WHOSE LIE IS NOT UNTRUTH?

Whose lie is not untruth? 

Gautama Buddha said:

“An untruth spoken by people under the influence of anger, excessive joy, fear, pain or grief, by infants, by very old men, by persons laboring under a delusion, being under the influence of drink, or by madmen, does not cause the speaker to fall, or, as we should say, is a venial, not a mortal sin.”

I can not vouch for it but if Max Muller has quoted it in one of his lectures, I am inclined to accept it.

It seems a lie can be spoken and condoned in almost any situation. 

On the other hand, in Mahabharata, Kaushik, a Satyavadi, saw men flying into the forest chased by robbers. The robbers asked him which way they had gone and he told the truth. Robbers caught the men and killed them. Kaushik went to hell for speaking the truth. 

A butcher chasing a cow asked a man which way it went and he misguided him by directing him to the opposite way. The man goes to heaven because he saved a cow. 

Hindu holy books give utmost importance to the truth. But in the same wave, truth is punished and the lie is rewarded. 

Today, it is difficult to say what is true in the first place. Each individual has his or her own truth. 

Having scanned the above truths, I am inclined to believe that there is no lie or it is difficult to prove a lie.

The reason is simple. There are people who can prove that earth is in the center of the universe. All it needs is cunningness and playing with facts. In fact, some of our leading lawyers are famous for taking cases of criminals who have committed crimes in daylight under the presence of several witnesses and videos. How come? By buying or threatening the witnesses, by proving the videos are doctored at el. 

So, what do we do? We know that there is the truth though we may not be in a position to prove it like, say, there is GOD. It is in there somewhere, maybe in some of the mysteries of the universe we have yet to uncover. 

Or, maybe there is neither truth nor untruth, two sides of the same coin.