199. Honesty Can Never Go Out of Fashion……..

The motto of our country “Satyameva Jayathe” The Truth alone Succeeds, has its origin in Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.6. Is Truthfulness and honesty the same????? Honesty and Truthfulness are two different words, honesty will be lively if it upholds the Truth and if it does not, it loses its own existence and also buries the essence of our survival by hindering our personality development. Honesty is a virtue which does not let the beholder to misrepresent the truth intentionally. This is an attitude of a person who has truthfulness as his behaviour and would not defer from it even at critical times. He is never tempted to speak or act in a dishonest way even if he knows that if by doing so he is benefited. Every individual is generally honest, and the fact is that at the time of crisis some may tend to take refuge in dishonesty from time to time. So the virtue of being honest may amend if we consider it to be our character trait, but if one makes it behaviour then it is truthfulness all the way. It is quite natural for us to look at the things from our perspective and hence act according to our advantage. This way of leading life can be labeled by some as brilliance and talent. The basic survival instincts in such a person suggest pushing honesty to the corner when it is intimidating his survival and hug it when it is favoring. This happen when we have given the chance for our emotions to guide, emotions work quicker than intellect and deliver the verdict which may sometime be uncalled for. Agreed that it would help him see the day off but deep inside him, his conscience knows better what he has skipped in the day. As conscience is a thousand witness. This act attributes to Self Deception, Self Deception leads to lack of peace of mind, and lack of peace of mind makes us behave like animals. Being Honest is much more than just speaking Truth, it needs courage, with fear of none other than Absolute. When one is courageous and has a pure mind and an untainted heart honesty just flows without much to bother.