Satya: Truthfulness as Honesty and Integrity
Nicolai Bachman
Satya, or truthfulness, is the second of five yamas that make up the first limb of yoga. In this yoga talk, Nicolai Bachman explains that if we value our individual conscience more than our own self-interest, we can become our own hero by maintaining our integrity.
Telling the truth can be tricky and difficult, requiring the alignment of three elements: what actually happened, what we think actually happened, and how we communicate what we think actually happened. Yoga practices help to clarify the heart-mind field; we want to get to the point where we have clear unbiased perception.
If your thoughts, your words and your actions are consistent, all on the same page, so to speak, this causes the different parts of your being to work together – to align – making it more likely that whatever you’re thinking, saying or doing will actually happen.