Honesty

HONESTY Introduction: Morality is indispensable for human development. It is generally believed that morality is invariable based on religious dogma. We need to be moral only because such and such a divine person said so in such and such a scripture. Morality therefore has come to mean something entirely religious. However, morality is an intrinsic necessity in human beings, irrespective of religious sanction. Many centuries ago, the Chinese philosopher Mencius hinted at this truth. In recent history, Swami Vivekananda has clearly worked out an entire system of Morality & Ethics, based purely on the nature of man, totally independent of religious dogma. [Please see the article "Morality & Ethics in Vedanta, according to Swami Vivekananda" by the present author for more details.] Morality comprises a host of human qualities & virtues. But the most visible of them all is Honesty. Honesty is therefore a cardinal virtue. It is one of the most basic virtues needed to build our character. When we speak of human evolution, or human civilisation, what we actually mean is the manifestation of virtues like honesty in society. Let us try to understand this vital human quality in greater detail. The popular dictionaries of English language give various definitions of this word. We give below some of them: The Wikipedia defines honesty as follows: Honesty refers to a fact of moral character & connotes positive and virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness & straightforwardness, including straightforwardness of conduct, along with absence of lying, cheating or theft. Furthermore, honesty means being trustworthy, loyal, fair & sincere. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary further adds: Adherence to facts. Dictionary.com includes in its definition: It refers to the quality of being honest; uprightness & fairness, truthfulness, sincerity or frankness. Vocabulary.com adds: If you tell the truth, you are honest. In Sanskrit, the word for honesty is Satya. It is derived from the word Sat. Sat means that which exists. The nature of existence lends its quality to words that talk about them. Hence the word for honesty is Satya. Therefore honesty means talking about or thinking about that which exists. Honesty is black & white, not shades of grey: In common parlance, this word has today come to mean speaking about facts, or representing facts, as plainly as possible, without altering them in any way. While this is the general meaning, the scope of this word is not restricted to this meaning alone. We need to understand as many aspects of this deep word as we possibly can. A person who understands all the ramifications of the concept of honesty and exhibits that quality is a genuinely honest man. Quite often, we see persons who speak the truth only because they were not sufficiently bright to understand the facts in their entirety. Hence, simpletons are many times classified as honest persons. There is a thin line between naivety is honesty. While the word honesty has many different connotations, based on various contexts of its use, it however stands for very specific ideas and norms of human behaviour. Seldom can we have situations which fall in between honesty & dishonesty. Things are either in one domain, or in the other. Never can they be in between. American President Herbert Hoover once said, "There is no such thing as a no-man's land between honesty & dishonesty." The famous
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industrialist John F Dodge said, "There is no twilight zone of honesty. A thing is either right or wrong. It is black or white. Never is it grey!" We shall therefore try to understand the various aspects of this subtle concept presently. Honesty with respect to human dealings: Honesty is essential in daily human dealings. Imagine the anxiety in dealing with a person who is a known liar. We cannot depend on his words. He says one thing and means something totally different. Such people are untrustworthy. Honesty as integrity: One of the most important things needed for a meaningful life is being realistic. We need to stay in touch with what is real. The present day society is slowly drifting away from reality. People live in all sorts of make-believe worlds now. This is because of the diluting of honesty in daily life. There is a popular saying attributed to an anonymous source which says, 'There is a rare human quality that is called honesty when considered with respect to inter-human relations, and the very same quality is called Integrity when considered with respect to a person dealing with oneself.' What this means is as follows: we generally consider a particular person as being honest if he always speaks the truth when talking to & dealing with other people. But what about the way a person deals with himself? Supposing a person makes a resolve to himself that he will wake up from sleep at a particular time and cannot keep it up. How do we classify him? Such a person lacks integrity. His thoughts and deeds are at variance. Although he may always speak the truth to others, he however breaks the promises he makes with himself! And that is also dishonesty, of a very serious nature. Honesty is more than mere words: While the concept of honesty certainly started out as concerning the spoken word, it later on grew large enough to envelop human thought and human action too. Thus, it was not enough if a person spoke the truth. He had to think in certain ways and act in certain specific ways. Only then was he considered as being honest. For instance, consider a man who may cheat in a business deal, say, a shopkeeper who short sells things. Notice that we are not considering his speech anymore. Since he uses wrong scales and short sells his commodities, we call him dishonest. Consider the famous instance of the common politician. He may speak very correctly. He may depict the facts very truthfully. But, we still consider him a dishonest person mainly because his actions are not in consonance with his words. Honesty & role of euphemisms in language: Many ideas are taboos in society. The more the taboos, the more repressed the society becomes and the more distorted the persons living in that society become. As an idea becomes taboo, we start inventing different words and terminologies to sugar-coat our words. We start using high-sounding words and try to hide the meaning of the words and we feel comfortable with all this! In the 1st World War, there was a word to describe the extreme nervous condition that soldiers faced on the battlefield. It was called Shell-shock. The words themselves clearly describe the terrible condition of the soldiers nerves. During the 1950s, it became Battlefatigue. Then during the Vietnam War, it became PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Now, we dont even understand what this means anymore! Being honest therefore helps in
