment, then your negative energy can penetrate

and start to affect their psyche.

The yogis knew this, which is why they stated that to be truthfully and authentically

non-violent, it must be non-violence in thought as well.

So, it’s important that one does not send out negative intentions: “I want to kill that

person”, “I hate that person”. For if that person is vulnerable, then you will have violated

them and caused them harm.

Also, due to the Law of Karma, if you send negative energy out, it will eventually come

back to you.

Protection From Negative Thoughts: Do Not Empty Your Mind

The chances of being harmed by negative thoughts are greatly reduced if one remains

in a positive space. Examples of the kind of things that one can do to help themselves

include:

• Practicing meditation and yoga regularly

• Keeping the mind occupied and positive

• Dispelling negative emotions and bad feelings quickly through wisdom

• Discussing things that are bothering them with their friends and family.

If one remains in a positive state of being, then they will be under a reduced threat of

negative energy attacks from anybody. It is only when people take themselves into

long periods of intoxication, despair, or depression, and they don’t seek help, try to

meditate, or try to do anything positive, that they possibly make themselves

susceptible. Ordinarily, a regularly practicing yoga student is far from being under any

threat from other people directing negative thoughts towards them.

At Chi Kri, we don’t believe in meditation techniques that simply clear the mind. We

aim to keep our minds focused on the soul and the Spirit, so there is no danger of an

empty mind being accessed by negative thoughts or energies. (Besides which, once

you have cleared your mind, there is no point sitting there aimlessly; it is better to use

your mind for furthering your union with your soul and the Source.)

Violence Against Oneself

Ahimsa also means that one should not harm or abuse oneself. Examples of ways in

which a person could be violent towards themselves include:

• Worrying

• Taking on a victim mentality

• Negative thinking

• Not living up to your full potential/violating your own development

• Over-working or over-exerting yourself in any way

• Self-sabotage e.g. deliberately starving oneself

• Eating things that are not good for you

• Abuse of intoxicants, such as alcohol and drugs

• Emotional self-harm, e.g., guilt, self-hate, self-loathing

• Physical self-harm, e.g., cutting oneself

• Suicide

Ego, Suffering, and Self-Awareness

Most of the time, when we feel violation, we feel suffering. The experience of suffering

comes from the ego; without it, there is no experience of suffering. The more highly

evolved the ego, the more aware are we of our own existence. Therefore, the bigger

the ego, the greater the suffering.

As we go lower down the food chain, our ego, our self-consciousness/self-awareness,

and our wisdom all decrease in size. Animals feel less pain because they don’t have

the same ego, the same consciousness, the same discriminative power, and the same

wisdom as humans. Hence their capacity to suffer is less.

Animals don’t refer the pain back to themselves. They don’t know that they are

suffering to the same degree as humans. With humans, we feel that it is our body, it

is our thing, it is our life; the animals are not so egotistical. They feel pain, but they

don’t cry or lament over it. It happens, then they move on; they don’t sit there talking

to other animals and complaining. You must have seen dogs with three legs, they just

get on with their life. There’s no hotline that they call up to discuss their missing leg,

saying “I want compensation, as I can’t chase cats anymore!”

Humans, on the other hand, have the potential to suffer to a much greater degree than

animals because we are so much more acutely aware of ourselves as beings. We

pander to our individual egos.

Human beings are the only creatures conscious enough to achieve liberation by lifting

themselves from the bondages of maya and going back to God. So, humankind has

this two-fold dilemma: we have the power to liberate and the power to do the opposite,

which is to completely destroy ourselves.

While animals don’t ordinarily have the power to get to God, they also don’t have the

power to destroy themselves as we do. Animals can only liberate themselves through

great blessings and prayers from a master, but this is rare. To get the opportunity of

being a human being involves going through several forms of evolution. That is why it

is such bad karma to take away a human life, including your own.

Being human and practising the royal subject of yoga is an extremely fortunate position

to be in. Yoga is the only means to liberation. All religions meet at some form of yoga

(because yoga simply means to unite to God).

Pain is Relative

Pain, as experienced by the consciousness, is relative.

