Changes

It [truthfulness] means first truth-speaking, but beyond that to keep the speech in harmony with the deepest truth of which one is conscious. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p50</ref>

It is not the fact that if a man is truthful (in the sense of not lying), all he says happens. For that he must know the Truth—be in touch with the truth of things, not merely speak the truth as his mind knows it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p6</ref>

An honest man does not need the marvels of Solomon's throne to learn to speak the truth. The throne of truth dwells within his own heart; the rectitude of his soul cannot but inspire him with words of rectitude. He speaks the truth not because he is afraid of a teacher, a master or a judge, but because truth is the characteristic of an upright man, the stamp of his nature. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/02/sincerity#p21</ref>

And in the work as in the man we find that faculty of spontaneous definite labour and vigorous formation which proceeds from an inner principle of perfect clearness, truth and sincerity. To be clear in one's own mind, entirely true and plain with one's self and with others, wholly honest with the conditions and materials of one's labour, is a rare gift in our crooked, complex and faltering humanity. It is the spirit of the Aryan worker and a sure secret of vigorous success. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/01/dayananda-the-man-and-his-work#p10</ref>

It has been said that in a rightly constituted mind the knowledge of the man and his milieu will help to a just appreciation of his poetry; but this knowledge in its nature rather distorts our judgment than helps it, for instead of giving an honest account to ourselves of the impression naturally made by the poem on us, we are irresistibly led to cut & carve that impression so as to make it square with our knowledge and the theories, more or less erroneous & ephemeral, we deduce from that knowledge. We proceed from the milieu to the poem, instead of arguing from the poem to the milieu. Yet the latter is the only fair method, for it is not the whole of the milieu that@171@ affects the man nor every part of it that affects him equally; the extent to which it affects him and the distribution of its various influences can only be judged from the poem itself. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/01/the-historical-method#p3</ref>

''Q. Oh, your question was only this! You wanted to say, "Is it honest to ask questions and then not do anything of what you are told?" Is that it?''

''A:'' Yes<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/12-september-1956#p9</ref>

For the Governments honesty lies not only in saying what they are doing but also in doing what they say. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/human-unity#p4</ref>

Be honest towards yourself―(no self-deception). Be sincere towards the Divine―(no bargaining in the surrender) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/insincerity-pretension-and-self-deception#p29</ref>

It is the want of knowledge of the senses which betrays you to this feeling. You see, you can begin the training when quite small, quite small, and you can continue for more than a hundred years. And then, truly, within yourself to begin with, you never grow old because it is always interesting and always you make progress; and finally, after some time, not very long, something like about twenty years—that's not much—you succeed in using your senses in a logical, rational, useful way and this helps you to enter into contact with the world consciously. Otherwise you go like half-blind people groping in the darkness there, like this (''gesture''), trying to find your way and at every step bumping into something. Or maybe, you mistake the road and then you must begin again. You make a mistake you must correct it. And I tell you, it is like a small exercise you can do, which can be done during any... "Why is it like that? Why have you done that?"—"I don't know."—"Why have you arranged this in this way?"—"I don't know." If you are honest to yourself, you will be obliged to say to yourself a hundred times a day, "I don't know." <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/31-march-1954#p26</ref>

...the honest and sincere conclusion must be: "I cannot judge, I do not have the elements needed for a true judgment; therefore I will not judge, I will keep quiet." <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/19-may-1965#p5</ref>

===Sincerity===

There is always a difference between two different things. Of course, it is very difficult, I suppose, to be loyal without being sincere, and vice versa. But I have known people who were loyal and yet lacked a certain kind of sincerity. The opposite is not unusual. The one doesn't automatically follow from the other, but it is obvious that honesty, straightforwardness, loyalty and sincerity are closely related. I think that it is extremely difficult for someone to be perfectly sincere without being loyal and honest, but of course this demands the utmost. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/6-january-1951#p33</ref>

Be sincere and honest and your mind will be at rest. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/honesty#p3</ref>

If you are sincere and scrupulously honest, my help is certainly with you and one day you will become aware of it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/22-july-1964#p4</ref>

