Hanging behind my dad's desk in his office was this quote:
"Truth is High. Higher still is truthful living." (Guru Nanak, Page 62 of the Guru Granth Sahib)
Honesty is easy to advocate and really, really difficult to practice. Being honest to others and to yourself sounds like something we should all be able to do, but here's a reality check.Close your eyes right now and count the untruths you've collected today. Think of those minor adjustments to the truth, the harmless exaggerations, the small white lies, half-truths, tiny omissions and not just the outright lies you have told today, to yourself or to another.
You'll squirm. If you're capable of being honest with yourself, that is.
As Indians, we grow up with this thought: Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram. Only the truth is beneficial. Only what is beneficial is beautiful.
Philosophically speaking, we revere truth with a Big T.The Truth.
We seek it vigorously through our religions and rituals. We are exhorted to live it every day by the value system we inherit from our ancient shruti and smriti. We reject all that is illusion, all worldly maya in rigorous pursuit of the sat-guru: a true mentor, a spiritual guide, the truth-teacher who shows us the real that is not of the worldly realm.
In our here-and-now everyday living and breathing, though, we falter. We worship not the common quotidien variety of truths. Those don't matter to us too much. We feel no qualms in hiding from them. Our highly stylised and stratified social structures make us palpably dishonest in our daily dealings with self and other.In search of the big Truth, we forget the value of daily honesty. And thus we lose to illusion; fall into the maya-trap.
Most self-actualised people--the people we admire and aspire to become--have this really straightforward and simple honesty that is unwavering and unafraid; non-threatening and un-threatened. It is what gains them your credibility and respect. It is what makes you want to follow in their footsteps.
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