One of the five Yama’s (laws or guiding principles) of yoga is “Satya” the Sanskrit word for truth. The meaning goes into an ethical concept about truthfulness and is considered an important virtue. It means being true and consistent with reality in one's thought, speech and action. It is important to not only be honest and truthful in our dealings with others but to also and more importantly from my perspective to be true to yourself.
In recent years my I have often chosen the high road, the difficult road the road that brings grief to me personally all in the name of “fairness and justice for all” (perhaps on some level I consider myself some type of corporate superhero). Often when we make a stand for something that we believe in, when we speak our truth we feel vulnerable and are unsure if we should be speaking up or if we should just let it go, because lets be fair, that is the easy route.
Several years ago, I made a stand when I knew that members of my team and I were being treated unfairly. I made the person and the organisation who was treating me badly realise how their actions were making me feel and I stood up for myself, at the time it was really difficult and I asked myself if the effort was worth it. I had truth on my side but to walk away would have been a lot easier. I am burdened with a strong sense of fairness and will more often than not stand up for what I think is right.
Last week, that person who wronged me, unexpectedly approached me in a public place in a location I would never have expected to see them. They apologised for the way they had treated me all those years ago and told me that they had a lot of respect for me and were sorry for the way things had worked out. Out of no where and out of context the vindication came thick and fast. It was the universes way of reassuring me that if you are true to yourself the universe will have your back so to speak.
As good yogis wherever possible we are honest and truthful in our dealings with others, except if being truthful will cause pain to others. How do we know what our truth is, I hear you ask? This is often the hard part, for me I learned my truth through a lot of introspection and meditation, The truth (funny pun intended) is that sometimes we may not even know our truth until we are put in a situation where we question what we are willing to accept. Another interesting thought and reason that we need to maintain a focus on satya is when we stray too far from our truth our head and our heart are at odds and we are in a situation of stress. In addition to all of this and my personal favourite reasons for behaving in an honest way:
“Tell the truth…..there is less to remember”
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