Author: Dr Manasa Nagabhushanam, Daiv
Truth sometimes costs us something, but what we keep is worth more than what we lose.
The Chandogya Upanishad tells of a boy named Satyakama Jabala, who wished to become a student of the sage Gautama. The teacher, as was customary, asked about his family and his father’s name. Satyakama went home and asked his mother. She told him honestly that she had served in many households in her youth and did not know who his father was. She added that he should say his name is Satyakama, son of Jabala.
He returned to the teacher and told him exactly this. He could easily have invented a respectable name, and no one would have known. Gautama said: "None but one with the heart of a Brahmin could speak so plainly. Bring the fuel, I will initiate you." The truth that might have cost him admission became the very reason for it. The Mundaka Upanishad declares: "Satyam eva jayate nanritam" (3.1.6), truth alone triumphs, not falsehood. It does not promise that truth will win every argument by evening. It says that, in the end, the path of truth is the one that leads upward. Today, choose one situation where a small untruth would be convenient, a polite excuse, an exaggeration, a half-truth. Speak the plain truth instead, gently, and accept the consequence, trusting that what stays with you, a clear conscience, is worth more than what you gave up.