What Is Truth? We all think that we know what exactly Truth means, but do we really? That is the question we wish to comment upon this today thats Thursday 02nd April 2009.
People normally tend to think of Truth in relation to certain facts and speaking about them accurately. One cannot take serious exception to this perception. In the Court, for example, one swears to speak the Truth, and one is expected to do so. Failure to do this results in punishment by the Court; uttering lies in a Court is seldom taken lightly by the presiding Judge. The public too does not stand for witnesses speaking lies in the Court. And yet, the public which is so fussy about the accuracy of the spoken word, does face a problem when politician who swear to uphold rules and laws, to be fair, etc., merrily flout every promise they made. Of course, in some extreme cases, even politicians face punishment, but by and large most of them go scot-free, so much so, the public have not only sort of got used to all this but have, in some countries, even come to regard this as normal. Does not Truth have any meaning in this case or it confined merely to “verbal accuracy”? If this question is put to the public, it would almost unanimously say that adhering to a pledge in terms of action is also a part of what is called Truth. So we now have to agree that adhering to Truth means not only speaking the Truth but also being TRUTHFUL. This word Truthful adds a new dimension to the whole business and so, let us examine it a bit further. Let us say there is a politician who violates his pledge and does something crooked. If his action is detected and he is punished, the public would say that the politician was untruthful. But suppose his foul action goes undetected. Was he truthful or untruthful? Does his action remain without qualification until foul play is actually detected? If this question is asked, almost everyone would say that the action becomes untruthful even at the moment the politician starts planning his crooked act. OK, we agree to this but now ask: “When the politician starts plotting, no one knows about it; how then does the act become untruthful? Who is there to say it is truthful or not?” When the question is put this way, everyone would say that even though the world may not know about it, the person who is planning the foul act knows about it. The person knows that he is about to do something he promised he would not; and that knowledge of the wrongdoing makes him untruthful. In Spirituality we would say, the person is acting against his Conscience. Conscience is thus an Inner Auditor. Ever present within, it continuously monitors all that is going on, right from the moment a thought first originates. Conscience not only watches continuously but also speaks. It says, “My dear fellow, what you want to do is good and so go ahead.” Or, if the contemplated action is not good, it would warn, “Listen, what you are about to do is bad; avoid it because it is not good for you.” There is no human being who does not have Conscience within; this is because Conscience is God and God is the Indweller of all. One might ask, “If that is so, then why is there so much evil in the world? What is the Conscience in all these evildoers doing? Has it gone to sleep?” No, Conscience never goes to sleep. However, the person concerned might choose to ignore the voice of Conscience and that is where all the problem starts. All this brings home the fact, being Truthful means being truthful to one’s Conscience. And that also is why Shakespeare says that above all one must be true to one’s own self. This Self, by the way is not the lower self associated with the gross body and the subtle Mind but the primordial Atma. In other words, being Truthful means following the nature of the Atma. Swami has pointed out many subtle nuances of Truth as only He can. Bhagavan identifies what might be called three aspects of Truth. They are: Nijam, Sathyam and Rutham. Let us try and understand what they mean. Before going into that, let us first note that Nijam and Sathyam are relevant within the context of Creation while Rutham applies even beyond. Nijam applies to facts that have validity over a limited period of time. Let us say yesterday was sunny while today is cloudy. If someone asks what is the weather like, one would of course say it is cloudy; and that would be correct as well as true. One cannot say it is sunny since that applies to something that was a fact earlier but not now. Thus, Nijam is related to facts that have temporary validity. Sathyam on the other hand represents Truth over the whole of Creation, that is, it was valid in the past, is true now and will be true also in the future. For example if one says, “God pervades the Universe,” that is true always as long as there is something called Creation; hence this statement belongs to the category of Sathyam. What happens when Creation itself is dissolved? Is there something like Truth even then? Swami says yes. Everything in the Universe must have a source and the source of Sathyam is Rutham. In other words, Rutham is the seed from which Sathyam springs. If for example one says, “God is Timeless and Eternal,” that would be an example of Rutham. Now for some practical rules – these too have been explained to us any number of times by Bhagavan. He says: “Always speak the Truth. Always speak with Love. However, don’t speak out when the facts are not pleasant, even if it the Truth.” The last teaching of Swami is particularly relevant to the present time when many people take pride in saying, “I tell it like it is.” This is wrong. Sometimes doctors ask, “Should I tell the patient what his condition is?” We are told that in the West there are all kinds of rules concerning this matter. We do not know much about this but this we do know: A doctor wedded to Swami’s teaching would, taking the view that life and death are in Swami’s hand say, “Look my dear fellow, why do you worry? Have faith in God and leave everything to Him. There is nothing He cannot do.” And if the doctor follows this up with a lot of cheery talk, the patient does even rally from the brink of death. Our doctors here do this all the time because they are fully conscious that life and death are not in our hands but in that of God. All that humans, including doctors, can do is to help the patient in every possible way. We would like you to reflect on the last point about telling it as it is. Consider the following: Let us say there is a young woman who has died, leaving behind a two-year old child. The body of the woman is being taken away while the child cries. A friend of the lady who has passed away picks up the kid and consoles it by saying, “Don’t cry, your mummy has not gone away,” and things like that. In terms of raw facts, she is lying, but according to Swami and Vedanta, she is not. Do you agree or not? Think about it, and if you have any views on the subject, you will write to us, would you not my Sai Ram Dear Brothers/Sisters? Jai Sai Ram
