Truth

I respect truth. I love truth. Gandhi said ‘Truth is God’. I have not given a definition for God; I believe I never need that definition, because the level of truth I attained says man does not need the word God. And truth never changes; it is only that we cross the level to realize higher truth. All great men searched for the Truth. Some of them believed in an ultimate truth or reality and some of them did not. But all of them worshipped truth. They believed that truth is supreme. It gives us the power, not of material but of knowledge. Let’s consider some basic questions about truth: -- What is truth? -- Can truth explain each and every aspect of universe? -- Is truth always good and moral whereas false is immoral and bad? -- Is there something beyond truth? -- How can we say something as truth unless we know it to be true? -- Is there something called ultimate truth? If yes, how to achieve it? And if no, what is the point in searching for truth? So many questions!! Now, you can see how tough this subject is. Check these out: ‘100 years from now, the world ends!’, ‘You are my only true friend!’, ‘Mango tastes better than Pineapple’, ‘please, open the door’ etc. How can we say what is true and what is not in these?! What all these point at? Predictions, requests, feelings, tastes can never be told either true or false. It depends on individual belief or individual taste. It is very much clear that we cannot distinguish all aspects as truth or false. So, what exactly is truth? Where can we apply it? There are many theories which define truth in different ways. Some theory says truth is nothing but what majority of the society agrees with. But, if that is the case, how society agreed to the fact that Earth is revolving around the Sun when almost everyone accepted and believed in geocentric system? Some theory says anything that is useful is truth. But what about the case where one same thing is useful for one person and not useful for other person? Some other theory says truth is what some leaders of society or influential persons believe in. Scientists and intellectuals will laugh at this. And one more theory says there is a truth which we can realize only when get Moksa or release from the cycle of rebirth. Until then we live inside delusion. Whatever we think, whatever we observe, whatever we perceive is product of that delusion. Nothing is permanent in this world; neither us nor this material world. So what we think and believe to be truth in this world till we get Moksa or ultimate realization is not the truth. I will not waste my time on this here as it itself is a separate topic. The truth, as per me, is something that can be proved under a given circumstance or condition. This truth is fixed. You simply cannot say it is not true. For that you are supposed to prove it wrong. This is what science says. And I believe in science. You can say ‘If I prove it wrong then truth will change. It will not be a truth anymore. If we follow this how can you ever call anything as truth?’ If you follow what is called scientific method or systematic approach and you do not commit any mistake, I bet, you will never call anything as truth which is not truth. This is the confidence that you get from science. And you take any other approach, and I again bet you can never be as confident as you would be if you follow scientific approach. You may again say this does not answer the question fully. Yes, men make mistakes. Scientists might commit mistakes. But that does not mean that the science has chosen a wrong path starting from that mistake and from then onwards everything will be just false results that we get. Scientific approach is such that if one commits a mistake it will give wrong and unexpected results through which the mistake can be identified easily. And the mistake will be corrected. Hence truth is always on the side of science. False cannot sustain for a long time in scientific world. This is exactly why I believe in science. If science says something is true it has to be true. If it is not I will get to know within short period of time as science has no place for contradictions. I do not find this confidence anywhere else. No one else can find it. Some people say, ‘why should we bother so much about truth? What good it is to know the truth if it hurts my beliefs? I am good as I am now. ’ This I call escapism. You do not want to know truth just because it is something you do not believe. You do not want to accept that what you believed all these days in is not correct and truth is something else. So you search for something that might help you out and say, ‘You are correct. Your belief is fine. You don’t have to listen to what others say’. If somehow you find something which says so you will be glad. You do not want to think whether it is really the truth or not. This is the most general mentality I see today. Today people who call themselves traditionalistic perform all the rituals. But they do not know why they are doing any of it. At least in the history of religion people started rituals with some purpose (whether religions or rituals are required or not is a different topic). They knew what they are doing and why they are doing. But today we see only blind followers. You ask for the reason and they answer, ‘it is our tradition!’ You again ask why it is included as a part of the tradition they answer, ‘There is a reason for everything. Nothing was started without purpose. It is only that I do not know it now!’ Whether I believe in religion or not is a different question. But I pity for these people who do not know what they are doing. I respect great men like Shankaracharya, Gandhi, Buddha, Radhakrishnan, Karl Marx, and Ayn Rand for they knew every step they were going to put. They had their own answers to every single question they could get. They had no fog in their mind. They had no conflicts within themselves. They did not look at others to confirm if they too are doing what they are doing and hence they are also right, because they knew they are right. But today you can only see equivocalness. People have questions and doubts. But they do not dare to search for answers. So they finally choose to follow. But they do not even care why they are following or what answer they get from whom they are following!! Such is the state of man today. This is pure indication of escapism. But believe me; it will never give you confidence. It will never reveal you the truth. You think you are happy, but somewhere deep inside you know, you are not. You think you are doing better, but deep inside you know that you do not have any idea why it is better or if it is really better. The next question is, ‘when I speak, should I always need to speak truth? What if I lie which does not harm anyone? Is it immoral to do so? ’ Remember that truth is one of the most important factors in life. But it is not life in itself. As I mentioned earlier there are certain things which we cannot distinguish as true or false. Consider the feelings. You can only feel them. You can write them using words with some difficulty. But to try to point them as either true or false is illogical. But to lie is something you might want to reconsider. Just to create some excitement and then after some time revealing the truth and enjoying the moment might be ok as long as it is not going to hurt anybody’s feelings. But if you really do not know what reaction it might result in or if you think it is going to hurt someone’s feelings then definitely it is not ok. And to lie, to intentionally hurt others feelings, or to make profit out of it, or if to make loss to someone is completely immoral. You do not have any right to do so. As I said truth is integral part of our life. It impacts our life but it alone does not define our life. Our life has other integral parts also. We search for truth and continue to seek and understand higher truth. Once we attain it our knowledge expands and again we start looking for another higher truth. Doesn’t it look like it is a never ending process?! Is searching and attaining the higher truth itself out goal in life?! If yes, why should we look for it in the first place? Or is there something called ultimate truth? All those who believe in the concept of ultimate truth say that, to ‘realize it’ is the goal of our life. Once we achieve it we can get Moksa or, our reason to live in this world fulfills, we will escape from the cycle of rebirth, we will become one in supreme. I believe in science. And scientific approach disregards this concept. All this concept of living in delusion, having a supreme power controlling the world, living in finite world contradicts what science says. Either science has to be true or all these concepts. People love to believe that what science says is exactly what these religion beliefs say. But unfortunately that is not true (how and why is again another topic in itself). But let me tell you one thing. I am more fascinated by Vivekananda in my life. He is the one of the great men for whom I have high regards. I do not believe in many things which he did believe. But he understood one great thing for the first time in our history (I could not imagine, anyone, being a sanyasi and swami, could ever even imagined what Vivekananda thought at that period of time!!) that we cannot preach the Vedanta to the homeless poor who do not have cloths to wear, who do not have food to eat; it is of no use to do so; we must work to help the poor to come out of their such a state first. Humanity and creating a better society should be our first priority. The purpose of our lives should be to create a better society. Being a sanyasi Vivekananda travelled to places that no sanyasi could have imagined and tried to get any help that was possible. He said ‘Against the rules of sanyasi I will earn money and help the poor!’ Only when man has food, shelter, cloth he can listen to what the morality is, what philosophy is, what truth is, what life is! What a thought! That thinking, that courage, that determination is what made Vivekananda great. All other great men said the same thing – to help the homeless, hungry poor first. But yes, there are differences among them on the ways to achieve it and then philosophy they believe in and what they believe to be true. The point here is to have an attitude, the way of thinking, the determination that we need today. There is no point in chasing the mirage called ultimate reality and ultimate truth. But still you might ask, ‘then, what is the point in searching for truth at all?!’ Life without purpose is not a life. Life without struggle is not a life. Einstein said, ‘…the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.’ Our life should not be meaningless. And when you look for ways to make it meaningful, or when you look for a purpose in life you find several ways. Some people try to earn money and make it their highest purpose in life; some people choose to be followers of a person who is just famous and instructs what they should do (this does not require them to think but to just follow); some people believe the purpose of their lives is to devote themselves completely to their work, let it be science, religious, or any other work; some people seek Moksa and regard it as man’s only highest purpose of life. Which one of these is true? Yes, it is again the truth which alone can help you! Clear your mind. Get rid of all the conflicts. Then you see it! The meaning of life, the path to follow will be crystal clear. But only truth can help us in resolving conflicts of ideas and to clear the fog that occupied our mind. Not only truth is pure, it also transforms the man from impure to pure. It says ‘I am here. It’s up to you to see and understand me or to ignore and live in darkness!’ This is the reason why I respect truth and love it. Related Links: Truth in Wiki What is Truth? Truth - Stanford Encyclopedia Related Videos:

