Vital Honesty

                                                                                                                                                February  23, 1997

   Vital honesty is that which will make Life respond. In selling a jewel, a maker decided to make Rs. 2000/- profit. He quoted Rs. 14,000/-, which was 2000/- less than the market rate and the buyer was happy. The jeweller made it for 10,000/-. Now he decided, on his own to reduce the 14,000/-. This was at 12 noon. He took a few other jewels to a newly opened shop but the shop owner said it was a new shop, and he had no experience. Overhearing the conversation was a customer who offered to buy it. He bought it for the customer's price giving the jeweller the retailer's profit too. This was at 7 p.m. Life does respond to vital honesty at once. When it is more organised and is endowed with greater energy, the response will be in proportion to those strengths. Response is evoked by honesty; the size is determined by the strength.

   Look at all the thoughts, acts, and human interactions in a day which may be a hundred. Let us not take cases who are deliberately false or dishonest. There are others who are on the borderline who cannot know what they are doing and what its consequences are. There is first of all social politeness which is a great endowment. Not being able to be polite, one tries to make it up by a half-truth. Selfish interest which is unashamed resorts to lies and feels fully justified in it. Prestige is a great culprit. In its defence one readily resorts to dishonest emotions, statements, etc. Finally there are people who do not distinguish between an honest attitude and its opposite. One who wants to be vitally honest can locate all of them; it is possible. His part is to convert the new knowledge into a new vital attitude. Life responds to that new attitude. Some examples can illustrate this:

1) ‘I am a good man' is a universally prevalent thought. This has a range. At one end is the honest blindness which does not see the obvious fact, ‘You don't think about what is really there.' The frequently occurring thought is a clear indication that you are not good. At the other end of the scale is a bad man who is trying to consciously convince himself that he is not bad. In between there are grades. The least one can do is whenever this thought occurs, one must know he has work inside and must come forward to do it.

2) When we read a story and see a character there, we evaluate him against a standard. Our standard is perfect. We never apply that standard to ourselves. To ourselves  ‘we' are never to be judged at all because we are what we are, implicitly GOOD.

3) We comment ‘It is wrong' when someone is late. Here it is actually vital dishonesty as we ourselves have been late so often. What is this attitude? As long as I am not caught, I am right.

4) We laugh or ridicule someone making a foolish remark. We have made such remarks in the past and we have forgotten it. Maybe still we are making such statements.

5) We teach our children, under the guise of manners, not to say this or that, knowing fully well it is not manners but defending our ‘prestige' at all costs.

6) The area where most miss is where we have privilege or authority. The misuse of these is about 100% unless it is mitigated by a counter authority. Great abuses of authority everyone knows but would still indulge in. Small abuses all of us are unconscious of. It can be described as taking advantage of one who cannot refuse or withholding information when we cannot be found out. We cross the border here a dozen times a day. Scrutiny will reveal it is a way of life, a wrong way of life.

7) Secretive nature: In a relation or work we are obliged to keep the other informed in certain areas. Secretive people withhold information. Doing this unconsciously is impermissible; doing so for an advantage is unpardonable.

8) One who wants the MARKET to move towards him will do best if he tries for full honesty in the vital. At least with respect to the market, he has to be honest if there is to be any response.

9) He can draw up an exhaustive list of types of occasions where honesty is called for, examine his attitude there and decide to change.

10) Some common examples:

• Returning money the client has forgotten.
• Not overcharging a buyer because he is ignorant of the usual terms.
• Taking the line of least resistance when there is an advantage.
• Angling for commercial gifts, because everyone gets them.
• Refusing to extend a concession which we are getting from others.
• Refusing to pass on to the customer a concession our supplier has given.
• When money is due on the 30th day and we have it earlier, waiting till the last day to pay.
• Hiding facts from customers because the product comes from another country and the customers cannot afford to know.
• Fancy packaging hiding poor quality.
• Substituting cheap ingredients for expensive ones.
• Negotiation of prices without disclosing the extras like postage, etc.
• Repairmen taking advantage of customer's ignorance.
• Misrepresentation.
• Believing the lies of your supplier and passing them on to your buyers.
• Putting false pressure on the customer.
• When the closing time is 5 p.m., trying to close ten or fifteen minutes earlier.

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Men understand that by being honest we lose in business. The truth is, being dishonest blocks energy, and honesty lets energy flow into the market and expands it.