The Power of Truthfulness

“When a yogi is established in truthfulness, actions begin to bear fruit.”

-Yoga Sutra 2:36

We begin our path to truthfulness with truthful self-talk. “Self-talk” are the things, ideas, statements, that we say to ourselves or the thoughts that we just automatically think. Often self-talk is an unconscious event. Most of the time we don’t even know what we think about ourselves, others, or the events that present themselves to us until we feel something or act.

These feelings and actions result in joy and happiness or separation and pain for us. However, the foundation and driving force of these feelings and actions is our self-talk. Self-talk pushes us to feel and act in many different and important ways.

Let’s look at being truthful, so that our actions can bear the fruit that we want. There is tremendous power in speaking the truth, even when we hold ourselves accountable for mistakes we have made. When we speak truthfully our words become vortices of energy that produce powerful results.

Jesus of Nazareth exemplifies that quite clearly. Whenever he asked some crippled person to walk, that person stood up and walked. Whenever he asked certain diseases to leave a person, they left. When Jesus cursed a fig tree, it shriveled up and died. Many other yogis experienced that same powerful response to their words, according to Swami Rama. It comes from living a life of truthfulness.

So, how do we get to that point of truthfulness in our lives? How can our words truly bear the fruit that we long for—namely, peace, love, harmony, prosperity, healing?

We have to start with our self-talk. We have to tell ourselves the truth and change the lies that live in our unconscious world. This means re-programming our unconscious minds. It means speaking truth to the power of our minds. Some examples of truth would be:

I am loveable and capable.

At my core I am a divine, infinite and perfect being.

My mind thinks positive truth constantly (“tanme namaha shiva sankalpa mastu”).

When my mind thinks negatively, it is because I fear something.

I am a fallible human being and making mistakes helps me learn to do better.

Everyone I know is loveable and capable and free to be themselves, even if I don’t agree with them.

All the people I meet are made in the image and likeness of God and are doing the best they can to fulfill that image.

I am responsible for my own feelings because they come from my self-talk.

When we look at truthfulness in this way, we can begin to realize why our world has so many problems and is so filled with pain and suffering. Our culture and world has not learned to think and speak the truth.

Let’s start speaking and living the Truth this New Year by telling ourselves the TRUTH!

Namaste’