A certain situation could be very painful for someone who is more self-centred,

sensitive, ego-driven, or has excessive self-awareness; while the same situation might

not be so painful for someone else who is the opposite by nature.

For example:

1. A mugger takes £30 from two people of the same humble status. For the first

person, it is an upsetting blow to their finances. For the second person, they

look to the positives: they are safe, they can earn that money again, and they

don’t feel upset or in pain.

2. Two young boys are playing football and get hurt in a tackle. They are both

limping with equally minor injuries. One boy is mentally stronger and wants to

carry on playing, blocking out the experience and focusing on helping the team

by playing on. The other boy thinks the world has just collapsed and wants to

go home right away!

As the saying goes, “it is all in the mind!”

How to Practise Ahimsa

You can practise ahimsa by developing the qualities that are the opposite of violence.

Qualities such as understanding, compassion, forgiveness, and mercy; all these are

aspects of love.

Forgiveness is probably the greatest of these qualities. At Chi Kri, we say to keep your

default setting as “forgiveness”. Because, if you’re permanently in a state of

forgiveness and can let things go easily, you will do very well in your practise of

ahimsa.

Lord Jesus Christ gave us an excellent example of understanding and forgiveness just

before he was crucified. He forgave his perpetrators by understanding their ignorance:

“Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” Christ knew that those who

were killing him had a limited perception of Truth, and so could not be hated for what

they were not yet aware of.

Dealing with Verbal Attacks

When someone insults you, you are under no obligation to react immediately. Take a

moment. Normally, when you react fast, you react wrongly; your emotions take control

of you. Violence is usually an emotional response and one that we want to avoid.

Instead, we want to try and bring peace and pacify the situation.

Practise ahimsa by understanding what is happening, but do not react. With verbal

attacks, remember that you are not under any obligation to respond by any measure

of time, especially resorting to violence in return.

Stop and question whether your attacker really knows what they are talking about. If

you seek to understand where your attacker is coming from, you will realise that they

probably lack an understanding of the truth, and you are less likely to be offended by

them.

Take Your Time

“Those who use time as their weapon conquer all that they survey”, is a Chi Kri Mind

Yoga quote. This means not rushing, not reacting too fast, taking time to calm

aggressive situations down, organising your hours methodically, and so on. If you

behave in this way you will be more able to hear and heed your soul, and thus it will

lead you to greater success.

Observe yourself in the third person; this separates you from the situation. Sit in peace

and reflect on yourself as a character in a story. Try to understand the underlying

motivation of those whom you have perceived to be offenders. Was it malice? Was

their intention to harm? Or was it done out of ignorance or a lack of understanding?

Then come to a balanced judgment before deciding what action to take – if any.

If you can create the time to think and can come back with a measured response, then

you will also know what you want out of that situation. Applying this intelligence will

take you from being below a situation, to rising above it.

We also say at Chi Kri that if you are going through a really difficult situation and not

sure how to proceed, give it two sleeps. Normally after two sleeps the whole situation

will feel completely different.

If you need to clear negative feelings or emotions from your system, write. Write a

forthright email or letter, but don’t send it. Get it out of your system. Then give it a

couple of days, one or two meditations, one or two sleeps, to think about it, and then

re-write it. You may delete it or send it. However, if you send it, you send out karma

and negative energy, and you will get trapped in a karmic cycle.

Yoga is teaching you to hold back. Wait. See how you can respond in a better way

later. This also teaches you the valuable lesson of patience.

Dealing with Repeated Attacks

You are not a doormat who gets violated repeatedly. If attacks persist repeatedly, then

your possible courses of action may include the following:

• Do not open up and expose your vulnerability to the attacker

• Do not spend any more time than necessary in their presence

• Remove yourself from the situation physically, mentally, and emotionally.

When is Violence Acceptable?

The principle of non-violence is not to be taken lightly and we must evaluate the

situation carefully before resorting to violence. What is the difference between violence

and self-defence, for example? If you are being attacked, are you allowed to defend

yourself? Are you allowed to harm other people as a consequence of your defence?

