Satya (Sanskrit:सत्य;IAST:Satya) is aSanskrit word that can be translated as "truth" or "essence.“[3] AcrossIndian religions, it stands as a deeply valuedvirtue, signifying the alignment of one's thoughts, speech, and actions with reality.[4] InYoga philosophy, particularly inPatañjali'sYoga Sutras, Satya is one of the fiveyamas—moral restraints designed to cultivate truthfulness and prevent the distortion of reality through one’s expressions and behavior.[5]
In theVedas and latersutras, the meaning of the wordsatya evolves into anethical concept about truthfulness and an important virtue.[4][6] It means being true and consistent with reality in one'sthought, speech, and action.[4]
Satya hascognates in a number of diverseIndo-European languages, including the word "sooth" and "sin" inEnglish, "suť" ("суть") inRussian, "sand" (truthful) inDanish, "sann" inSwedish, and "haithya" inAvestan, theliturgical language ofZoroastrianism.[7]
Sat (Sanskrit:सत्) is the root of many Sanskrit words and concepts such assattva ("pure, truthful") andsatya ("truth"). TheSanskrit rootsat has several meanings or translations:[8][9]
Sat is a common prefix in ancient Indian literature. It implies variously that which is good, true, genuine, virtuous, being, happening, real, existing, enduring, lasting, or essential. For example,sat-sastra means true doctrine,sat-van means one devoted to the truth.[10]: 329–331 [8] In ancient texts, fusion words based onSat refer to "Universal Spirit, Universal Principle, Being, Soul of the World,Brahman".[11][12]
The negation ofsat isasat, meaning delusion, distorted, untrue, the fleeting impression that is incorrect, invalid, and false.[10]: 34 [8] The concepts ofsat andasat are famously expressed in thePavamana Mantra found in theBṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (1.3.28):
Asato mā sad gamaya
tamaso mā jyotir gamaya
mṛtyor mā amṛtam gamaya
Lead me from delusion to truth
from darkness to light
from mortality to immortality
Sat is one of the three characteristics ofBrahman as described insat-chit-ananda.[12] This association betweensat, 'truth', andBrahman, ultimate reality, is also expressed in Hindu cosmology, whereinSatyaloka, the highest heaven ofHindu cosmology, is the abode ofBrahman.
Satya is a central theme in theVedas. It is equated with and considered necessary to the conceptṚta (ऋतं,ṛtaṃ)—that which is properly joined, order, rule, nature, balance, harmony.[1][13]Ṛta results fromsatya in the Vedas, as it[ambiguous] regulates and enables the operation of the universe and everything within it.[14]Satya is considered essential, and without it, the universe and reality falls apart, cannot function.[14]
InRigveda,rita andsatya are opposed toanrita andasatya (falsehood).[1] Truth and truthfulness is considered as a form of reverence for the divine, while falsehood a form of sin.Satya includes action and speech that is factual, real, true, and reverent toṚta in Books 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10 of Rigveda.[2] However, in the Vedassatya encompasses one's current and future contexts in addition to one's past contexts.[clarification needed]De Nicolás[clarification needed] states, that in Rigveda, "Satya is the modality of acting in the world ofSat, as the truth to be built, formed or established".[2]
Satya is widely discussed in variousUpanishads, including theBrihadaranyaka Upanishad wheresatya is called the means toBrahman, as well as Brahman (Being, true self).[15][16] In hymn 1.4.14 of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad,Satya (truth) is equated toDharma (morality, ethics, law of righteousness),[17] as
Nothing is higher than the Law of Righteousness (Dharma). The weak overcomes the stronger by the Law of Righteousness. Truly that Law is the Truth (Satya); Therefore, when a man speaks the Truth, they say, "He speaks Righteousness"; and if he speaks Righteousness, they say, "He speaks the Truth!" For both are one.
