The Yamas and Niyamas: Satya

Is my “yes” coming

From a dark corner or from

The light in my heart?

~C.L.

Satya is truthfulness, and it is the second Yama in the yogic tradition. Satya and Ahimsa are partners as first and second principles, and they create a beautiful environment together for a person to live from. Nonviolence without truth is just wimpy passivity. Truth without the specific intent not to cause harm is just an excuse to lash out at others. Adele says,

[the union of Satya and Ahimsa] is nothing short of profound love in it’s fullest expression. And when there is cause for disharmony or confusion between the two, truthfulness bows to nonviolence. First and foremost, do no harm.

She goes on to describe Satya as something that can be intimidating or scary. Truthfulness “isn’t safe, but it is good.” In this, she is speaking not just about truth in the sense of not telling a lie, but truth in the sense that one is living in integrity to life and to self. It means facing the world from a place of deep centeredness, interacting with the world and others always in accordance with one’s inner truth.

Satya goes straight to the heart of yogic philosophy, the goal of which is to strip away the trappings of the physical world and our human failability to get to the true essence of existence: that all is connected in the love of the greater power that created all and to which all will return. This is the deepest, greatest truth of all.

Over the next four weeks we’ll start to break Satya into different aspects as a way to practice observing truthfulness in our lives.