Ahimsa and Satya

Lesson 7

Ahimsa and satya are the first two of the yamas, making them the absolute foundation of the 8 Petals of Yoga. Ahimsa (non-harming and reverence) is known as the most important rule in yoga, and this is the reason it was listed first — before things like satya (appropriate truthfulness).

Let’s go through a simple example to show ahimsa and satya in practice. However, remember that these are only two parts of the first Petal of Yoga, and ideally we want to be practicing all of the 8 Petals of Yoga simultaneously the best that we can.

Suppose you have a friend named Bob that is extremely overweight — like 200 pounds overweight. The truth is your friend is fat. However, would it be the best move to go up to Bob and call him fat? No, it would not. How would that make Bob feel? How would it make you feel? Yes, you are speaking the truth, however you are violating the yoga principle of ahimsa, which is placed even higher than truth. There is no single right answer, but a better move would be to ask your friend to go on a walk or do a beginner’s workout — saying the same thing but with your actions and entire essence in a gentler and more compassionate way.

This is not just to be nice, it is actually also for overall optimization and your personal benefit. This example of ahimsa and satya reminds me of the story of Jeff Bezos and his grandmother. As a child, Jeff Bezos was riding in the back seat of his grandfather’s car with his grandmother smoking a cigarette in the passenger seat. As you can imagine, Bezos was a bright child, so he calculated how much life his grandmother loses per cigarette. Although the young Jeff Bezos thought his grandmother would be impressed with his mathematics skills, when he presented his calculations, she started crying. Jeff’s grandfather pulled the car over and took young Jeff aside. He told Jeff that being clever or right is not as important and valuable as being kind. This lesson obviously stuck with Jeff Bezos, as excellent customer service became foundational to Amazon’s massive success. It can be foundational to your success too, as well as to the success of your AI projects.