Karma Yoga Sastra -Tilak
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CHAPTER II
THE DESIRE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ACTION
(KARMA-JIJNASA) i.e. "if you can escape without speaking, then do not speak under any circumstances: hut if it is necessary to speak, or if by not speaking you may rouse suspicion in the mind (of another), then, telling a He has been found, after mature deliberation, to be much better than speaking the truth." Because, the law of Truth is not confined to speech, and that conduct which leads to the benefit of all, cannot be looked upon as objectionable merely on the ground that the vocal expression is untruthful. That by which everybody will be harmed is neither Truth nor Harmlessness. Narada says to Suka in the Santiparva on the authority of Sanatkumara :- satyasya vacanam sreyah satyad api hitam vadet | yad bhuta-hitam atyantam etat satyam matam mama II [1]. i. e., "speaking the truth is the proper thing ; but rather than truth, speak that which will lead to the welfare of all ; because, that in which the highest welfare of all consists is in my opinion the real Truth ". Seeing the words ' yad bhuta-hitam ', one will certainly think of the modern western Utilitarians, and these words may be looked upon as an interpolation. I, therefore, say that these words have appeared more than twice in the Vanaparva of the Bharata in the conversation between the Brahmin and the hunter ; and in one of those places, there is a verbal change as : " ahimsa satya-vacanam sarva-bhuta- hitam param " [2], and in another place, there is another verbal difference as : "yad bhuta-hitam atyantam tat satyam iti dharana " [3]. There is no other reason for the fact that the truthful Yudhisthira confused Drona by the ambiguous answer : " naro va kunjaro va " i. e., "either the man (named Asvatthama) or the elephant ", and the same rule applies to other similar things. Our religion does not ask us to save the life of a murderer by telling a lie. Because, as the Sastras themselves have prescribed the punishment of death for a murderer, such a person is certainly punishable or fit for death, All the Sastras say that one who bears false witness on such or similar occasions, goes to hell personally, and also sends to ths" same place seven or more of his ancestors [4]. But what are you going to do ""when, as in the illustration of the highway robbers given above from the Karna-parva, speaking the truth will lead to innocent persons being unnecessarily killed ? The English writer Green has in his book named Prolegomena to Ethics said that books on moral philosophy are silent on this question. It is true that Manu and Yajnavalkya look upon such situations as excep- tions to the law of Truth. But as even according to them, untruthfulness is the less praiseworthy conduct, they have prescribed a penance for it in the following words :- tat pavanaya nirvapyas caruh sarasvato dvijaih II
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