Looking into situations and principles like Christ’s for example, He wouldn’t harm

anyone. There are passages in the Bible where He says, “if anyone slaps you on the

right cheek, turn to him the other also”.

Gandhi was one of the greatest exponents of ahimsa. He could have protected

himself, and other Indians, against beatings, but he sought not to. There’s a school of

thought that says, “Even if violence is happening to you, you should not be violent

back”. In the struggle for independence in India, Gandhi instructed his “satyagrahas”

(followers) not to fight back physically, but to defend themselves through non-violent

methods e.g., political activism, patience, and non-cooperation.

We must also consider protection. We would obviously protect our children and we

would protect the vulnerable. Generally, violence is okay in self-defence, or when

protecting the vulnerable, or in the defence of a noble cause. Where is that line

between violence, self-defence, and protection? And why is yoga saying, “nonviolence”?

It is a tough one, one you may not understand right away because it is very

metaphysical, but it is an answer that will come in due course.

The word “violence” is to violate. The word means a breach, an intrusion into a space

where you are not supposed to be. And we are taught not to violate anything, whether

it is good or bad. So, when a person’s intention is to harm you, to violate you, by

stopping them, you are violating their intention. This becomes a very difficult space,

because non-violence is non-violation: not doing anything to stop anything. For

example, in the film about Gandhi, beatings were happening and there was no

response. There was no violation of anything, it was almost like the ego wasn’t there.

It was like, “You can touch my body, but you cannot touch my soul.” These principles

of non-retaliation will prevent you from building up negative karma. That’s one reason

not to strike back.

As hard as it is, and this is not something Chi Kri would expect any of you to live by,

what yoga is saying is that when you are practicing protection of the self, what you are

actually practicing is protection of the ego. Whereas if you go into the truth of yoga,

the truth is that you are a soul, a part of God, and there is nothing that needs protection.

You are a baby god; you are a soul.

When Christ was arrested, He said “Are you not aware that I can call on My Father

and He will at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels?”. Christ could

have retaliated. Imagine being arrested, strung up on a cross and crucified when all

he was doing was trying to help people. But Christ said, “Father, forgive them, for they

don’t know what they are doing.”

Similarly with Gandhi, he didn’t want to strike the British because he said they didn’t

know what they were doing, and that to strike would be to bring harm to India. Gandhi

suggested that instead of resorting to violence, it is possible to overcome the

opposition by using the power of Truth, the power of love, and the power of wisdom.

“Love is the greatest disarmer” is a Chi Kri Mind Yoga quote. Though you may be hurt,

if you show love in the face of aggression, in time you will dissipate all the fire. And

though you may take a blow, eventually it will go. But if you continuously strike, then

that fire will burn for eternity.

The core principle of ahimsa is to try to rise above any violence, think about the value

of your soul, who you really are, and who or what are you really trying to protect here.

While Chi Kri would not expect anyone to do this, we are all learning the principle to

aim towards. We’re all striving to get to the point where we don’t regard our ‘self’ as

solely the physical body.

For example, if you were being mugged, you may think this person is going to harm

your physical form. But when you eventually leave this body, you will enter your soul.

Looking at that situation from the soul’s perspective, the soul would say, “I never really

had that body, that body was something that I was carrying. The money that was in

my pocket was never mine.”

Imagine you could have that soul’s consciousness today. And then imagine you

retaliated and hit the mugger back. Now you will have taken on that karma. So, you

will have to come back and be in a situation where you get hit, and so the cycle

continues.

Martial Arts: Originally Created for Self-Defence

Martial arts allegedly started in the yoga monasteries of South India with a Buddhist

monk named Bodhidharma. When the monasteries were being repeatedly attacked,

the monks didn’t know what to do. So, they created a martial arts system whereby they

could use their bodies and sticks to defend and deflect without causing excessive

harm. These disciplines then went to the Far East and other martial arts emerged,

such as Shaolin and Aikido.

The whole principle was self-defence: blocking, disarming, shielding, and protecting.

It wasn’t there to attack or to win a war; it was a system of defending monks.