I am not aware of anything special that is being done against my will. But you must not let yourself be disturbed. You must will to become more and more honest and sincere, and, for the rest, rely on the divine Grace. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/17/11-september-1934#p2</ref>

Because sincerity is so rare a virtue in the world, one ought to bow down before it with respect when one meets it. Sincerity—what we call sincerity, that is to say, a perfect honesty and transparency: that there may be nowhere in the being anything which pretends, hides or wants to s itself off for what it is not.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/22-february-1956#p39</ref>

It is only in honesty, sincerity and trust that human society can progress.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/05/march-18-1964#p6</ref>

===Courage===

So the king resolved to kill this truthful man as well. One night he went to Vasishtha's house to carry out the evil deed. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/02/sincerity#p27</ref>

When King Vishwamitra, longing for a greater self esteem practised austerity, to become a Bramhan, everyone, except for Bramhan Vashistha agreed that he deserves to be a Bramhin. Vashisth had his reasons for saying so and did not change his stance out of fear of the King and said what was the truth without rancour.

There is no greater courage than to be always truthful.

<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/courage#p12</ref>

==Honesty in Parts of the Being==

...Falsehood in the body—that sort of juxtaposition of contraries, the inversion of the Vibration (only it doesn't really invert—it's a curious phenomenon: the vibration remains what it is but it's received inverted)—this falsehood in the body is a falsehood in the CONSCIOUSNESS. The falsity of the consciousness naturally has material consequences... and that's what illness is! I immediately made an experiment on my body to see if this held, if it actually works that way. And I realized that it's true! When you are open and in contact with the Divine, the Vibration gives you strength, energy; and if you are quiet enough, it fills you with great joy—and all of this in the cells of the body. You fall back into the ordinary consciousness and straightaway, without anything changing, the SAME thing, the SAME vibration coming from the SAME source turns into a pain, a malaise, a feeling of uncertainty, instability and decrepitude. To be sure of this, I repeated the experiment three or four times, and it was absolutely automatic, like the operation of a chemical formula: same conditions, same results.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/agenda/02/october-2-1961#p15</ref>

'''Physical Mind'''

Honesty in the physical mind: preliminary indispensable condition for transformation.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/15/transformation-and-the-parts-of-the-being#p9</ref>

===Vital being===

Mental honesty: one does not try to deceive others or to deceive oneself.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/honesty#p6</ref>

''Q. Sweet Mother, what does “mental honesty” mean exactly?''

''A:'' It is a mind that does not attempt to deceive itself. And in fact it is not an “attempt”, for it succeeds very well in doing it!

It would seem that in the ordinary psychological constitution of man, the almost constant function of the mind is to give an acceptable explanation of what goes on in the “desire-being”, the vital, the most material parts of the mind and the subtlest parts of the body. There is a kind of general complicity in all the parts of the being to give an explanation and even a comfortable justification for everything we do, in order to avoid as far as possible the painful impressions left by the mistakes we commit and undesirable movements. For instance, unless one has undergone or taken up a special training, whatever one does, the mind gives itself a favourable enough explanation of it, so that one is not troubled. Only under the pressure of outer reactions or circumstances or movements coming from other people, does one gradually consent to look less favourably at what one is and does, and begins to ask oneself whether things could not be better than they are.

Things will be self-evident, Truth will shine through all forms, the possibility of error will disappear.’’<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/21-may-1958#p1</ref>

When one begins to see that one has made a mistake, the first movement of the mind is to push it into the background and to put a cloak in front of it, the cloak of a very fine little explanation, and as long as one is not obliged to show it, one hides it. And this is what I call "lack of mental honesty".<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/21-may-1958#p6</ref>

The mind has a power of deception in its own regard which is incalculable. It clothes its desires and preferences with all kinds of wonderful intentions and it hides its trickeries, resentments and disappointments under the most favourable appearances.

Correct behaviour—peaceful, honest. From all points of view, not only materially, but morally, mentally. Mental honesty is one of the most difficult things to achieve. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/the-awakened-one-the-buddha#p31</ref>

Mental sincerity: the essential condition for integral honesty.

