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Background
The virtue of being straightforward or frank is the virtue
that we also sometimes call the name "simplicity." It means consistency in
the activities of mind, speech and the body. (i.e. to say exactly what is
in one's mind and to do exactly what one says.) A good deal of
progress in the practice of this virtue can be achieved, if we try sincerely to act upon our words
and thus shed of any such tendencies as complexity, crookedness, deception, trickery, and so on from
our day to day activities.
Straightforwardness is the basic virtue of the true self. However, a
person subjects himself to ignorance and greed, and follows the path of deceitful
conduct. He tells himself, "Who can read my mind? I shall see to it that nobody
knows my mind and shall achieve what I desire by deceptive talk and treacherous
behavior." Such a person, creates so complex and so wide a net-
work of deceptive worldly affairs around him, that he cannot manage to come out of it.
He therefore has to undergo various miseries.
Author : Shri Atmanandji (Dr. Soneji)
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