Mahabharata shloka

[vidya at cco.caltech.edu]

> satyasya vacana.m "sreya.h satyAdapi hita.m vadet |
> yadbhUtahitamatya.mtametatsatya.m mata.m mama ||

To me the second pada means a comparison. One should speak what is 
beneficial rather than what is true. The second line seems to justify 
this by saying that what is most beneficial (atyanta.m hita.m) is 
true, in the opinion of the poet. Thus something "becomes" true by 
virtue of its being beneficial to bhUtAni, even if it were not 
rigorously true. 

Am I mistaken in this? 

S. Vidyasankar