<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/honesty#p7</ref>

There is no reason for despondency; when one has progressed as far as you did,

that is, so far as to feel and maintain the calm and have so much of the psychic discrimination and the psychic feeling, one has no right to despair of one's spiritual future. You could not yet carry out the discrimination into an entire psychic change, because a large part of the outer physical consciousness still took some pleasure in old movements and therefore their roots remained alive in the subconscient. When you were off your guard the whole thing rose up and there was a temporary and violent lapse. But this does not mean that the nature is not changeable. Only the calm inner conscious poise, the psychic discrimination and above all a will to change, stronger and steadier than before, must be so established that no uprising or invasion will be able to cloud even partly the discrimination or suspend the will. You saw the truth but this part of the old nature which rose up did not want to acknowledge—it wanted its play and imposed that on you. This time you must insist on a complete truthfulness in the whole being which will refuse to accept any denial of what the psychic discrimination sees or any affirmation or consent anywhere to what it disapproves, spiritual humility and the removal of self-righteousness, self-justification and the wish to impose yourself, the tendency to judge others etc. All these defects you know are in you; to cast them out may take time, but if the will to be true to the inner self in all ways is strong and persistent and vigilant and always calls in the Mother's force, it can be done sooner than now seems possible.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/vigilance-resolution-will-and-the-divine-help#p6</ref>

==Truth and Divine Truthfulness==

''A:'' This depends upon the attitude your friend has taken in life. If he wants to be a sadhak, it is indispensable that rules of ordinary morality do not have any value for him. Now, if he is an ordinary man living the ordinary life, it is a purely practical question, isn’t it? He must conform to the laws of the country in which he lives to avoid all trouble! But all these things which in ordinary life have a very relative value and can be looked upon with a certain indulgence, change totally the minute one decides to do yoga and enter the divine life. Then, all values change completely; what is honest in ordinary life, is no longer at all honest for you. Besides, there is such a reversal of values that one can no longer use the same ordinary language. If one wants to consecrate oneself to the divine life, one must do it truly, that is, give oneself entirely, no longer do anything for one’s own interest, depend exclusively upon the divine Power to which one abandons oneself. Everything changes completely, doesn’t it?—everything, everything, it is a reversal. What I have just read from this book applies solely to those who want to do yoga; for others it has no meaning, it is a language which makes no sense, but for those who want to do yoga it is imperative. It is always the same thing in all that we have recently read: one must be careful not to have one foot on one side and the other foot on the other, not to bestride two different boats each following its own course. This is what Sri Aurobindo said: one must not lead a “double life”. One must give up one thing or the other—one can’t follow both.

This does not mean, however, that one is obliged to get out of the conditions of one’s life: it is the inner attitude which must be totally changed. One may do what one is in the habit of doing, but do it with quite a different attitude. I don’t say it is necessary to give up everything in life and go away into solitude, to an ashram necessarily, to do yoga. Now, it is true that if one does yoga in the world and in worldly circumstances, it is more difficult, but it is also more complete. Because, every minute one must face problems which do not present themselves to someone who has left everything and gone into solitude; for such a one these problems are reduced to a minimum while in life one meets all sorts of difficulties, beginning with the incomprehension of those around you with whom you have to deal; one must be ready for that, be armed with patience, and a great indifference. But in yoga one should no longer care for what people think or say; it is an absolutely indispensable starting-point. You must be absolutely immune to what the world may say or think of you and to the way it treats you. People’s understanding must be something quite immaterial to you and should not even slightly touch you. That is why it is generally much more difficult to remain in one’s usual surroundings and do yoga than to leave everything and go into solitude; it is much more difficult, but we are not here to do easy things—easy things we leave to those who do not think of transformation. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/3-may-1951#p14</ref>

