Follow Gandhi : Make TRUTH your God!

Reveals Gandhi: “But deep down in me I used to say ….God is Truth, above all….But two years ago, I went a step further and said Truth is God …. And I came to that conclusion after a continuous and relentless search after Truth which began nearly fifty years ago.”Gandhi’s meaning here is that ‘Truth’ is the very essence of (what we call or know as) God. He further asserts: “Devotion to this Truth (as God) is the sole justification for our existence.” Thus making Truth your God is to choose it as your Highest Value which entails the following:

To seek and find the truth - both at the micro and macro levels; the former calls for introspection and acknowledgment of one’s faults / weaknesses, the latter necessitates attentiveness to social / political injustice. An essential precondition of success in finding the
truth here is that the individual must be truthful himself/herself. The effort to become true involves self-purification, which in turn is impossible without faith in a Higher Power’s Grace.
To face the truth – is to summon the courage to deal with the above. Because once it has been found, truth also has to be ‘faced’; and this calls for an effort which is distinct and often painful. This is specially so when one is confronted with the ugly truth of one’s own inner weaknesses.
To grow from truth to truth – is a thought that occurs freely in Gandhi’s writings. This means to be constantly aware of and persist with one’s spiritual evolution.
To hear and pursue the voice of truth – is to follow one’s conscience. This means, 1 st that we become aware of a higher value in life; 2 nd , that Truth alone is eternal and the true source of peace; 3 rd the conscious choice of Truth as the cherished aim of life; and finally, that all
possible self-effort is made, through self-discipline and discrimination, to reach the goal.
To commit oneself to truth – is to see, speak and hear the truth – as epitomized in Gandhi’s three famous monkeys!
To live the truth – is to uphold one’s convictions and abide by one’s principles and ideals

To elicit the truth – is to suffer for the sake of truth so that others may see it – as exhibited in Gandhi’s fasting satyagrahas.
To wait upon Truth – is openness and readiness to guidance from God/TRUTH
To track TRUTH through truth – is to realise God as that which really is and that is also the basic meaning of truth or satya, derived from the Sanskrit root sat – which means – that which is and cannot be destroyed.

Thus TRUTH is the END and truth is the means to attain it.
To see TRUTH face to face – this is termed sakshat darshan in the Indian tradition.

To opt for Satyagrha - is to use only nonviolence as a means of protest and conflict resolution.
In our age, where formal religion is increasingly becoming the cause of hatred, bloodshed, enmity, intolerance, religious fundamentalism, suicide bombings and terrorism, making TRUTH our GOD seems to be the need of the hour!