When Should You Tell The Truth?

I was asked the question “When should you tell the Truth?” and so this is my reply. The Vedic culture had a wonderful perspective on this subject. They were totally focused on being always truthful because this is in all of our interests to be honest and truthful. Truth was seen as an integral part of becoming enlightened and dishonesty has the pernicious effect of covering people’s hearts and minds in ignorance and contributes to the material entanglement of the soul. Yet truth should not be used as a cudgel to cause pain or injury to others. I shared a couple of very nice Vedic verses on this subject.