IN SEARCH OF TRUTH

A philosophy to search for the truth comprehends its nature and ways to its discovery.

The realisation of Truth elevates in the life journeying processes towards the consciousness of the Absolute Reality, the Supreme Being. It enhances the transcendental faith by reciting Om Tat Sat, which symbolises different aspects of Absolute Truth. The Truth is eternal and beyond the frame of time-space-causation. All material substance is evanescent.

What is its nature? Sat-Chit-Anand (Truth-Consciousness-Bliss) is the Brahmān (Supreme Being). There are three aspects of the Brahmān: Sat (Truth), Chit (consciousness), and Ānand (eternal Bliss).

Truth is; untruth is not, so tersely expresses Swami Sivananda. He says that it is not absolutely correct even to say that Truth is one, for Truth is Existence itself and is neither one nor not one. The Truth is undivided.

In the revealed scriptures, the ultimate object of knowledge is Brahmān, the Supreme Being. The purpose of performing sacrifice is to please Him. Yoga is for realising Him. All fruitive activities are ultimately rewarded by Him alone. He is the supreme knowledge, and all severe austerities are performed to know Him. Dharma is rendering loving service to Him. He is the supreme goal of life, as emphatically mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam:

vāsudeva-parā vedā

vāsudeva-parā makhāḥ

vāsudeva-parā yogā

vāsudeva-parāḥ kriyāḥ

vāsudeva-paraṁ jñānaṁ

vāsudeva-paraṁ tapaḥ

vāsudeva-paro dharmo

vāsudeva-parā gatiḥ

(SB 1.2.28-29)

 1. Outline:

Satya (Truth) is the essence of governance, and order is both its exterior and interior credo. It is followed by Dharma (a righteous order or way of life with no equivalent English translation) as the means and end of good governance.

In the words of Manu (the progenitor of humanity), the truth is the eternal value of a person—dharma sanātana. The very famous citation in this relation from the Manusaṃhita is "always speak the truth, speak the pleasing word, do not speak the disagreeable truth, and do not utter the agreeable falsehood, and that is the eternal law."

The Upanisadik terms ‘Brahmān‘ (the Supreme Being) and ‘Ātman‘ (the Inner Spirit) indicate the highest Truth and Reality, which is non-dual. The Supreme Being is nirguna (attributeless), nirākara (formless), and nirvisesa (traitless), that is, without the gunas or attributes, formless, without any special characteristics, immutable, eternal, and akarta (non-agent). Brahmān is above all needs and desires; it is always the witnessing subject; it can never become the object as it is beyond the reach of the senses. It is non-dual. Without a second, in Brahmān, there is no distinction between substance and attributes. Brahmān, the Absolute, is Existence (Sat), Consciousness (Chit), and Bliss (Ānanda). These form the svarupa of Brahmān.

Swami Sivananda teaches that Truth is righteousness. Righteousness is light, and light is bliss. The truth is God. Truth alone triumphs. Truth is the basic law of life. The truth is the means, and the goal is ultimate. Truth is the law of freedom; falsehood is the law of slavery and death. Ahimsa (non-injury or universal love), Brahmacharya (celibacy or absolute control of all the senses), purity, justice, harmony, forgiveness, and peace (the cessation of war or a state of quiet, harmony, silence, calm, repose, and rest) are forms of truth. Impartiality, self-control, modesty, endurance, goodness, renunciation, meditation, dignity, fortitude, compassion, and abstention from injury are the various forms of truth.

The "real" is the "truth." The "truth" is the "real." Man since time immemorial has been in search of discovering, finding, understanding, and identifying the real and the truth. In our sense of perception-based observations, the real exists independently. The real and the truth are inextricably linked.

Swami Vivekananda says that "a truth that is independent of time (kāla), space (deśa) and causality (nimitta)—a truth that stands on its own, a truth that is completely independent—deserves to be the absolute truth." Vedanta identifies it with what is truth or real (satya), conscious (jñāna), and infinite (ananta) (Taittirīya Upaniṣad, 2.1.1). All other "truths" besides this are relative in nature".

2. Ways to Discover the Truth

In the Srimad Bhavad Gita, Sri Krishna identifies the main pathways to realising the Truth and Brahmān, which include being (i) free from vanity and delusion, (ii) overcoming the evil of attachment, (iii) dwelling constantly on the self and on God, (iv) free from the desire to enjoy the senses, and (v) going beyond the dualities of pleasure and pain. Those who follow such lines become liberated and attain His eternal abode.

nirmāna-mohā jita-saṅga-doṣhā

adhyātma-nityā vinivṛitta-kāmāḥ

dvandvair vimuktāḥ sukha-duḥkha-sanjñair

gachchhanty amūḍhāḥ padam avyayaṁ tat

Swami Mukundananda, in his commentary on the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, says that one has to realise the truth that "I am not this material body but an eternal spiritual being. The everlasting happiness that I pursue cannot be achieved with material things. My endeavours towards gratifying the material desires of this material body have no satiation; they are only getting me further trapped in the samsāra, or web of life and death."