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conveying the meaning more easily and to most people involved. The need for euphemism partially arises from the trade-off between being honest and being genteel or cultured. Many times, an honest man is considered brusque, uncultured and uncouth. But, in our opinion, being honest is any day a better alternative to being the opposite! George Bernard Shaw once very popularly said, "Words can be used to convey the truth as forcefully as they can be used to conceal the truth." Need of honesty: Where is the need of being honest? The need is acutely felt in human dealings. The need is urgently felt in building a better personality for ourselves. By being dishonest, we create an alternate reality. This world where we live is already sufficiently complicated. We need not complicate it further by adding our version of things to it. Keep it simple. Stick to facts. There is a growing cry we hear these days that we need to be immoral or dishonest to a certain degree in order to survive in today's world. Nothing could be farther from the truth! We need not be bothered about the morality of the Government, or the Corporate World, or even of our neighbour. What we do need to seriously consider is the moral standards we fix for our own lives. Thomas Carlyle, one of the founding fathers of America said, "Make yourself an honest man. Then you may be sure there is one rascal less in the world!" And one more thing has to be remembered. Even the most corrupt person would seek the company of honest persons and not of corrupt ones! Just because the Govt is corrupt or the corporate world is corrupt doesn't mean that we can afford to be so. Even today, when college students are interviewed for job-hiring, honesty & integrity of the student are given vital importance by all HR personnel. In fact, job-recruiters lay great emphasis on the moral character of the young men that they recruit. Honesty as Business-integrity: There is a wonderful story in this regard attributed to Sir C V Raman. He was asked by the British Govt to set up a Physics Research Laboratory in Bangalore. Many research assistants had to be recruited. After interviewing potential candidates, Raman and his directors retired to their rooms for their lunch. There was a knock on his door. He opened it. A young man was standing there. He gave Sir Raman a fifty rupee note [this was in the 1930s; fifty rupees was a big amount then], and said, "Sir, I collected my travelling allowance after my interview. When I went out and counted the cash, I found that I was paid fifty rupees extra. When I went back to return it, I found that the cash counter was closed. The cashier must have gone for his lunch. I have a train to catch to return home. Sir, I am giving this money back to you." Sir Raman saw the young man for a moment and said, "Young man, you need not return home. I have selected you for the job of Research Assistant. Meet me an hour later in my office." After his lunch, he announced to his directors that he had selected this young man. Some of them objected to his hasty decision saying that the particular young man was not very good in Physics and that there were better candidates from whom the selection could have been made. Sir C V Raman replied famously, "Well, I can teach him Physics, but I can't teach him honesty. And he already has that quality!" Swami Vivekananda used to emphasise repeatedly, "Be perfectly pure in money dealings...Integrity in Business matters, we are yet to learn in India."
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Honesty & Religion: Religion is the field of human endeavour that deals with understanding the world we live in. Since we cannot understand this world by being dishonest i.e. by creating different versions of the world, religion lays the greatest emphasis on honesty. We give below the relevant moral tenets as prescribed by the different World Religions: Christianity: Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight...Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech...The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them...You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour...Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need...Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord, and false scales are not good...Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out...Take care, lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart. Judaism: Keep your conscience clear...When man appears before the Throne of Judgement, the first question he is asked is not, "Have you believed in God" or "Have you prayed and performed ritual acts" but "Have you dealt honourably, faithfully in all your dealings with your fellowmen?"...You may modify a statement of fact in the interests of peace. Islam: You have to set up God as a Guarantee for yourselves; God knows everything you are doing. Buddhism: The teaching of the Dharma by the various Buddhas is based on the two truths, namely the Relative [worldly] truth, and the Absolute [Supreme] truth. Those who do not know the distinction between the two truths cannot understand the profound nature of the Buddha's teaching...Without relying on everyday common practices [relative truths], the Absolute truth cannot be expressed. Hinduism: Let your conduct be marked by truthfulness in thought, word and deed...One should speak the truth and speak it pleasingly; should not speak the truth in an unpleasant manner nor should one speak the untruth because it is pleasing; this is the law. Sri Ramakrishna laid the greatest emphasis on this virtue. He used to say, "In the present day world, the greatest spiritual practice is to be honest in thought, word & deed...Be very careful to see that there is no variance between your thoughts, your words and your deeds...Let there be no theft in the chamber of your heart [bhaber ghore churi]...I renounced everything at the feet of the Divine Mother, but I was not able to renounce honesty, because, if I did that, on what could I stand?" Jainism: Straightforwardness & honesty in the activities of one's body, speech and mind lead to an auspicious path. Shintoism: If you plot and connive to deceive men, you may fool them for a while, and profit thereby, but you will without fail be visited by divine punishment. To be utterly honest may have the appearance of inflexibility and self-righteousness, but in the end, such a person will receive the blessings of the Sun & the Moon. Follow honesty without fail.
