Speaking of honesty - for a deep cleansing of the heart.
Sajjana Ashraya das: In the vocabolary of italian language we read: Honesty, from the latin “honestate” is the quality of an honest person, that acts with rectitude, with loyalty, justice, abstains from doing evil, a conscientious person, responsible, aligned to moral principles, that has dignity and decorum, that expresses decency and modesty. Living with dignity, with decorum, with politeness, elegantly.
It is said in the Srimad Bhagavatam that those who lives in Krishna consciousness are animated by a deep honesty.
Thus being honest is very important; there are various levels of honesty, ordinary, where we do not do things like stealing etc; intellectual, where for example we admit we also can make mistakes and spiritual, where we admit the existence of God.
As members of a spiritual movement we are called to be deeply honest at every level. Honesty, in every circumstance, even in small things, helps us to be spiritually honest.
Truth, like honesty, has various levels and only a deep and complete honesty will make us eligible to receive the complete spiritual Truth, and the more honest we are about our shortcomings and struggles, the more help we get from above–so honesty will lead us to the complete Truth.
But if we do not cultivate honesty in all its aspects, we can come to the point of cheating ourselves even without being aware of it, and this will not please the Lord.
Being dishonest and cheat others can sometimes be worse than not following the four regulative principles. Not following these principles is not good at all, but cheating, falsity and betrayal provoke disgust and bitterness. Not only that, when a person behaves badly everybody will know, and sooner or later that person will be alone.
All members of ISKCON knows the universal law of karma and thus know, if you rob you will be robbed, if you cheat you will be cheated; and this can be a deterrent, but to those who practice spiritual life, and to tell the truth, to even those who do not, as soon as we do something wrong, Diiiiinn! We feel something inside us, a wrong note, a slight quiver, a start. “Something is wrong” The Supersoul, the innermost friend of our heart, is telling us that what we think is not right.
Obviously we should not become expert in dismantling this natural alarm system, but we should always try to hear the innermost voice of our heart that is leading us to the right path.
Coming from material life, we bring with us a suitcase full of many good intentions and sincerity, but we could also bring with us some wrong conceptions, some mental rubbish, as cheating, cleverness, enviousness, fault finding, so prominent in today society.
It takes time; but all this garbage must be thrown away. In spiritual life there is no place at all for that. We have to find the courage to be deeply honest, even if we heard the saying “The world is of the clever” But it is not truth. It is said: “Those who follow dharma will be sustained by dharma, but those who trample on dharma will be trampled upon by dharma.”
Sesa Prabhu, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, told of a day when he knew he had to pay a fine; so he went to the government office to pay it. The officer told him that the American government sent that fine to thousands of people, and to tell the truth, he said, you can postpone the payment, or even not pay the fine at all. But Sesa Prabhu preferred to pay it anyway, and his motivation was, “To maintain a very deep sense of honesty” Such an important quality for him, more important than money.
As we know, the concept of yukta vairagya tells us to use everything in the service of Krishna, so we can use money and objects, and thus, we can certainly also use honesty, rectitude, loyalty in the service of the Lord.
For those that practice a serious spiritual life being honest is natural, and it is natural to have good feelings for others and try to inspire them with our good behavior.
We need speaking often of honesty and then practice it daily. If a topic of such an importance is neglected, it loses importance and then it can almost disappear. If our background was not the best, our spiritual practices are superficial, we never talk of honesty and especially if we criticize or even worse, offend others, Krishna will take away our spiritual intelligence and we would become again dishonest.
We can not give for granted that we are perfect just because we are part of a spiritual movement. We have to cultivate good qualities and earn other’s appreciation.
Paraphrasing Srila Prabhupada, “ What will be the use of your verses and erudition if you do not behave well? Nobody will believe you.”
Good qualities are our only wealth, they are the things that attract other persons and Krishna. We have a great responsibility, of maintaining the deepest honesty.