Suppose a person does something because they are misled. To help them correct themselves, they need to be shown how they are being misled. 

We need to adopt the same approach when they are misled by someone inside them: their own mind. The mind distorts their perspective of things, showing them only one aspect of reality and making them believe they are seeing the whole reality. In such situations, are they deceiving others or are they being deceived? Actually, it may be both. 

The Bhagavad-gita (03.06) mentions people who pretend to be renounced externally, while indulging in sensual fantasies internally. They not only deceive others, but also deceive themselves, especially if they believe that such inner indulgence has no consequences. Though inner indulgence isn’t as harmful as outer indulgence, it isn’t inconsequential — the thoughts we entertain internally soon impel us to act externally.

Honest dishonesty is different from rationalization: in rationalization, the person uses their intelligence to consciously explain away the unacceptable; In honest dishonesty, the person actually believes what they are saying. 

How can we become free from honest dishonesty? When we are misled by someone externally, we need to talk with someone else trustworthy enough whose perspective we are ready to hear and consider. Similarly, we need to have someone trustworthy enough to hear from. That’s why healthy strong relationships matter, because thereby, we have people around us who we can trust as much as the mind if not more than the mind, and they can be our rescuers from our mind 

Also, if we are diligently practicing bhakti to connect with Krishna, then that connection with Krishna can provide inner illumination by which we can catch the mind’s lies. 

One-sentence summary:

Even if we are honestly dishonest, we are still dishonest — to end such dishonesty, we need to learn to catch our mind’s lies. 

Think it over:

  • How might we become honestly dishonest?
  • How is honest dishonesty different from rationalization?
  • How can we become free from honest dishonesty?

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