Silence and truth

Question: Is it proper to answer a question with silence, or when we are asked a question are we obliged to tell the truth?

Sri Chinmoy: Here we have to know the real truth. Suppose two young boys have quarreled and now they are fighting. They start by using their fists and, finally, they take out their knives. Then, one of them feels that he is the weaker of the two and runs away while the other one chases after him. You are meditating at the foot of a tree and you see the victim go hide in a cave. The other one says to you, "Did you see him? Where has he gone? I want to kill him!" You know the truth. Are you ready to say, "Yes, he is hiding there in the cave"? If you tell the truth, then what will this boy do? He will immediately go to kill the other one. This kind of truth is nothing but stupidity. At that time, you have to remain silent. You won't say anything. You know the truth, but that truth will be more damaging than the actual problem. So at that time you have to remain silent.

In this world we have to know immediately whether our truth is going to fulfil God's Vision and God's Reality on earth. It is very good to tell the truth, but we have to know the immediate result of the truth. If we tell the truth and someone is killed, in God's Eye we will be the culprit along with the person who does the actual killing.

I always say, "Tell the truth, but remain in a soulful consciousness. Then you will know what God wants from you. " If we remain in our ordinary consciousness, then we always try to derive joy or pleasure from truth in our own way. But we can run into great difficulty if we try to utilise the truth for our own sake. But if we use the truth for God's sake, then immediately God will give us the wisdom to know when to open our mouth and when to keep our mouth shut. Truth is good, but in this limited world we have to see the ultimate Truth the way the Divine, the Supreme, wants us to see, realise and become the truth.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Perfection and transcendence, Agni Press, 1977
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