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Proverbs on Honesty from different cultures: [Culled from "Thoughts on Honesty" from the Forbes Magazine] If a lie runs for twenty years, it takes truth just one day to catch up with it. Man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart, and next, to escape the censures of the world. Aside from the strictly moral standpoint, honesty is not only the best policy, but the only possible policy from the standpoint of business relations. How desperately difficult it is to be honest with oneself. It is much easier to be honest with other people! Men must be honest with themselves before they can be honest with others. A man who is not honest with himself presents a hopeless case. Hard workers are usually honest men. Industry lifts them above temptation. Honesty is the ability to resist small temptations. Ninety-eight out of hundred of the rich men in America are honest. That is why they are rich. Honesty is the cornerstone of character. Trickery & treachery are the practices of fools that have not the wits enough to be honest. The darkest hour in the history of a young man is when he sits down to study how to get money without honestly earning it. Honesty is one part of eloquence. We persuade others by being in earnest ourselves. Every man should make up his mind that if he expects to succeed, he must give an honest return for the other man's dollar. Honesty & hypocrisy: A famous adage says, Confidence in anothers honesty is no light testimony of ones own integrity. Human psychology works in an interesting way. We always interpret the behaviour of our fellow-human-beings as a reflection and an extrapolation of our own behaviour. When we start telling lies, we become wary of others words. We feel he could be telling an untruth. A truthful man, on the other hand, tends to believe what other people tell, for he feels that others too are telling the truth, just as he speaks the truth. This brings us to another interesting aspect of honesty the honesty of children and the progressive corruption of innocence by society. You will recall the famous children's' story 'The Emperor's new clothes'. A hyper-critical tailor had befooled the Emperor into believing that he was giving him a robe made of a very special type of cloth. When the Emperor would wear that robe, if someone couldn't see the robe, that was an indication that he was an immoral person. A moral person would clearly be able to see that special robe on the Emperor. When he brought the so-called special robe, the Emperor himself couldn't see it. But he didn't dare to admit it. For, that would mean his immorality would become known to all. So, he removed the royal robes he was wearing and donned the 'new ones'. And he went on a visit of his capital city. Everyone was shocked to see the Emperor naked, but none dared to admit it for fear of being labelled an immoral person! Then, finally a small child saw the fiasco and blurted out, "Hey, look! The Emperor is naked! He hasn't put on any clothes!" It was then that everyone, including the Emperor, realised that there
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was no such 'Morality-indicating cloth', and that the Emperor was essentially naked, and that they had all been hypocrites in being afraid to admit the reality that they all saw. Small children have an innate capacity to speak the truth. Gradually they lose that capacity, impelled by the expediency of being untrue, which habit they easily pick up from elders around them. Honesty & Expediency: Expediency is not always compatible with honesty. This leads to intense moral dilemmas in daily life, especially to one who tries to live up to the high ideal of honesty at all costs. The tension between these two values creates misunderstandings for the encounter of diverse cultures & religions. The question, 'What is truth?' does not have a simple answer. Truth-telling can sometimes mean to report the facts of a situation, as in the correspondence theory of truth. But most religions use the word truth to deal with ideas and realities beyond the level of fact. Hence a second meaning of truth-telling is to be true to the principles and doctrines of religion, and to teach them truly. It is an attribute of truthful words that they be beneficial and instructive too, apart from being factually true. Blunt honesty might sometimes conflict with what is most helpful for a person. For instance, in times of war, it may be necessary to lie to an enemy in order to preserve a life. All world religions seem to recognise that expediency takes precedence over truth. Thus, when Paul preached Christianity among the Jews, he observed the Jewish dietary laws, although the Gospel exhorts a true Christian to follow something totally different. He did this mainly in order not to cause offence. The Buddhist doctrine of Upaya Kaushala ['Expedient Methods' expressed in the Lotus Sutra], attempts to reconcile various schools of Buddhism by showing that Buddha preached various doctrines according to people's temperaments and inclinations. Nagarjuna later developed this into the doctrine of Two-Truths. He speaks of the Relative Truth and the Absolute Truth. It is first necessary to grasp the relative truth of worldly phenomenon before one can comprehend the absolute truth which is beyond appearances. Hinduism seems to make a subtle concession with regard to expediency. It doesn't openly allow for distorting any statement of facts, but it does allow one to remain silent if the truth being told is seen to be unpleasant. Thus, while the Hindu ideal for honesty is delineated as utter transparency, it makes a