This is the ‘grey’ area: the ability to defend yourself whilst avoiding violence and

minimising the creation of new, negative karmas. Aikido, for example, redirects the

opponent’s own violent momentum back to themselves. When you watch the great

Aikido masters performing, it’s like a harmonious, highly skilled dance. This is in the

spirit of the great meditation masters of India.

Motivation, Intention, and Drivers

In situations like self-defence, for example, we (at Chi Kri) look at your motivation,

intention, and drivers. Circumstances need to be considered holistically, because even

if an action is deemed to be wrong, your motivation may have been pure.

If your motivation wasn’t to harm, but to protect yourself because you couldn’t tolerate

any more pain for example, then there is some mercy in that. Similarly, stopping an

attack on an innocent person would be considered noble.

This is why we have the phrases “reasonable” and “excessive force” in our law.

Reasonable force is what is needed to stop a situation. Excessive force is stopping

and then continuing to retaliate. The law tries to define between the two. Spiritually it

is the same – Spirit deems what is reasonable and what is excessive, and then metes

out any consequences through the law of karma.

Asteya: Non-stealing

“A” = Non and “Steya” = Stealing

Stealing is taking something, or some being, that is not yours. This can be both obvious

and subtle. Examples include:

• Property

• Physical objects

• Money

• Credit

• Ideas

• Intellectual property

• Land

• Honour/Dignity

• Confidence/Self-Esteem

• Joy/Happiness

• Hope

• Peace of mind

• Family, friends, partners

• Glory

• Passion

• Mind

• Attention

• Time

• Energy

• Freedom

• Development/Growth/Childhood

Why Do We Need to Steal?

Stealing comes from a feeling of personal inadequacy. One who steals does so

because they are unhappy and envious; they want to feel better and more powerful,

whether it be by malicious stealing, petty stealing or stealing for no real reason. These

subtle feelings of inadequacy need to be looked out for, so that, as yogis, we are

consciously avoiding these actions.

Is it Ever Right to Steal?

When someone is starving, is it ok to steal? It comes down to their motivation,

intention, and drivers - this is the key.

Suppose a mother has a child, she is homeless and living on the street. The child is

sick and in desperate need of food. No one has been charitable that day, so the mother

becomes increasingly worried. She goes into a shop and grabs a piece of bread. We

know that the motivation here is not to live a life of luxury, it is to feed her sick and

hungry child.

At Chi Kri, that would be looked upon as justified on that occasion. But if the mother

relied on stealing as her only source of food, never using her own intelligence to try

and work her way out of her situation, or she did not seek charity, if what she did was

from a place of laziness, then that would be considered as stealing. Also, in a situation

like the above, which is a one off, the shopkeeper might see her situation, have mercy,

and simply ask her not to do it again.

Robin Hood was famous for stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Though his

actions were very noble on the surface, this remains a very grey area. In the current

climate, we are not supposed to take from anyone on the basis of what we think is

unjust. This is very different to the homeless and desperate mother who stole for her

child. Robin Hood was stealing for others out of principle. Humankind has set up

means to change social structures like charities, politics, democracy, and business. If

Robin Hood was still right to steal in this day and age, there would be theft happening

all day in our modern climate, with everyone stealing based on their own individual

ideas. He was a political activist, and there are laws governing how far one is allowed

to take that. However, we do not know the context of his era, the attempts at civil

changes that were made, the situation of the poor at the time etc. Hence this remains

a subject of some discussion.

How to Practise Asteya

If the notion of stealing is festering in one’s head, it’s good to work with the opposite

notion. The opposite of stealing is giving, nurturing, nourishing, and loving. Instead of

taking, work on charity, on giving. Ask yourself:

• “Where in my life am I being charitable, where am I giving?”

• “Am I giving enough?”

• “Am I giving to a reasonable degree?”

This programs your mindset as a giver and is not limited to the physical. For example,

if you recognise someone is timid, feeling low or has low self-esteem, you give them

confidence, strength, and faith. You show them that you believe in them and that they

will grow. It’s like pouring water on a plant. If you adopt an attitude of always giving

something back, you will automatically be less likely to steal.

As a teacher, you are not going into the class with the aim of delivering a show and

stealing the attention from your students, you are going there to feed and nurture.

