As they say, “If you are always a speaker of truth, you don’t need to remember anything anytime”. That’s a beautiful thought isn’t it? If we always speak truth, even after several years if we are asked about a past incident we would tell the same what we knew that time also. If we are habituated to speaking falsehood, we will always have to remember to which person what story we have told and even years later when that person asks about that again, we will have to exactly tell the same story otherwise we will be caught. So difficult isn’t it? That’s why speaking the truth always makes lives easier.

The meaning and glory of Satyam – The Truth

Well, even Trust stands on Truth alone. Whom do we trust in this world? When we know someone who lies frequently we fear believing his words always doubting them to be true or not. On the contrary when we meet someone whom we know as a speaker of truth always, we would blindly invest our trust his words. Shri Rama emphasizes this in Ramayana saying:

“उद्विजन्ते यथा सर्पान् नराद् अनृत वादिनः |
धर्मः सत्यम् परो लोके मूलम् स्वर्गस्य च उच्यते ||” (Valmiki Ramayana 2:109:12)
“People fear of a person, who speaks untruth, as one fears a snake. Truth is the highest virtue and is stated to be the origin of heaven.”

Further he says that Truth is verily the Supreme God too and Goddess Lakshmi resides where truthful people abide in.

“सत्यम् एव ईश्वरो लोके सत्यम् पद्मा समाश्रिता |
सत्य मूलानि सर्वाणि सत्यान् न अस्ति परम् पदम् ||” (Valmiki Ramayana 2:109:13)
“Truth is verily the God, and goddess of prosperity (Padmā) attaches herself to Truth (i.e., all prosperity and virtues reside where truthfulness exists). All are rooted in truth there is nothing higher than truth.”

Now, if we don’t know exactly the subtleties about Satyam, we will bring peril to ourselves too.

The above words were spoken by Shri Rama himself. But in the same Ramayana we see that when he was seated in his chariot and moving for Forest, his charioteer being Sumanta. Dasharatha comes running behind the chariot saying ‘Stop Come back don’t Go!’ and when Sumanta asks Rama if he should go back as the King himself seems to be ordering it, Rama asks him to move forward and not stop. When Sumanta asks him what would he answer if King asks him why he didn’t stop, Rama asks him to say “I didn’t hear you sir!”.

One may get a doubt how the truth speaker Rama could suggest someone to utter falsehood? Doesn’t that make Sumanta gain the sin of falsehood if he speaks so? How could Rama say so?

That’s where the subtle aspects of our stories need to be grasped firmly.

Speaking truth doesn’t mean blindly speaking raw data without weighing the fact whether those words could bring harm to some innocent being. If that was so then even an AI Robot can be a truthful person because Robot speaks whatever data is in it. It doesn’t manipulate thoughts it’s just a machine that gives output based on the input question. How do humans differ from computer then?

Humans have a cognitive ability called ‘buddhi (intellect)’ which makes the decisions weighing what and when it’s appropriate to speak.

That’s why – The finest definition of Satyam (truth) is “सर्वभूतहितार्थ भाषणं एव सत्यम्।” Meaning, “That speech which is spoken keeping welfare of all in consideration is alone called Truth”.

This is why if Rama would have returned back his father’s promise would have got withdrawn and then that would have been a black mark on their entire clan whose ancestors never slipped from given word. And the bad example that it would have created for the citizens to imitate is another peril awaiting. The subjects follow what the king does. Hence Rama’s suggestion to Sumanta was not sinful. That was the Truth in that context.

So, we conclude by reiterating the definition – “सर्वभूतहितार्थ भाषणं एव सत्यम्।”!