The Truth About Lies

The purpose of lying is to obscure the truth from someone in order to make them act from a position of false knowledge, or avidya. It must, therefore be one of the most disrespectful things you can do to someone, as you are deliberately leading them from true knowledge into false knowledge. Mostly, lying involves constructing a false image of reality that will induce the person to act in a way that is beneficial to ourselves. This clearly a bad thing. Not only are we trying to avoid the reality of the situation ourselves, but we are deliberately leading our victims astray. A double dose of bad karma! With a so called 'white lie' we construct a false version of reality that we believe will reduce the suffering of the person we are lying to. But of necessity, even in a white lie, we lead the victim from vidya to avidya. This can never help them, and reflects poorly on us. This is why the yama of satya is so crucial. The ultimate goal of all souls is to gain vidya - true knowledge - and lying, by definition always leads to avidya - false knowledge. It is,mtherefore, one of the worst things one can do for ones own spiritual well being.