Language

What language is after all? It is a means of communication we use. It helps us to convey our thoughts/feelings to other persons in an easy way. Is it something more than this? I do not see why it has to be something more. I wonder when I see people so attached to their language. They fight, they hate, and they judge knowledge of a man by the language he uses! Yes, I understand, language shows the culture/region from where men come from. And cultures are different in different regions. But it cannot be the reason for the fight, right? But yes! It looks to be the reason for all the fights related to language. People no more tolerate the differences. Tolerate word itself is not correct here. We can use the word ‘Respect’ here. Now there is no respect left for other cultures that are different from our own. Most of the North Indians hate the culture in South India. And similarly most of the South Indians hate the North Indian culture. And in these regions there are sub regions based on state/cities. Most of the natives do not tolerate any language other than their native language. There are divisions based on Religion. This is one problem (which I do not want to discuss now!). But again there are divisions based on Region. I come first, my family comes next, my locality next, my city next, my state next, my country next. This is how it goes. Again inside each of these there are always groups based on cast/religion something like; in my locality my cast first, my religion next, other religions next! So are people divided! But aren’t these divisions existed all these days throughout the history of mankind? Yes. To say there were no fights is wrong. As long as there are divisions among us differences exist. And it is the thinking of man that we are discussing here. Differences are there. We should not compare them. If you do, you start asking question ‘which one is better?’ What is ours-is better. What is not-is not. This is what you start to believe and this is what you want others to believe. And that brings intolerance towards any difference we see in others. You criticize others. Others criticize you. So you naturally want to dominate others at least in your own region. When others get into your region and they too think like you do, there comes the fight. You just can’t tolerate it. But what you do not understand is it is the thinking that has a flaw in it. With that thinking you cannot live in other’s territory freely, without any fear and you do not leave others to live freely in your own territory. This flawed thought is dominating our society today. A North Indian goes to some region in South India and gets into a dispute with a native. You suddenly start observing that all natives come to the rescue of their person. They do not even care why the dispute started. They think it is their duty to support their own person. It is vice versa. ‘We are ready to behave nice, treat them well. This is what our culture stands for. But they will take advantage of our goodness and dominate us! They kill our culture, our language if we let them do it. And we certainly cannot tolerate this!!’ This is how generally people defend themselves. But what they do not understand is people in every other region think the same way! These divisions among men have incubated insecurity feeling in their hearts. The divisions, the insecurity feelings are sources of most of the troubles we face today. People want to have more power so as to protect themselves from others. More time and money is being invested to secure this power. Many international disputes on the topics like nuclear power continue because of this very same reason. There is no place left where you feel completely safe. No amount of power can give you that feeling of being safe and free. All this is because we are looking at the wrong direction for the solution. We are trying to achieve peace and freedom by having more power in our hands, by threatening others! History has proved it wrong innumerable times. When we talk about language we talk about all these things. Not only these, we should understand what language is, and why do we need it. When man understood he has amazing power to create sound, he thought of using it for the betterment, just as he does always. He found that he can use it for improving his communication among each other. So he named everything he saw or thought. And so he gave birth to different languages based on different regions. Basically language is just an instrument used for communication. There are many feelings, many other complex mysteries which language cannot describe. It is said by many religion leaders that no words can define what God is. It is something that can only be felt. There are some experiences in life which you can put in words. And when you try defining the complete universal whole using language or words it creates great confusion. Ask the philosophers. Philosophers frequently face this confusion and conflicting ideas in their work. Then why people are so attached to their languages? Probably because it is THEIR’s! But then why do they not like, say, English? Remember that our aim is to communicate better. Let it English or any other else. You understand what I am trying to convey? That’s it. And yes, without any doubt it is English which most of the people understand today. So if you want to communicate with larger group then you should know English. If you want to communicate only within the boundaries of your state you can stick to the prevailing language in your state. And if you want to talk to your own family member you need to stick to the language that you both are most comfortable with. Basically it is this; use the language that most of the participants in the communication are comfortable with. What is the point in sticking to your own dear language which others do not understand?! Idea always comes first and language is secondary. Language is not what you want to express. Language is what you use to express what you want to express. How can you judge a person’s knowledge by only considering how strong his language is? You learn English to understand what great men like Einstein, Newton, Shakespeare, Karl Marx said/wrote. But you do not expect them to learn your native language and write or speak using it. Every language has its own beauty. And there are men who became great not by their language use but by their knowledge. No one needs/wants/cares to know what language Mother Theresa or Buddha or Gandhi or Aristotle or Bhagat Singh or Benjamin Franklin or Descartes or Immanuel Kant spoke. It is their great work and profound knowledge and great principles for which society, irrespective of any kind of divisions, respects them. Related Links: Language - Wiki History of Language The Power of Language Related Videos:

