THIRTEENTH TALK 263
we had the same rule at the present day, only you
cannot live in the world and carry that out. But
that we should ^J-1 be a good deal better if we all
talked a good deal less, is probably true. You know
people who are always talking cannot always be
talking profitably or sensibly; furthermore they
cannot always be truthful. That may seem hard. It
is true that if people are always talking loosely, quite
certainly some of the things which they say will not
be true, even though not intentionally untrue. The
curious thing is that people so often do not realise
the facts of the case. They make all sorts of
inaccurate statements, then they say: t( Well, I did
not mean to be inaccurate, so it does not matter."
Do you not realise that it is not what you mean, but
what you do, that produces results ? If you do a
foolish thing the fact that you did it with a good
intention does not save it from being a foolish thing,
and does not in the least prevent you from getting
the physical karma of the foolish'thing. Of course
you will also get the credit of the good intention.
That will make good results, but the foolish thing
will bring its bad result, and you will get the karma
of that. So with all these rash statements ; a person
says something, then he corrects himself and says, (i I
see I was wrong, it is not quite like that.9' He has
told a falsehood; he did not mean it, but he has
made an assertion which is not true. That is a false-
hood and you cannot get over it, and the fact that
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