Giving confidence, faith, time, and love, and teaching yoga, are all moving away from

steya and towards the opposite: giving. “Seva” (or service) is what we call this in

Sanskrit.

Aparigraha: Non-Coveting and Non-Hoarding

“Parigraha” means the attainment of, attachment to, to covet, collect, hoard and hold.

It’s about having and hoarding physical possessions.

“Aparigraha” is the absence of these things: Letting go, non-hoarding, noncovetousness,

and the absence of greed.

Non-Coveting

To covet is to be envious of something that somebody else has and foster a need to

have it. This ought to be managed.

Note that coveting is not the same as desire. Desiring is not necessarily bad: e.g., a

desire to eat when hungry, a desire to work, and a desire to be good.

If you desire to have better spiritual habits then that is positive. It is not something that

you are trying to steal from others; hence desire is not necessarily a bad thing.

But coveting is dark and specific, aimed at brooding, yearning, craving, and obsessing

over what someone else has. If you want something, you can want it because you

want it. If you desire something, you can desire it because you desire it. It gets darker

when you compare it to what you feel you need, and condemn yourself for your

perceived lacking.

Desiring things could lead you towards hard work. But coveting things can lead you

towards attaining them by any means necessary, moral, fair, legal or not. Coveting

leaves you restless, unhappy, and riddled with moments of envy and jealousy.

A passage from the bible, Exodus 20:17 reads:

“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s

wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to

your neighbour.”

Non-Hoarding

Aparigraha also means not hoarding or excessively collecting possessions. Hoarding

and greed can arise in an attempt to fill an emotional or spiritual hole or ease a feeling

of low self-esteem; trying to achieve a sense of fulfilment from owning or consuming

an unreasonable amount of ‘things’.

As Gandhi says, “simple living, high thinking”.

Hoarding attention, and always wanting to be the centre of attention, is also

dangerous. It often stems from a sense of envy and jealousy – of other people’s skills,

achievements, and relationships.

How to Practise Aparigraha

If you find yourself feeling greedy, excessively wanting and desiring things, becoming

selfish, inconsiderate, or more self-centred; the antidote is to be generous.

The antidote is also not to make people desire you. Not to make yourself an object of

desire. Not to purposely go out there and say, “Look, desire what I have, desire the

car I have, desire the way I look, desire me...” What you are doing at this point is you

are making other people covet you.

If people desire you, it should not be because you are tempting them. If you want

something, it should not be because other people have it, but that you want it for

yourself. It’s more about just “doing you”, and not creating this energy of “I want it

because you have got it.” That kind of negative energy leads to negative emotions like

envy and bitterness.

Also see the section on “Santosha” in the chapter on “Niyamas”.

Brahmacharya: Observance of God’s Will

“Brahman” means God or Spirit. “Acharya” is to study.

A brahmacharya is someone who is focusing their life on the study of, or the

engagement with, God/Spirit. Brahmacharya is to live your life by the rules and the

precepts of God, such as truthfulness, peace, and happiness.

In the Vedic scriptures, the first 25 years of your life are the “single phase”: this is

where you are single and you simply study.

When the yogis first discovered everything we are discussing about God, life, and

yoga, they said that the best thing we can do for our children is get them into spiritual

thinking from an early age. So, they formed yoga ashrams (forest academies) and

gurukuls (spiritual schools), where children were educated about spiritual life as well

as mathematics, languages, and other subjects. Their minds were kept focused on

God and on spirituality, and away from earthly desires. They were also single-sex

institutions. Students meditated in the mornings, performed their prayers, and studied.

This way their minds were totally engaged on the true purpose of life.

You still get this concept of the monastic life in institutions like yoga ashrams in India

and monasteries elsewhere, with monks and nuns (brahmacharyas and

brahmacharinis) living in this fashion until a ripe old age.

This idea is not exclusive to India or any other part of the world. Taking children and

securing them in this way in the beginning is quite common. And you can still see

some of this in Christian schools in Europe: many of these schools are single sex

schools.