Only the heart that is free from fear, the spirit that is full of faith, the soul that is passionate for realization will remain for the final test and the last purification. To men of doubtful views and undecided opinions the crisis precipitated by the decision of the Convention Committee will prove a cruel embarrassment. To all who have an emotional preference for the new ideas without a clear understanding of their supreme and urgent necessity, to all who understand the new ideas with their intellects only but have them not in their hearts, to all who, while loving and understanding the new ideas, have not faith to put aside the cloaks of prudence and dissimulation or courage to avow their faith openly before the world, the position is one of great perplexity. God is a hard master and will not be served by halves. All evasions, all subterfuges He cuts away and puts the question plain and loud; and before all mankind, before the friend ready to cut the ties of friendship asunder, before the enemy standing ready with lifted sword to slay the servants of God as soon as they confess their faith, it has to be answered: "Who is on the Lord's side?" Not once, not twice, but always that question is being put and the answer exacted. If you are unwilling to answer, either you do not believe that it is God's work you are doing and are therefore unfit for it, or you have insufficient faith in His power to get His work done without the help of your diplomacy and cunning, or you are unwilling@1058@ to meet any plain risks in His service. To serve God under a cover is easy, to stipulate for safety in doing the work is natural to frail human nature, to sympathise and applaud is cheap; but the work demands sterner stuff in the men who will do it and insists on complete service, fearless service and honest service. The waverer must make up his mind either to answer God's question or to give up the work. There is plenty for him to do in a cheap, safe and easy way if he cannot face the risks of self-devotion.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/07/the-wheat-and-the-chaff#p2</ref>

Aspiration and will to change are not so very far from each other, and if one has either, it is usually enough for going through,—provided of course it maintains itself. The opposition in certain parts of the being exists in every sadhak and can be very obstinate. Sincerity comes by having first the constant central aspiration or will, next, the honesty to see and avow the refusal in parts of the being, finally, the intention of seeing it through even there, however difficult it may be. You have admitted certain things changed in you, so you can no longer pretend that you have made no progress at all.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-difficulties-of-human-nature#p25</ref>

There is experience. For a simple heart, a sincere and honest nature, a nature which knows that its experience is sincere, that it is not a falsification of desire or of mental ambition, but a spontaneous movement which comes from the soul—the experience is absolutely convincing. It loses its power of conviction when the desire to have an experience, or the ambition to think oneself very superior, becomes mixed with it. If you have that in you, then beware, because desires and ambitions falsify experience. The mind is a formative power, and if you have a very strong desire for something very important and very interesting to happen to you, you can make it happen, at least in the eyes of those who see things superficially. But apart from these cases, if you are honest, sincere, spontaneous, and especially when experiences come to you without any effort on your part to have them, and as a spontaneous expression of your deeper aspiration, then these experiences carry with them the seal of an absolute authenticity; and even if the whole world tells you that they are nonsense and illusion, it does not change your personal convictions. But naturally, for this, you must not deceive yourself. You must be sincere and honest with a complete inner rectitude. [Based on Aphorism <12>- They proved to me by convincing reasons that God did not exist, and I believed them. Afterwards I saw God, for He came and embraced me. And now which am I to believe, the reasonings of others or my own experience?] <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-12#p5</ref>

Your service to the Divine must be scrupulously honest, disinterested and unselfish, otherwise it has no value.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/13/organisation-and-work#p90</ref>

It is noteworthy that the two defects insisted upon here are lack of self-control and lack of loyalty. Loyalty means here sincerity, honesty; what the Dhammapada censures most severely is hypocrisy: to pretend that you want to live the spiritual life and not to do it, to pretend that you want to seek the truth and not to do it, to display the external signs of consecration to the divine life—here symbolised by the yellow robe—but within to be concerned only with oneself, one's selfishness and one's own needs.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/conjugate-verses#p55</ref>

Yes, my dear little child, I am always with you to help you, to support you, to guide you. By doing your work with conscientiousness, honesty and perseverance, you will feel my presence closer and closer to you. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/29-june-1946#p3</ref>

Straightforwardness means simply to be honest with oneself and with the Divine and not to be crooked in one's ways. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/sincerity#p25</ref>

==Honesty Indispensable Basis of Yoga==

It can or it may not. Why did not everything open up in me like the painting vision and some other things? All did not. As I told you I had to plod in many things. Otherwise the affair would not have taken so many years (30). In this Yoga one can't always take a short cut in everything. I had to work on each problem and on each conscious plane to solve or to transform and in each I had to take the blessed conditions as they were and do honest work without resorting to miracles. Of course if the consciousness grows all of itself, it is all right, things will come with the growth, but not even then pell-mell in an easy gallop.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/35/no-resorting-to-miracles#p4</ref>

=Common Misunderstandings about Honesty=