________________
3874.
SPIRITUAL LIGHT. ..Truthfulness—The second requirement in practining Yama is the avoidance of falsehood. The words of one thoroughly pure in mind, speech and body surely become effective. There are various occasions when falsehoods without any benefit to the speaker are spoken. Misrepresentations, hypocrisy, pretentions, false eyidence, false measures and weights, false defamatory: reports, forging accounts and documents, betrayal of gross falsehoods degenerate the purity of soul and are condemned as sins by the Scriptures.
The author rightly appeals to the reader to balance the advantages and disadvantages of falsehood in connection with monetary transactions, trade operations and other social functions. He earnestly appreciates the value of truth, and recommends its observance at any cost of wealth, loss of friendship and relationship, etc., all of them being transitory and perishing. He properly disallows truth unnecessarily causing injury to the minds of others.
According to the tenets of Jainism rigid. observance of the Mahāvrata of refraining from falsehood: is enjoined on Sādhus who are required to speak words which are only true but pleasing and beneficial and to refrain from speech which would tend to hurt the feelings of others without doing any good to them, while laymen are enjoined to refrain from speaking gross falsehood prompted by high expectations of social and worldly gain or by anger, malice, vengeance, perversion, etc.. Refraining from doing so. is highly essential as it concerns all the daily occusi
357
