Vannakkam all:

I'm starting this thread as a response to what someone said in another thread. I'm sure we've all encountered this saying at one time or another, whether from parents, teachers, etc.

I find it to be a vast oversimplification of life that has its origins in black/white or good/bad western thinking. There is a childrens' book titled 'Number the Stars' by Lois Lowry that provides a great starter for a discussion on this. In the book, the Danes are smuggling Jews out of Denmark over to Sweden during the time of Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark. The Danes chronically lie or distort the truth to the Germans to save their Jewish friend's lives. Good book with lots of lessons, for those of us here with children.

The other thread got me to thinking (not always a good thing) about the Hindu take on this. What do our scriptures say? Do they parrot the western simplicity, or do they express it in a more complex way, as I have said? From my experience, its always more complicated. Take the example of a person who is going into dementia. What value is it to tell them the truth a mistake they may have made in counting money, etc. The better plan, born out of kindness, would be to just cover for them, no?

Thoughts, anyone?

Aum Namasivaya