Follow Gandhi: Make TRUTH your God
Dear Signatories,
Take the above pledge today on MAHATMA GANDHI’S 74th Anniversary of his Martyrdom!
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 not merely an incidental quality, but the very essence of (what we call or know as) God. This is further borne out by his assertion: “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 and weaknesses, the latter necessitates attentiveness to social and political injustice. An essential precondition of success in finding the truth here is that the individual who undertakes such a task must be truthful himself/herself. The effort to become true necessarily involves self-purification, which in turn is impossible without faith in a Higher Power’s Grace. To admit to oneself a weakness which no one else knows, maybe, at once to feel assured that in doing so the burden of guilt is lightened
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 may call for an effort that is distinct and often painful. This is especially so when one is confronted with the ugly truth of one’s 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, first, that we become aware of a higher value in life than the merely material; secondly, that Truth alone is eternal and the true source of peace; thirdly, 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 the 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 (derivative) meaning of truth or Satya. Satya is derived from the Sanskrit root sat – which means – that which is, that which cannot be destroyed because it is. Thus TRUTH is the END and truth is the means to attain it.
To see TRUTH face to face – is to feel the Grace of God in one’s truthful journey - this is termed sakshat darshan in the Indian tradition.
To opt for satyagraha - is to use only nonviolence as a means of protest and conflict resolution. Satyagraha is a compound Sanskrit word: Satya means truth Graha means holding fast so Gandhian satyagraha means holding fast onto the truth even at the cost of life itself.
It may here be pointed out that when Gandhi began his nonviolent resistance 115 years ago in South Africa, the word used for such resistance was ‘passive resistance’ coined by the Quakers. Though admiring greatly the Quaker stance on nonviolence, Gandhi was very unhappy with the phrase, ‘passive resistance’ as he believed that nonviolent resistance was anything but ‘passive’! The word ‘passive’ somehow gave a false impression that nonviolent resistance meant inaction; not doing anything at all. Being the karma yogi that he was, Gandhi wanted to convey to his satyagrahis – nonviolent resisters- that nonviolent resistance demanded not only their conviction and commitment to nonviolence but also continuous action geared to righting the wrong one was confronted with. So he offered a small monetary prize in his newsletter, Indian Opinion, for the person who would find an equivalent to the phrase ‘passive resistance’ without the word ‘passive’. Gandhi’s nephew, Maganlal Gandhi came up with the term ‘sadagraha’ – meaning good resistance (sad means good), and Gandhi changed sad to ‘Satya’, thereby conceiving the word satyagraha for posterity!
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!
Suman Khanna Aggarwal, PhD Founder President, Shanti Sahyog – A Gandhian NGO & Shanti Sahyog Centre for Nonviolence India (CFN) email: president@shantisahyog.org www.shanti-sahyog.org