The Importance of Understanding Intimate Human Activity

Reproductive Fluids Contain the Very Best Nutrients

The reproductive fluids (also known as “ojas”) in males and females contain “dhatus”,

which are the best nutrients from the various organs, such as the brain and nerve

tissue, muscle, bone marrow, bone, blood, healthy fats, and reproductive tissue. Your

body naturally wants to give the very best it can, because such fluids are going to be

responsible for new life.

If you keep on using these fluids repeatedly, they start to deplete. The brain tissue, the

muscles, the bones, everything starts to weaken. Your body will keep refilling

reproductive fluids, but every time it does, it must take it from elsewhere. It must pull

energy out of your bones, your muscle, and your organs to keep making the

reproductive fluids.

It takes 28 days to fully replenish the system after using the reproductive fluids. One

drop of reproductive fluid is worth 100 drops of blood.

Intimate Energy and Spiritual Energy

The experiences felt during intimate human connections is the physical version of that

felt during deeper spiritual meditations: it is like a physical version of spiritual bliss.

To abuse these lower energies is to take your attention away from spiritual ecstasy. It

is a temporary satisfaction that can become an addiction and can end up leading you

away from the bliss that is felt in meditation. The bliss experienced in meditation is

longer and far more intense than that felt during intimacy.

Excessive desire for personal intimacy without reproduction, based on physical

attraction alone, is much like any other sensory desire. It gives you joy and ecstasy,

but ultimately, it is in the control of such temptations that we realise our spiritual

potential.

The more these physical urges are controlled, the more they are transmuted into

spiritual power; this is why Brahmacharya is featured as a ‘yama’. Keep that energy,

keep that power, it not only strengthens your system physically, but it also transmutes

to spiritual joy.

How to Practise Brahmacharya

Moderation is key. Especially in the event there’s illness in the body, when it would be

best not to deplete power and nutrients from the system.

Storing the fluid makes the body more robust, strong, and powerful. You experience a

lot more vitality, bliss, and joy internally. Your meditations, mind, senses, brain, and

skin also become stronger and sharper; and it’s possible that any children you have

will be stronger too.

Even in professional sports they say not to take part in intimate activity the night before

a game. Footballers are often required to keep their partners away for a few nights

before important games and tournaments for this very reason.

Ojas are also burnt off when you have high levels of stress or anger or too much heat

(“garmi”) inside your body. If you are burning off your vital fluids, it will drain the others

to fill it. And then you get into a cycle, getting weaker and weaker.

Brahmacharya can also be practiced by focussing on wholesome spiritual practices

and disciplines (like a regular morning meditation). Yoga, monastic or other spiritual

retreats are also excellent opportunities for living a God-centred life, giving you time

away from the temptations of the world, even if just for two or three days, to

concentrate within.

You can also be more like an inner brahmacharya, where you are internally devoted

to the scriptures and to God, not allowing attachments to form to anything, remaining

as pure and as strict with yoga as possible. This is like an inner renunciation, an

internal concept of devotion and attunement.

Satya: Truthfulness

Upholding the Truth brings you closer to God, as God is “Sat-Chit-Ananda”: “Truth-

Consciousness-Bliss”. Always uphold the Truth.

Universal Truth Versus Subjective Truth

Subjective truth is a belief, a principle, a subjective viewpoint, an opinion, or manmade

law, regulation, or rule. Everyone is entitled to this. However, subjective truth

does not always coincide with Universal Truth.

Universal Truth is an extremely complex subject. One way it can be explained is by

noting what is fundamental, desirable, and common to all beings. We could therefore

say love, happiness, and peace (and their derivatives like nurturing, smiling, and

contentment) are true for us all. They exist without inconsistency. To a lesser degree,

we could say that their opposites exist too: anger, sadness, and restlessness. With

this relativity in life, we can say that the Truth for us all is that we should live by love

and peace.

If one believes that murdering someone is an act which is in defence of Truth, they

would need to justify that because Universal Truth declares that love, peace and

happiness are holier states of existence. In short, the observance of Truth, means

living by the common laws of life: upholding love, peace, and happiness for all. That

is a Universal Truth which every being can agree ought to underpin Creation and God.

