2.36 · The Word That Comes True

When truthfulness is established, action and its fruit follow one's word.

Word by word

satya

truthfulness

pratiṣṭhāyām

when firmly established

kriyā

action

phala

fruit, result

āśrayatvam

being the support of

Where it fits

The second restraint of 2.30 and its sign. Truthfulness, which Vyāsa had already bound to the good of all beings (Woods p. 178), now carries power: action and its fruit follow the word, and what such a person says comes to pass (Woods p. 186). Not stealing follows (2.37).

Reading

The second restraint's sign is the boldest. Vyāsa's examples: if such a person says 'be good', the hearer becomes good; if they say 'reach heaven', the hearer reaches heaven. Read simply, the one who never lies is believed, and their words carry weight. Read more deeply, speech and reality come into line. Vyāsa, commenting on 2.30, adds that speech is meant to help all beings: words bent on harm would not be truth at all, only wrong.

Vyāsa

“If he says, 'Be good,' the person becomes good. If he says, 'Reach heaven,' the person reaches heaven. His words never fail.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 186.

Practice

Today, say nothing you don't believe, including small social lies. When the truth would wound, choose silence or a kinder truth.

A question to sit with

Where are your words and your life out of step?

Where commentators disagree

What does it mean that 'actions and their fruits rest on' one established in truthfulness?

Vyāsa

What he says comes true. If he says to someone 'Be good', that person becomes good; if he says 'Reach heaven', the person reaches heaven. (Woods 1914, p. 186)

Vācaspati Miśra

The actions are right and wrong living; the fruits are heaven and hell. Both depend on his word, which is not obstructed. (Woods 1914, p. 186)

Bhoja

Rites such as sacrifice bring fruits such as heaven, but the truthful yogin receives the fruit even without doing the work, and at his word the fruit comes to anyone, even someone who has not done the work. (Tatya 1885, p. 80; Mitra 1883, wisdomlib on 2.36)

Key ideas

aṣṭāṅga (the eight limbs), siddhi (powers), karma (action and its residue)