Yoga Sutra 26 Truthfulness And Honesty

WHEN THE YOGI IS FIRMLY ESTABLISHED IN TRUTHFULNESS, HE ATTAINS THE FRUIT OF ACTION WITHOUT ACTING.

This is even more difficult. When the yogi is established in truth: satya pratishthayam. You have to be alert from the very beginning that when Eastern scriptures say “truth” they don’t mean just speaking the true, no. “Established in truth” means to be authentic, to be oneself – not a single iota of falseness inside.

Of course such a person speaks the truth, but that is not the point. Such a person lives in truth – that is the point. In the West truth means truthfulness, to speak the truth, that’s all. In the East it means to be the truth. Speaking will follow by itself, that is not the point at all – it is a shadow – but to be in the truth means to be absolutely oneself, with no mask, with no personality, just to be the essence.

The word “personality” is meaningful. It comes from a Greek root, persona: persona means mask. In Greek drama actors used masks; those were called personas. The real is hidden behind and persona is all that is known to the world – the face.

Without any personality, just the essence…. Zen people say, “Find out your face – the original face.” That is all meditation is all about. They said to their disciples, “Move back, and find out the face that you had before you were born. That is the truth.” Before you were born: because the moment you are born, falsity starts.

The moment you become part of a family, you have become part of a lie. The moment you become part of a society, you have become a part of a greater lie.

All societies are lies – beautifully decorated, but lies. You have to seek the face that you had before you entered into the world, the original virginity.

One has to move back and in. One has to come to feel the center, the essence of your being, beyond which there is no possibility to go. One has to go on eliminating: the body you are not, the body goes on changing; mind you are not, mind is always in a flux – thoughts and thoughts and thoughts – it is a process; emotions you are not, they come and go. You are that which remains and remains and remains. The body comes and goes, the mind comes and goes. That which remains always hidden behind, that is the truth. To be that is the meaning: satya pratishthayam, one who is established in truth.

“… He attains to the fruit of action without acting.” Here you can understand what Lao Tzu has been saying. If you become attuned to the truth of your being, you need not do anything – things happen. Not that you just lie down on your bed and sleep, no, but you are not the doer. You do things, but you are not the doer: the whole starts functioning from you. You become a function of the whole, instrumental; what Krishna calls nimitta: just an instrument of the whole – he flows through you and works. You need not worry about the results; you need not worry about planning. You live moment to moment and the whole takes care, and everything fits well.

Once you are established in your being you are established in the whole, because your being is part of the whole. Your face is part of the society, your personality is part of the world; your being, your essence, is part of the whole. You are deep – hidden gods. On the surface you may be a thief, on the surface you may be a monk, a good man, a bad man, a criminal, a judge – a thousand and one plays, games – but deep down you are a god. Once you are established into that godliness, the whole starts functioning through you.

Can’t you see? No tree is worried about the flowers, they come. No river is worried about reaching the ocean, never goes neurotic and never goes to consult a psychoanalyst, but simply reaches to the ocean. Stars go on moving. Everything is moving so smoothly, there is no disturbance and the target is never missed.

Only man carries so much burden of worries: what to do, what not to do; what is good and what is bad; how to reach the goal, how to compete – how not to allow others to reach, how to reach first of all. “How to become”: Buddha has called this the disease of tanha, the disease of becoming.

One who is established in truth has become. Now there is no disease of becoming; he has attained to being. Becoming is disease; being is health. And being is available right now if you move inwards. Only a look is needed.

I have heard about a Zen monk. He was a minor officer in the government service before he became enlightened. He came to his Master and he wanted to become a monk, he wanted to renounce the world. The Master said, “There is no need, because the being can be attained, anywhere. There is no necessity to come to the monastery. It can be attained wherever you are. Remain, just allow it to happen.”

The man started meditating, and meditation was nothing but just sitting silently, not doing anything. Thoughts come and go. One just witnesses, does not condemn, does not appreciate – no valuation – simply looks at them, aloof, indifferent.

Years passed. One day he was sitting in his office doing some official work.

Suddenly – it was just the beginning of the rains – a sudden clash of thunder, and he was shocked and thrown into his being: and he started laughing. And it is said then he never stopped laughing. He went laughing to the Master and he said, “A sudden clash of thunder, and I awoke, and I looked within… and the old man was there in all his at-homeness. And I have been seeking and seeking this old man, this ancient one, and he was just sitting there within me completely at home, at ease.”

A sudden clash of thunder…. You just have to be in a receptive mood, then anything can trigger it. Just a shout from the Master, a hit from the Master, a look from the Master – sudden clash of thunder – and something…. You are that which you are seeking. The only thing needed is a look within. One becomes established, and then one becomes a function of the whole – and to become the function of the whole is all. Nothing else remains then. Then your river flows towards the ocean, your tree goes on blooming, flowering.

“When the yogi is firmly established in truthfulness, he attains the fruit of action without acting.” Then there is nothing to be done; everything happens. Not that you don’t do – remember it – but the whole does it; you are not the doer.

WHEN THE YOGI IS FIRMLY ESTABLISHED IN HONESTY, INNER RICHES PRESENT THEMSELVES.

You have always been seeking and seeking treasures, and they elude, and they are mirages, and they appear and when you reach after long journeys they are not there – because the real treasure is hidden behind you. It is you! There is no other treasure; you are the treasure.

When one is established in honesty: asteya pratishthayam. The word asteya literally means “no-theft.” That has to be understood. “Honesty” doesn’t carry that meaning. Of course honesty is part of it, one of the components, but no-theft is very different.

You may not be a thief, but if you are jealous of others’ possessions you are a thief. If you see somebody’s car passing and envy arises, jealousy arises, or ambition – a desire to possess that car – you have committed a theft. No court can catch you, but in the court of the whole, you are caught: theft has been committed. No-theft means a non desiring mind, because how can you be a non-thief with desiring? The mind goes on trying to possess more and more – and whenever you want to possess you have to take it from someone else. It is a theft. You may not commit it, but the mind has already committed it.

No-theft means a mind who is not jealous, not competitive. And a great revolution happens: when this no-theft is there in your being, suddenly you fall to your own treasure, because when you are a thief – competitive, ambitious, jealous – you are always looking at others’ treasures. That’s how you are missing your own treasure. The eyes are always moving and looking at others’ treasures: who is carrying what, who is having what. When you are trying to have more you are missing that which you have already. Because of that “more” you are always on the move and never in a rest where you can discover your own being.

Your own treasure can be discovered only in a certain space, and that certain space is available when you are not jealous, when you are not bothering about what others are having. You close your eyes; the world doesn’t matter. Having, having more, is no longer meaningful: then being is revealed.

And there are two types of persons: people interested in having more, and people interested in being more. If you are interested in having more, whatsoever the object of having more, it makes no difference – you can go on collecting money, you can go on collecting knowledge, you can go on collecting prestige, power, you can go on collecting whatsoever you want – but if you are interested in having, you will miss; because there is no need for this continuous effort to have. You already have the treasure within you. When the yogi is firmly established in nontheft, inner riches present themselves.