But how do we know the Truth as it applies to each and every situation in life, as much

can be contentious. That is wisdom. Wisdom is the child of Truth. Wisdom is the

instinct for Truth. Wisdom discerns righteousness (right behaviour) which avails itself

to the soul. So, you get to know Truth by developing your soul’s inner voice of wisdom,

and you do that in meditation. You can also hear wisdom from a yogi, or one who has

caught the word of God/Truth within them.

Universal Truth then speaks to Universal Law and the Law of Creation and karma. If

we understand that Truth is that love must be upheld, we understand that

transgressions against that create bad karma. This is how Truth forms the very

spiritual infrastructure of our lives.

How to Practise Satya

Once one has established Truth/wisdom within them, they may seek to deliver it. But

it must be done in the right way. This Chi Kri Mind Yoga quote says, “Honesty and

Tact are like finger and thumb, they should go hand in hand.”

Truth is powerful – but it should not be too brutal. There is a correct way and time to

reveal the truth. If these are not practised, truth could also be used as a weapon and

lend itself to violence. If truth is not expressed in the correct way, it could cause

damage to the recipient instead of helping them. When you are having a normal

personal interaction with someone and you need to explain the truth, you should

always be tactful. You should try to measure the situation so that people are not

unnecessarily hurt. Where the truth is advisory, it should be delivered with love.

Satya is the realm of truth. But in your truth, be tactful, be loving, be considerate, do

not be malicious, look at your motivation, your intention, and your driving force before

delivering the truth. In other words, the truth should be given with great responsibility.

Truth as an Excuse for Lacking Tact

You should not deliver a truth without preparation and forbearance. Otherwise, it’s like

saying that you are non-violent when really you are just a coward, or saying that you

do not believe in having possessions when you are simply too lazy to work. You could

say, “I tell the truth all the time”, when in fact it’s just an excuse to be tactless or cruel.

Is it Ever Okay to Lie?

This is another grey area. We have all been in a situation where someone has lovingly

taken time and effort to prepare some food for us, but it’s not to our taste. In a moment

like this, it is spiritually permissible not to tell them the absolute truth when they ask

you if you like the food. It is far more spiritual to give them a moderately emphatic

verdict on their food (“it’s really nice”, “this is so good, how did you make it?” etc.) and

move the conversation on to, for example, how grateful you are for the effort and love

they have put into the food.

It is far better to take that approach than to doggedly stick to telling the truth and end

up being coarse, tactless, and ungrateful about the entire moment. What you can do,

if you so desire, at a much later stage, is quietly, gently, and with palpable appreciation

offer them an insight into how you might generally prefer your food to taste! This

version of an untruth is often called a “white lie”, as it is generally untainted, spotless

(white) and therefore normally without karmic repercussion.

It's generally quite normal for human beings to be reticent about giving bad news e.g.

a doctor delivering a poor health verdict, a death in the family or even an employer

needing to sack an employee. If we ever eventually have to tell someone the absolute

truth, which we know is upsetting, two things can be kept in mind (a) deliver that truth

with love, care and gentleness, (b) be open to the possibility of delivering the truth very

patiently, and perhaps in well-considered parts, so as to soften the blow.

If there is a lie being propagated and you do not protest, are you culpable? Yoga says

that if you support the movement of a lie (e.g. gossip, laugh along, etc.), then you bear

some responsibility for the onward journey of that untruth. You are not obliged to stop

it, but it is wrong to fan or accelerate it. You can respond by remaining silent and being

neutral; or by protecting and defending someone or something, without necessarily

attacking anyone or anything.

In addition, it is important to remember that truth is not a weapon. The truth is a law of

life. When delivering truth to someone, it must not be tainted with one’s own ego. One

must not relish, take pride, belittle, or seek to gain any personal victory or moral high

ground when delivering a truth to someone else; especially, as previously mentioned,

when that truth is likely to be painful. One must try to remain humble, courteous, and

motivated by good intentions when giving truth to another. To not do so can lead to

the accumulation of karmic consequences. Keep the tone kind and spiritual, avoiding

all manner of pomp and self-interest.