---
type: Concept
bundle: dharmic-ethics
bundle_version: "0.5.0"
id: satya
title: "Satya — Truthfulness as Alignment with the Real"
iast: "satya"
devanagari: "सत्य"
description: "Truthfulness as the alignment of thought, word, and deed with what is, in harmony with ṛta; the second yama. Not mere factual accuracy, not honesty as a social virtue, and not the epistemic or ontological 'truth' of the vedanta bundle."
darshana:
  - Yoga Darśana
  - pan-dharmic (sādhāraṇa-dharma)
school_scope: "Second yama (YS 2.30, 2.36), subordinated to ahiṃsā. Paired in the Veda with ṛta (ṛtaṃ ca satyaṃ). Distinct from the epistemological and ontological senses of sat / truth treated in the vedanta-epistemology bundle."
text_source: "YS 2.36; Taittirīya Upaniṣad 1.11 (satyaṃ vada); Ṛgveda (ṛtaṃ-satyaṃ)"
tags:
  - satya
  - yama
  - truth
  - tier-1
not:
  - term: "factual accuracy"
    why: "factual accuracy is the correspondence of a statement to data; satya is the alignment of one's whole speech and being with what is real and beneficial, which can require silence over a wounding fact, since satya is held under ahiṃsā"
    instead: "Render satya as truthfulness, the alignment of thought, word, and deed with the real; not as bare factual correctness."
  - term: "honesty (as social virtue)"
    why: "honesty names a reliable social behavior; satya is an ontological-ethical discipline, a vow whose fruit is that one's word becomes efficacious (YS 2.36), because the speaker is no longer divided from the truth they speak"
  - term: "truth (epistemological)"
    why: "the vedanta bundle treats truth as valid cognition (pramā) and intrinsic validity (svataḥprāmāṇya); satya here is not a theory of how knowledge is true but the ethical practice of living in accord with the real"
  - term: "sat / reality (ontological)"
    why: "sat is being itself, and the levels-of-reality analysis (pāramārthika, vyāvahārika) belongs to vedanta; satya the yama is the conduct of truthfulness, the human alignment to that real, not the metaphysics of the real"
related:
  - /concepts/ahimsa.md
  - /concepts/rta.md
  - /concepts/achara.md
  - /concepts/svadhyaya.md
timestamp: "2026-06-25"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Satya — सत्य

**Not:** factual accuracy, honesty (as social virtue), truth (epistemological), sat / reality (ontological)

Satya is truthfulness: the alignment of thought, word, and deed with what is. As the second yama it is the practice of living so that one's speech and one's being are not at odds with reality, and it is held under ahiṃsā, so that truth is never weaponized into harm.

## Etymology

From *sat*, the present participle of √*as* (to be), so satya is "that which pertains to being, that which is." Truthfulness is therefore not primarily about reporting facts but about conforming oneself to what genuinely is. To speak satya is to let one's word participate in being rather than in distortion.

## What It Actually Means

YS 2.36 promises that when truthfulness is firmly established, the fruit of action follows the word: the speech of such a person comes true, because there is no gap between what they say and what is. This is satya as a state, not a policy. The Taittirīya Upaniṣad's parting injunction to the student, satyaṃ vada, dharmaṃ cara (speak truth, walk in dharma), sets satya and conduct side by side. And in the Veda, satya is twinned with ṛta: ṛta is the cosmic order, satya is its truthful articulation in human speech and life. To be truthful is to align with the order of the real.

## Satya Under Ahiṃsā (a Subordination to Keep)

The tradition is explicit that satya serves ahiṃsā, not the reverse. A truth spoken to wound, a fact deployed to injure, is not satya but cruelty wearing accuracy as a mask. Where a bare fact would harm and a kinder silence would not betray the real, silence can be the truthful act. This is the opposite of the modern instinct that "honesty" licenses any disclosure. Satya is truth in the service of the good, governed by harmlessness.

## Why the Substitutes Fail

"Factual accuracy" and "honesty" both flatten satya into a reporting standard and lose its grounding in being and its subordination to ahiṃsā. The epistemological and ontological senses (covered in `okf/vedanta-epistemology/`) are about how knowledge is valid and how reality is structured; satya the yama is the ethical discipline of a life lived in accord with the real, which is a different question entirely.

## Cross-References
- [Ahiṃsā](ahimsa.md) — satya is held under harmlessness; a truth told to harm is not satya
- [Ṛta](rta.md) — satya is the human articulation of ṛta, the cosmic order
- [Ācāra](achara.md) — truthful speech is one of the embodied norms of right conduct
- [Svādhyāya](svadhyaya.md) — study of the real and truthfulness about oneself reinforce each other

## Audience Metaphor

Think of a tuning fork. A true note is not just a "correct" sound; it is a vibration in exact agreement with the pitch it claims to be, and when it is true, other strings nearby begin to ring in sympathy. Satya is the person tuned to the real: their word rings true because they are not sounding one pitch while being another. A merely "accurate" statement can still come from a person badly out of tune. Satya is the agreement of the whole instrument with what is.

## Citations

1. [Yoga Sūtra](/references/yoga-sutra.md) 2.30, 2.36 — satya as the second yama; the word of the truth-established becomes efficacious
2. [Taittirīya Upaniṣad](/references/taittiriya-upanishad.md) 1.11 — satyaṃ vada, dharmaṃ cara: the graduating student's charge
3. [Ṛgveda](/references/rigveda.md) — the ṛtaṃ-satyaṃ pairing: cosmic order and its truthful articulation
