So he recognised the truth that nirvāṇa comes through these two alone. The senses themselves are the root cause of this nirvāṇa. Samyak dṛṣṭi, samyak śravaṇa, samyak vāk, samyak cintana, samyak kriyā. So with this action we must make our hands holy. Through samyak śravaṇa we must make our ears holy. With samyak cintana we must make the heart holy. Samyak vāk: our words must be right. So all the sādhanas man has done today are merely physical, worldly, natural. Without checking these senses, what use is there in doing any number of sādhanas? So first of all we must learn the way to check these senses. Only then can we attain right sādhanas. Man today gives the senses no work at all. Merely the work done with the hands, the looks seen with the eyes, the thoughts thought with the mind: with this alone we are wasting our life. These are not our life. We are human beings. First of all we must recognise the divinity within this humanness. How are we to recognise this divinity? Everyone knows it. But even knowing it, they cannot put it into practice. What is this Ātma principle? It is just what has been said so far. Satyaṃ brūyāt: speak the truth. We know that untruth is bad. But we tell untruths for the sake of escaping temporary troubles. We escape only temporary difficulties. But we are increasing a lasting difficulty. This is very dangerous. So first try to check what is temporary. This itself is a kind of moral honour.
The ideal of Satya Hariścandra
When you set out to speak the truth, some trouble may come at the time. But little by little your fame may grow. “He is truth itself!” they say. To keep his word, Satya Hariścandra went through every hardship for the sake of truth.