Satya, telling the truth, being straightforward

I wish to continue my contemplation on the yamas. So the second one is satya, truthfulness.
It is clear that we should not lie. Lying is deceiving, it can cause suffering and hurt others. But why? Because if someone is deceived as to the truth, that person is deprived of the possibility of seeing clearly and take appropriate decisions. He or she is limited in her choices, therefore their freedom is taken away to some extent, and the worst is that their spiritual advancement is hindered because they are kept in the world of "maya", the world of illusions. They are cut off from those challenging moments, when they could break through and see the light, the divine and the good.

And if you are the one who deceives, the karma you take upon yourself is also very hard, since if you deliberately lie, you take spiritual opportunities, possibilities for growth away from others. In the same time, your karma will hit back on you, and you will automatically block your own spiritual path too.
You could say, yes, but sometimes the truth is so hard and it would be unbearable for someone to hear it. I disagree. I think the most painful is when you find out much later that you were not told the truth and then you look back and say, maybe if I knew it, I would have taken different actions. Even the course of my life could have taken a totally other direction.
The most obvious example is when someone is dying and they are afraid to tell it to them. I think everyone, or at least everyone's body is intelligent enough to feel that the moment is close, but by giving bad hopes, they are deprived of the opportunity to prepare for the last minute. However, that is a very important preparation, I saw it with my father. And death, however strange it might sound, is a beautiful moment, at least that is what I experienced with my Dad. That expression on his face, that eternal smile and harmony, made my first great spiritual experience and removed my fear of death.

But back to satya, I think it is not just that you should not tell a lie, but it also means that you should be honest and get things off your chest when it feels right. It is funny, but recently I became more straigthforward. Before, I was always concerned by hurting others, or considering what other people might think if I express my true feelings over an issue. But now I started to practice this with friends, that when something is bugging me, than I try to remove my fears over expressing it for fear of the consequences and I say it out loud. And I must say, it feels so good. It feels liberating. It feels being honest and truthful to myself. And funnily enough, the reactions so far were not so bad as I have anticipated. People looked at me, were thinking, then felt ashamed for their behaviour and asked sorry, or in another instance we both drew conclusions and learned something new from the situation. From an originally negative situation, a conflict, we came out with a new lesson, a little bit more wiser. And the whole story instead of leading to more trouble concluded in a warm friendly hug. And there should be no misunderstanding, I was really pissed at the beginning, and still. God, if we could all start this practice in our daily life, then so many things would go much better around us. But of course for this you need listening ears from the other part. That is why it is so good to start this with friends. Although, after you get used to this with friends, I see no point why you could not apply it to strangers as well.

As I started to behave like this, I see that on more and more occasions people are more direct with me too. They tell me things that are a little risky to say, but they can't resist. Probably, this is again the law of attraction, or your karma, you get back what you give or wish for. But I enjoy it. I feel that with these people my relationship is deepening, because they give me moments where I have to stop and think about something that at first seemed annoying or just unpleasant.

For me being honest is the message of satya, giving respect to yourself, to others and to the absolute truths (the dharmas or natural laws) of the universe.