Satya (devanāgarī: सत्य; Pali: sacca) is a Sanskrit word that can be translated as "truth" or "reality ".
Satya is also defined in Sanskrit by the phrase sate hitam satyam, which can be translated as "that which leads to sat ("the Being, the real") is satya. "
The term is used by movements in the fields of social justice, environmentalism and vegetarianism.
Hinduism
This notion of universal reality is common in Indian philosophy. Combined with other words, satya becomes a modifier like "ultra" or "great" or "truer", connoting purity or excellence. Examples: Satyaloka (highest heaven), Satya Yuga (the golden age of the four cosmic ages (yuga) of Hinduism, the current Kali Yuga being the worst of these ages).
According to Gandhi: "Truth is perhaps the most important name for God. In fact, to say that Truth is God is more accurate than to say that God is Truth. Sat or Satya is the only name for God that is accurate and has a complete meaning.
How can this Truth be realized, which reminds one a little of the philosopher's stone or the inexhaustible cow? It is achieved, says the Bhagavad Gîtâ, by devotion [bhakti] to which one devotes one's whole mind and by indifference to all other interests that life can offer.
Buddhism
In Buddhism, the term Satya is translated as "true" in the Noble Eightfold Path, such as Satya Vishwas (true belief), Satya Karma, (true/good action), etc. The Four Noble Truths are called by the Buddha arya satya.
The term satyadvaya is also used in Buddhism to describe the two aspects of reality: ultimate truth (paramārtha-satya), and relative truth (saṃvṛti-satya)5; the latter is distinguished by Chandrakirti according to three meanings:
Who obscures ainsity (tattvâvacchâdana) ;
Mutually dependent objects (parasparasambhavana);
Worldly agreements (lokavyavahâra)6.
After him, in Chapter IX of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, Master Śāntideva explains that
"Two truths have been recognized.
One phenomenal, the other radical
The Real is inaccessible to intelligence
Intelligence is said to be phenomenal."
Jainism
Jainism considers satya as one of its five primordial vows, a Mahavrata; a close translation would be: sincerity, or truth. All ascetic monks must adhere to it; as must non-violence, ahimsa, for example.
Thus, false doctrines, the revelation of secrets, the distortion of others, slander, the making of false documents, the failure to keep the truth, are also considered lies and, consequently, dishonesty in its forms, the believer must abstain from it.
However, this is not the Kantian "categorical imperative" because in the name of non-violence (to protect a thief who risks the death penalty, to prevent an animal or a human being from being killed or injured, for example), one can "lie".