The Srimad Bhagavad Gita teaches

mātrā-sparśhās tu kaunteya śhītoṣhṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ

āgamāpāyino ’nityās tans-titikṣhasva bhārata

The contact between the senses and the sense objects gives rise to fleeting perceptions of happiness and distress. These are non-permanent and come and go like the winter and summer seasons. One must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

Ādi Shankaracharya in quintessence states in half-a-verse:

Brahma satyam jagan-mithya

Jivo brahmaiva naparah

Brahmān, the Supreme Being, alone is truth and reality; this world is untruth and unreal (māyā); and the jiva, or individual soul, is not different from Brahmān.

The only way of realising Brahmān is through jnāna (knowledge), and in order to attain this jnana and the supreme realisation of the Absolute, a four-fold path is prescribed:

i. Viveka: right discrimination;

ii. Vairagya: detachment from the sensory attractions, leading to the extinction of desires;

iii. Sat Sampatti: Sama (almness), Dama (self-control), Uparati (detachment), Titiksa (endurance), Samādhi (creative concentration), and Sraddhā (faith); and

iv. Mumuksutva: the sustained urge to attain liberation and the resolute will to shed human limitations and realise the Absolute Truth.

In the same manner, Swami Vivekananda says every being in the universe has the potentiality of transcending the senses to realise the Truth. No one's life will be a failure, and there is no such thing as failure in the universe.

He emphasises that the truth's realisation involves:

i. Wisdom to keep the organs in their own centres without straying out

ii. Control the mind from wandering outward, or externality, to internality.

Iii. ’Uparati, or not thinking about sense objects.

iv. "Titikshā," or forbearance, i.e., "Resist no evil."

v. Shradhā or Faith

vi. Samādhāna, or constant practise

vii. Purity and Self-realisation

Adi Shankaracharya says, Brahmān is not an object, as it is adrusya, beyond the reach of the eyes. Its nature cannot be defined in terms of any category; hence, the Upanisads declare: ‘neti, neti—not this, not this. This does not mean that Brahmān is a negative concept, a non-entity, or a contentless void. It is all—full, infinite, changeless, self-existent, self-delighting, self-knowing, and self-blissing. It is the essence of the knower. It is the seer (drsta), the transcedental truth (turiya), and the silent witness (Saksi).

Saguna Brahmān (the Absolute with qualities) and Nirguna Brahmān (beyond all descriptions and conceptualizations) are not separate Brahmāns. The same Nirguna Brahmān appears as Saguna Brahmān for the worship of the devotees; it is the same Truth from two different points of view. Nirguna Brahman is the highest Brahman from the transcendental viewpoint (paramarthika), and Saguna Brahmān is from the relative viewpoint (vyavaharika).

The Supreme Truth is that Brahmān is nondual and relationless. To Shankaracharya, this world is only relatively real (vyavaharika satta). He advocated vivarta-vāda, the theory of phenomenal appearance or superimposition (adhyasa). Just as the snake is superimposed on the rope in the twilight, this world and body are superimposed on Brahmān, Ātman, or the Supreme Self. If we had knowledge of the rope, the illusion of the snake in the rope would automatically vanish. Similarly, if we realise Brahmān or the imperishable, the illusion of the body and the world will disappear. When avidya, or the veil of ignorance, is destroyed through knowledge of the Eternal, and when mithya-iñana or false knowledge, is removed by real knowledge of the Imperishable, we shine in our true, pristine, divine splendour and glory.

The Ātman is that which gives the senses the capacity to perceive, the mind the capacity to feel, and the intellect the capacity to think. tman is referred to in the Sāstras (scriptures) as the Perceiver, Feeler and Thinker in the physical, mental, and intellectual planes, respectively.

3. Remarks

The Truth is infinity, beyond space and time, eternal, and ever fresh. The aphoristic statement of satyameva jayate (Truth alone wins) in the Mundaka Upanishad It says

satyameva jayate nānṛtaṃ satyena panthā vitato devayānaḥ |

yenākramantyṛṣayo hyāptakāmā yatra tat satyasya paramaṃ nidhānam || 6 |

Truth alone wins, not falsehood; by truth, the Devayanah (the path of the Devas) is widened, that by which the seers travel, having nothing to wish for until they reach where there is that—the highest treasure attained by truth.

In the same vein, Srimad Bhagavad Gita says:

nāsato vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ

ubhayorapi dṛiṣhṭo ’nta stvanayos tattva-darśhibhiḥ

Of the transient there is no endurance, and of the eternal there is no cessation. This has been verifiably observed and concluded by the seers of the Truth, after studying the nature of both.

-Asutosh Satpathy