Satya (Truth in Person)

Satya, “truth”

Satya, also called Satyadeva, is Truth in the form of a man. Bṛhaspati tells Devarāja Indra how he spoke to King Satyadatta of Kāñcīpura.

The king had proclaimed that he would buy whatever did not sell in the market. A blacksmith brought an iron Daridra-purusha, a figure of poverty, and no one bought it. The king bought it for a hundred rupees to keep his word, and had it placed in the treasury. By its power, at night, as the king looked on, satkarma, dharma and Lakshmī began to leave.

Satya came to him as a man and said, “O king, where poverty dwells no one is devoted to karma; without karma, dharma cannot stay firm on earth; without dharma, Lakshmī has no beauty; and without Lakshmī I cannot remain.”

As he wished to go, the king held him and said with humble words, “I have not abandoned you; I have kept to truth alone. So why do you leave my house?” Hearing this, Satyadeva went back into the king’s house, and Lakshmī too began to come behind him.

Sources

• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 8