HERE I AM!!

HERE I AM!!

I finally decided to start this blog. Probably because I can jot my views here, freely, without having to care about anyone, express the true myself. Because I don’t have someone with whom I can share it, because no one wants to discuss these things, if they discuss they become narrow-minded and stubborn, and they always try to prove that they are ‘right’ no matter what. So, I am left with no other option but to blog. I am happy; I am happy that I don’t have to care who is going to read my blogs. It’s your choice.

What am I going to discuss here? I think mostly it is going to be my life, my philosophy and my point of view about the topics that I am interested in. Philosophy and Psychology are two things which determine everything man does; from his beliefs to his actions. Philosophy determines what is right and what is wrong, explains why he should do what he is doing. And Psychology determines how a man thinks? The way he is brought up, the society he lives in decides the direction in which he thinks.

Yes, these two fields are what I am mostly interested in.

I changed over time. My philosophy has changed. It happens. Change is inevitable. We simply cannot stop it. I think, I question, I search for an answer, I learn and I change. This is how it happens. I am satisfied with the changes I encountered. I am better than what I was yesterday. I have no regrets for my mistakes. Because I never knew they were mistakes when I committed mistakes. There were incidents when I committed mistakes knowingly. But I punished myself for them and decided I will not repeat again. My beliefs changed. I used to firmly believe that there is a GOD who is supreme, and who can do magic as we are told by our parents and grandparents. Now I do not believe in that concept. But I do not regret that I believed so sometime back in the past. Because my conscience told I was right to believe so, then. And similarly my conscience now tells I am right in believing what I believe.

I have many unanswered questions. And I am in search of answers to these. Once I find, I might change again, getting better, strong than what I am today. Realizing the higher truth – that is what our life is. You always get better, you always find something new, you always reform yourself, and you always get more and more questions, answers. I do not think there is a person who can declare, ‘I know the truth! And it is the ultimate truth. There is nothing beyond it. There are no questions I cannot answer.’ If he says so, it merely indicates he stopped thinking. There is no such thing as ultimate truth. It is only the search of higher truth that we always look for. I know I will get thousands of questions related to this. But right now I am not ready to discuss that in this page. All I want to say is, my principles and my philosophy might change in future as and when I realize something new, the higher truth.

I want my life to be a never ending effort to achieve, a quest for truth, a fight against all falsehoods/misconceptions inside me and the society.