Posted on: 27 Jun 2016
Shri P.V.N.M.Sharma asked: Telling a lie is a fundamental sin as per the words of elders. How it can be sinless in Nivrutti?
Swami replied: Even without touching the subject of God (Nivrutti), let us examine this issue within the boundaries of ethics (Pravrutti). Ethical scripture says that hurting any living being is the highest injustice and hence non-hurting any living being is the highest justice (Ahimsaa paramo dharmah). Telling truth or not telling a lie is also important in ethics, but, it is in the lower place than the above. When higher and lower concepts clash with each other, higher should be protected sacrificing the lower. A good man was running with a bag of his hard earned money and thieves were running after him. The good person escaped them and was hiding himself in a bush. A sage saw this. He was having a strict discipline not to tell a lie at anytime. The thieves came and enquired about the person with bag of money. The sage told the truth. The thieves killed the good person and stole away his money. After death, thieves went to hell. Shocking point is that our sage also went to hell after death! The sage protested this saying that he was always truthful. Lord Yama told that the sage came to hell because of that truthfulness only. Here, the higher ethical rule is that the good person should not be hurt and he was hurt to the climax since he was killed. The sage should have told a lie that he has not seen any person and by such lie, he should have escaped the hell. The lower rule of telling truth must be sacrificed by the higher rule of not hurting a good person. You can tell a lie in such context to protect the higher justice and you can even promise on God or anybody, which will also be not a sin and will not harm you in anyway here or there. You can say that you have seen someone and say that you always speak lies! You can also say that you have not seen anyone and say that you never tell lies! If you are very clever, you can also say “My eyes have seen somebody but are unable to speak. My mouth is able to speak truth but has not seen anyone!” All these are various poetic ways of expression and the essence is only that you shouldn’t hurt any good soul and for that purpose telling a lie is not a sin at all. Even if the person is bad, you need not hurt him in the context of doing your best work (God’s work) secretly. You can hurt a bad person if he/ she is bad and in such context, you must speak the truth that you are punishing that soul for future reformation only and not with vengeance. Therefore, you should not hurt any person good or bad in the context of doing your best work secretly and telling lies is not at all a sin even in Pravrutti, not to speak of Nivrutti. But, you have to be very careful in Pravrutti because the work done by you may be misunderstood or misinterpreted by you as the best work and in fact it might have been the worst work. In Nivrutti, such error cannot happen because any sacrifice and any service to God is always best ending in unimaginable benefit to the soul, which is stated by scripture also (Pravruttireshaa bhutaanaam Nivruttistu mahaaphalaa).