Satya Maha Vrat

by Muni Sheelgun Vijayji

This is continuation from the series on Jain Sadhu. Read first part here and second part here.

A Jain Sadhu is vowed to always speak the truth. They always tell the truth which does not cause harm to others. And if telling the truth has the possibility of causing harm to anybody, they remain silent.

Truth is defined by three points,

A. Something, when spoken, is good for the listener.

B. Something, when spoken, sounds pleasing (sweet) to the listener.

C. Something which is true.

This means, truth which is sour or which causes harm to someone should not be spoken. A Jain Sadhu does not harm others, does not persuade others to cause harm, nor do they praise somebody who has caused harm to anybody. Now, imagine a Jain Sadhu is passing by a jungle. There, a deer crosses the path of Sadhu in a state of haste. A hunter follows the deer and enquires with the Sadhu about the whereabouts of the deer. In the first instance, the Sadhu stays silent. But if the situation compels him to speak, he will definitely not show the hunter the direction where the deer had gone. Because, by doing so, Sadhu knows that the deer will be killed. That is why, a Jain Sadhu always takes care that the truth spoken does not harm anybody. Truth is something which is helpful to others.

There are 4 primary reasons for not speaking the truth.

a. Anger

b. Greed

c. Fear

d. Humor or laughter

a. When you are angry, you often end to lie. When you are angry on a person you love, you often say, ‘go die’, even though you do not mean it. You say it only because you lose control on yourself.

b. When you want to acquire something at any cost, you get greedy and you speak lie. For example, when you apply for a job, you lie to potray yourself more eligible than you actually are because of the greed for the job.

c. When a person is very much in fear, he lies. Example, when your dad catches you in an evil act, you definitely make up something to cover up the truth.

d. When a person is engaged in humorous conversation, he often lies and a example isn’t needed here.

The above stated and many other reasons compel a person to lie. But a Jain Sadhu never lies. To follow this great vow, Sadhus have to consider some things which are stated under.

A. The biggest reason for a person lying is when he speaks without thinking. Many a times, we don’t even know what we speak. Thinking is very important before speaking. A person should first think and then decide what he wants to speak to ensure that it does not harm feelings of opposite person. Jain Sadhus always try to think before speaking. A major problem today is, many times people do not know that they are speaking which becomes an act of lying.

B. Jain Sadhus never engage in any kind of business activities. There by there is no need to lie to do any business activity. The scams in many country now days are always based on lies.

C. Jain Sadhus never engage in court matters which also ensures that there are lesser reasons to lie. Even acting as a witness in court is not a part of a Jain Sadhus conduct. And also, they don’t have any activities relating to money.

D. They don’t have to deal with property matters, family matters etc.

E. Jain Sadhus do not instruct others to lie because they have no interest in the profit of somebody else. They are only interested in the profit for their soul.

In this way, by maintaining the distance with the reasons to lie, they abide by their second great vow. In the next part, we will learn about the third vow.