Taittiriya Upanishad's hymn 11.11 states, "Speak theSatya (truth), conduct yourself according to theDharma (morality, ethics, law)".[18][17]
Truth is sought, praised in the hymns of Upanishads, held as one that ultimately, always prevails. TheMundaka Upanishad, for example, states in Book 3, Chapter 1,[19]
— Mundaka Upanishad, 3.1.6[19]
Sandilya Upanishad ofAtharvaveda, in Chapter 1, includes ten forbearances[24] as virtues, in its exposition of Yoga. It definessatya as "the speaking of the truth that conduces to the well being of creatures, through the actions of one's mind, speech, or body."[25]
Deussen states thatsatya is described in the major Upanishads with two layers of meanings—one as empirical truth about reality, another as abstract truth about universal principle, being, and the unchanging. Both of these ideas are explained in early Upanishads, composed before 500 BCE, by variously breaking the wordsatya orsatyam into two or three syllables. In later Upanishads, the ideas evolve and transcend intosatya as truth (or truthfulness), andBrahman as the Being, Be-ness, real Self, the eternal.[26]
TheShanti Parva of theMahabharata states, "The righteous hold that forgiveness, truth, sincerity, and compassion are the foremost (of all virtues). Truth is the essence of the Vedas."[27]
The Epic repeatedly emphasizes thatsatya is a basic virtue, because everything and everyone depends on and relies onsatya.[28]
सत्यस्य वचनं साधु न सत्याद विद्यते परम
सत्येन विधृतं सर्वं सर्वं सत्ये परतिष्ठितम
अपि पापकृतॊ रौद्राः सत्यं कृत्वा पृथक पृथक
अद्रॊहम अविसंवादं परवर्तन्ते तदाश्रयाः
ते चेन मिथॊ ऽधृतिं कुर्युर विनश्येयुर असंशयम
To speak the truth is meritorious. There is nothing higher than truth. Everything is upheld by truth, and everything rests upon truth. Even the sinful and ferocious, swear to keep the truth amongst themselves, dismiss all grounds of quarrel and uniting with one another set themselves to their (sinful) tasks, depending upon truth. If they behaved falsely towards one another, they would then be destroyed without doubt.
In theYoga Sutras of Patanjali, it is written, “When one is firmly established in speaking truth, the fruits of action become subservient to him."[29] In Yoga sutra,satya is one of the fiveyamas, or virtuous restraints, along withahimsa (restraint from violence or injury to any living being);asteya (restraint from stealing);brahmacharya (celibacy or restraint from sexually cheating on one's partner); andaparigraha (restraint from covetousness and craving). Patanjali considerssatya as a restraint from falsehood in one's action (body), words (speech, writing), or feelings / thoughts (mind).[5][30] In Patanjali's teachings, one may not always know the truth or the whole truth, but one knows if one is creating, sustaining, or expressing falsehood, exaggeration, distortion, fabrication, or deception.[29]Satya is, in Patanjali's Yoga, the virtue of restraint from such falsehood, either through silence or through stating the truth without any form of distortion.[31]
Satya is one of thefive vows prescribed inJain Agamas.Satya was also preached byMahavira.[32] According to Jainism, not to lie or speak what is not commendable.[sentence fragment][33]: 61 The underlying cause of falsehood is passion and therefore, it is said to causehiṃsā (injury).[33]: 66
According to the Jain textSarvārthasiddhi: "that which causes pain and suffering to the living is not commendable, whether it refers to actual facts or not".[34]
According to the Jain textPuruşārthasiddhyupāya:[33]: 33
All these subdivisions (injury, falsehood, stealing, unchastity, and attachment) arehiṃsā as indulgence in these sullies the pure nature of the soul. Falsehood etc. have been mentioned separately only to make the disciple understand through illustrations.
— Puruşārthasiddhyupāya (42)
The termsatya (Pali:sacca) is translated into English as "reality" or "truth." In terms of theFour Noble Truths (ariyasacca), the Pali can be written assacca,tatha,anannatatha, anddhamma.
'The Four Noble Truths' (ariya-sacca) are the briefest synthesis of the entire teaching of Buddhism,[35][36] since all those manifold doctrines of the threefoldPali canon are, without any exception, included therein. They are the truth of suffering (mundane mental and physical phenomenon), of the origin of suffering (tanha, craving), of the extinction of suffering (Nibbana ornirvana), and of theNoble Eightfold Path leading to the extinction of suffering (the eight supra-mundane mind factors).[37]
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The Gurmukhs do not like falsehood; they are imbued with Truth; they love only Truth.
— Gurubani, Hymn 3,[38]
Sat or truthfulness is one of the 5 virtues in Sikhism.
The motto of the republic ofIndia's emblem isSatyameva Jayate which is literally translated as 'Truth alone triumphs'.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)The semantic connection may therefore be compared with the Sanskrit term for the 'moral law', dharma (cognate with Latin firmus) and 'truth' satya (cognate with English 'sooth' and Greek with its well known significance in Plato's thought...
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)[verification needed]A derivative of this participle still serves as the normal word for 'true' and 'truth' in languages so far apart as Danish sand and sandhed) and Hindi (sac, satya). In English we have a cognate form of this old Indo-European participle of 'to be' in 'sooth', 'soothsayer'.
Av. haiθya-, from the verb 'to be'—truth in the sense of 'the way things actually are'—corresponds to its cognates, Skt.satyá-, Rus.istina.
सत्यं वद । धर्मं चर,satyam vada dharmam cara
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