Honesty in Yoga Practice

Honesty is a part of yoga practice but only in so far as one can maintain that without risking self-endangerment. There were exceptions where an ascetic shared a truthful rendition of an event and suffered terribly or even died as a result. On the other end of the spectrum some ascetics were known to deny information or to distort an opinion to save their lives. To save one’s life, which is better? To be totally honest or to be outright dishonest?

There is no clear-cut universal answer. It depends on the time and place. An ascetic must be knowledgeable of the past, present and future to determine the value of the speaking truthfully, omitting facts or denying an information about what he witnessed.

Cheating is part of the physical existence which we currently endure. How did someone come here? From where did someone transmigrate to this place. Whose idea was it that a woman’s orifice would be the terminal place for the embryo?

What kind of place is it, which is the tracing point as one goes backwards to the father’s body? Who planned that journey? Did it happen spontaneously with no biological engineer on a mystic plane, designing it?

But even in there, in the mother’s lower part, one is dishonest. Even there one hides. As for instance when one is in there and one is fearful of a loud noise or of violent strike to the mother’s abdomen. One may have this idea, that one should be as small as possible to stop the mother’s abdomen from becoming too distended, where someone being aggravated by the protrusion, may strike, and kill the growing shape during the embryonic state.

And then the force of being pushed out. The fear of it!

This creation is filled with numerous energies and their resultant mixes which renders as live events. The pressure is on to honor the energies by absorbing, promoting, and facilitating them. A yogi should respect the operations but at the same time, he/she should if possible sidestep, avoid, and be neutral to most of them. Even the positive ones should be regarded with caution.

If you see a grenade, do not pull the pin from it. In fact, do not pick it up. Leave it as it is with the pin preventing detonation. Do not try to disarm it. In some instances, the attempt to disarm it even by an expert, caused it to explode in his/her face.

Leave it where it is even though you know that it is dangerous and that some ignorant or informed person may be killed by it. Seeing it does not give one the right to changed its position or to activate or disable its trigger.

Suppose however you need it to blast some part of a mountain? Then what should you do? Should you take it, place it in the mountain and blast the place?

Suppose you saw a grenade, but it was an old one which did not detonate for some fifty years. It is rusted and encrusted with grit. The rain fell and exposed it. You know a man who is a miner who needs it. Should you pick it up carefully and offer it to him at a reasonable price?

Of course, you would not stress that it may explode to his face. That is a possibility but you want to avoid speaking of that because if you do, the miner may turn away and not buy it. Why not sell it to him but make sure that you get a handsome amount for it? Of if you are in a good mood and do not need the money, give it to him but do not warn him. After all, if it exploded untimely, he will be dead. If it explodes as he would like it to, he would be happy.

In either case if he lives or dies, you would not be challenged by his anger over the risks. Honesty is risky.