This should be standard of truthfulness and honesty as given in the below story
In the nineteenth century, Calcutta University was a a famous university for advanced degree and students from all parts of the country, came to receive their education. One of the rules for admission to this university was that the student must have reached the minimum age of sixteen years at the time of admission. A new student who was only fourteen years old, wrote sixteen years his age in the admission form as all the other students were doing. He did not know the rule. During his first year, at the University he came to know about the rule and realized his mistake. He felt deeply sorry for his false statement, approached the principal of his college and made a confession. He was told that now the mistake could not be corrected. He approached the Registrar of the University and received the same reply. What was to be done now? How to get his mistake corrected? As a punishment for giving false statement, he discontinued his University education for two years!
This student was Shree Ashvinikumar Dutt, who turned out later as a great educationalist in the state of Bengal.
Now there are variations in the truthfulness also
Should a soldier captured in battle tell his captors false information about the deployment and strategies of his own army?
Should a physician tell a terminally ill and deeply depressed patient what he knows and estimates to be the patient’s condition and life expectancy if the patient asks?
We should practice honesty and truthfulness in our life by being consistent with it.
What we say we should practice and by doing so we will ensure rectitude of conduct.If mother tells children not to talk bad about his friends and she herself talks bad about her mother in law in a dirty way,then obviously mother can’t ensure rectitude of conduct in our life and nor will she develop the same in her child.The child will be confused why is mother talking bad about grandmother when she is telling me not to speak bad about my friends.
For example mother asks her son to lie on phone that she is not their ,then obviously for some petty gain she is going away from rectitude of conduct in her life.So what example is she setting of honesty and truthfulness. Half truth and truth by omission of facts is also wrong. We have to practice what we say and be consistent with it..Only perseverance and not to stray away from honesty for petty gains will ensure rectitude of conduct in our lives.
Aarti
ebed2pune5