concession for uttering half-truths under exigent circumstances. Judaism specifically states that 'You may modify a statement in the interests of peace' thereby making due allowances for expediency in its scheme of morality. It is seen that among all the world religions, Islam alone doesn't believe in such use of expediency over honesty under any circumstances. This rigidity in its moral scheme is noteworthy, perhaps explaining many of the anomalies that are seen among its large number of fundamentalist adherents. Honesty & Accuracy: There is one more aspect of this vital concept that we need to discuss, and that is the accuracy aspect of honesty. We have seen that expediency has taken a great toll on honesty. It doesnt matter at all if we shave off the edges of the facts when we speak. We can always attribute our manipulations to various expedient reasons and get away with it. We can always justify ourselves by saying that we were being more tactful than truthful, and get away with it. However, the way Sri Ramakrishna viewed these concepts of honesty, accuracy & expediency are really eye-opening. One day, he said that he would visit his neighbour Sri Jadulal
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Malik during the day. There was no business to be transacted. It was a purely social visit. As the day passed, he totally forgot about it. Forgetting such things are quite natural. Later at night, while having his dinner, he suddenly recalled his resolve to visit Malik. He was aghast. Immediately he took his attendant with him and walked all the way to his neighbours house. It was empty and locked. He wasnt satisfied having reached the house. He went to the door and pushed it open a little. Doors of the olden days were locked like that. It wouldnt have the present day mortise-tennon locks. They had large rings on the door and even when locked, they would open up a little bit, sufficient for a cat to sneak in. so, Sri Ramakrishna opened the door as far as he could. Then he placed his toe inside on the floor of Jadunath Maliks drawing room. And then, he announced, Hey, Jadunath, I did come to your house alright. Only after this was he satisfied with himself! Degrees of manifesting this virtue: Quoting Sri Ramakrishnas example in connection with honesty brings up another important aspect of this virtue, that is, the aspect of gradation in values. Honesty as a value has a gradation related to it. There are various levels of manifestation of honesty to which a person can raise himself to. Mahatma Gandhi once resolved to completely control his sexual impulse. He started maintaining a journal in which he noted down his observations regarding this. It later became a monumental autobiographical book called My experiments with truth. In that book, he mentions in one place that while he was able to subdue his sexual impulse while he was awake, he seemed to have no control over his impulses during sleep. As a consequence he used to experience wet dreams. It is no doubt a marvellous thing that Gandhi was able to control his sexual urges during his waking state. What is interesting is that he felt justified in claiming that he had successfully controlled his sex impulse. He argued that since he felt no stirring of his urges when awake, his experiments were successful. What occurred during sleep was of no consequence, since it was irrational. What mattered with regard to ones character was the rational part of ones mind. This is what Gandhi claimed! Abraham Lincoln discontinued his only source of livelihood as a practicing barrister purely because he was unable to distort or hide facts while arguing cases in the court! It didnt seem to matter to him that his family would go hungry if he stuck to his resolve! Many others would have rationalised saying that he had a duty towards his family and hence was justified in telling lies or half-truths in the court. Sri Ramakrishna was able to raise himself to a most uncommon degree in this matter. Once, in his younger days, he had resolved that he wouldnt touch money. He had driven this resolve so deep into his mind that all parts of his mind, the conscious, unconscious, subconscious, rational, irrational, etc. all parts accepted his resolve completely. So completely had he internalised his resolve that in his later years, Swami Vivekananda was dumb-founded when he tested him in this regard. The young Narendranath very lightly placed some coins in Sri Ramakrishnas hand when he was asleep. Even in his sleep, his hands went into a contortion! Yet again, Narendranath hid some coins underneath Sri Ramakrishnas bed and found that no matter how much he tried, Sri Ramakrishna simply couldnt sleep on that bed! All these instances show us that honesty, which was a very simple concept when we started this deliberation, has now developed into a concept that seems to have innumerable layers in itself.
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How far should we go? This brings us to an important question. When we attempt to manifest this cardinal moral value in ourselves, how far should we go? Well, Sri Krishna gives us the answer very sympathetically in the Gita. He says, Do not wait for the entire moral value, in its entire radiance, to manifest in you. Start at the beginning. It may seem very miniscule, very insignificant. But that doesnt matter. Every small effort counts in building a sound moral character for yourself.

********************* Note: This is an article I prepared as a Study-Material for the Indian Spirituality & Cultural Heritage Class in one of our reputed educational Institutions.

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