The great sage Thiruvalluvar is the author of the ancient Tamil literary work – Thirukural. It is classified as ‘Ara Nool’ in Tamil and as  ‘Treatise on the Duties’  in English and as ‘Dharma Sastra’ in Sanskrit.

Out of the 1330 profound couplets present in Thirukural, the below Kural is also present as the 292nd one.

Transliteration:

Poimaiyum Vaaimai Yitaththa Puraidheerndha

Nanmai Payakkum Enin

A short meaning of this Kural is given below:

‘Even falsehood has the nature of truth, if it confers a benefit that is free from fault’

It seems it is OK to say white lies if it either avoids great harm or discomfort to anyone present in the context.

What can be such harmless lies?

Let us consider some use cases:

1. Can we blame the leader of a nation, if in the best interests of the security of the nation, he lies to the public that defence expenditure is not very high when the truth is contrary?

2. Can we blame the exaggeration of the scientists who are truly in the verge of a R&D break through in-order to secure some much-needed funding?

3. Can we blame the rules of diplomacy that deliberately avoids sharp understandings to ensure some kind of tight balancing among the nations and their interests?

4. Can we blame an economist who lies about the state of the economy in-order to keep the morale of a nation at war?

5. A revolutionary philosopher may lie and escape in disguise to avoid capital punishment in a hostile situation.

A white lie is defined as – ‘An untruth told to spare feelings or from politeness’. But the white lies referred above goes above and beyond this formal definition. They are serious but the larger context warrants their presence.

The teller of such white lie has to consider the below points:

• Weight of the white lie

• Context of the white lie

• Impact of the white lie

• Audience of the white lie

• Time limits of the white lie

• Cost/benefits of the white lie

• Recovery aspects and damage containment if any

• If the white lies spawn any friendships or enmity

Hari Om!