Is it ever right to lie?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question, is it ever right to lie? Answer, yes, at times, that may be the only right thing to do.
Morality is not categorical, it is contextual. Categorical means this is right and this is wrong and these are two distinct and non-intersecting categories. That is the idea of categorical morality.
Whereas contextual morality means that depending on time, place, circumstance, certain things are right and certain things may be wrong. So, for example, if say there are criminals chasing an innocent person out to murder that person and then that person is your friend and he comes to your house seeking shelter and then you give him a place for hiding in the house and then the criminal knock on the door and they ask, is this person here? What should we say at that time? Now, if we speak the truth at that time, we will actually be doing violence to the person. We will be causing an innocent person to be killed.
So, truthfulness in general is a virtue and the right thing is to be truthful. But at the same time, there is a principle higher than truthfulness and that principle is of doing the right thing, of actually acting in a way that is beneficial and spiritually contributes to our growth. So, dharma in that sense, dharma is actually the whole, dharma is essentially the science of choices.
The word dharma has many meanings. One meaning is the philosophical and systematic analysis of the science of living by which we understand how to live, what choices to make. So, there are emergent situations in which lying may well be the necessary thing to do, the right thing to do.
So, far from it being wrong, it may be the right thing and it may be wrong actually to speak the truth at that time. In the Puranas, there is a story of a Brahmana who had taken a vow to always speak the truth and he was in a village sitting under a tree and he saw a cow terrified and fleeing away and he was sitting at a crossroad and he saw the cow going in one direction and then there was a butcher who was coming behind, chasing and he asked this Brahmana, where did the cow go? And eventually he was caught. Should I speak the truth or should I save the life of a cow? Not knowing what to do, not wanting to speak a lie, he just pointed with his hands in the direction where the cow had gone and it’s a long story but eventually this Brahmana got a karmic reaction for having pointed the finger and in a future lifetime his hand got cut.
Actually his hands were cut as a reaction to whatever wrong he had done. So, speaking truth is good but the important point is not just speaking the truth, it is doing good, doing the right thing and that requires deep contemplation and deep understanding of the principles of living and of the purpose of living. So, when we connect ourselves with God and act in order to serve God in selfless love, then we act in a way that is beneficial for everyone including ourselves and while acting in such a way, normally we will be truthful but on some occasions when the circumstances demand, we may speak whatever is required to do the right thing at that time.
So, truthfulness is not just literal truthfulness, truthfulness is that speech which takes people closer to truthfulness, closer to the absolute truth ultimately. So, if somebody is doing wrong and somebody is a butcher is murdering a cow or criminals are going to murder an innocent person, then speaking the literal truth will actually cause the great pain to the victim as well as great bad karma for the victimizers and they will be going away from the absolute truth also. So, lying is generally wrong but we shouldn’t think of lying and speaking truth in simplistic literal terms.
We need to understand that ultimately the truthfulness is that which takes us towards the absolute truth and when we have the sincere spirit of devotional service, when we want to serve God, then He from within will give us intelligence to act in ways which are the best. I will give you the intelligence by which you can come back to me. So, this should not at all be taken as a license for speaking lies indiscriminately but rather we should not make an indiscriminate adherence to truth as the supreme principle.
Speaking truthfully is a good desirable virtue that should be cultivated but we shouldn’t make a God out of that. We should understand the highest virtue is God and devotion to God and as a result of devotion to God in general we speak truthfully. On rare occasions when it is required for the service of God, for doing good to others in connection with God, if it is required, we may actually from a literal point of view speak things which are not truthful but from the absolute point of view they are truthful because they are what will take us closer to the absolute truth and take others closer to the absolute truth.
Thank you.