When I first read Gandhi’s autobiography about how he developed his method of non-violence, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, I understood the history, but was confused on how he defined Truth. In fact, the story is about his evolving understanding of Truth as he confronted empires to lead India to independence. Truth means more than correctly stating facts. Indeed Gandhi took the term beyond its conventional meaning of being truthful in thought, speech and action. Ultimately he arrived at the idea of Absolute Truth which he defined as Truth is God.
“Truth is God, and truth overrides all our plans.”
Interestingly, however, Gandhi makes Truth an individual quest. He said, “Truth is what the voice within tells you”. It is a person who is the authority of this knowledge. It is not a cultural tradition, a Holy Book nor any social or state organization to determine the content of Truth. It is an individual in the final analysis, after discussion with others and seriously pondering, to make the decision.
To understand this better I consulted my teacher, Jeffrey Armstrong (Kavindra Rishi). He pointed me to the definition of Dharma to explain what Gandhi was getting at.
Dharma: From the root dhri—the essential nature of anything, which, if you take it away, that thing is no longer itself. For example, the dharma of water is to be liquid. Dharma is the basis of the English ‘truth’. Dharma also means to stand for what is true. Once someone knows their dharma, their duty is to live that truth. (From the Bhagavad Gita Comes Alive: A Radical Translation)
It sounds so easy; all you need to know is your essential nature. How hard could that be? It turns out that, at least for me, this was the 1,000,000 piece puzzle. I tried out a lot of stuff, explored many dead ends, consulted numerous holy books and gurus and dug deeply into my American, Irish, and Christian cultural traditions. Didn’t find it.
What finally helped was finding a teacher who could explain who I really was: an eternal, conscious, individual and joyous being from the transcendental exploring the material world one lifetime after another until I finish my degree by finding and living my Truth. After that awakening, things began to fall into place and after consulting with others, including Bhagavan (Supreme Being), I realized my mission at this point is understand and practice Kindness, Compassion and Unconditional Love. Writing this blog is part of my duty to live this Truth, but the hard part of course is to practice these concepts every second.
This is where Gandhi stepped back into my life. First, he explained that on our journey to find Absolute Truth we can’t always see it fully, and must practice with only a partial glimpse of it through what he calls relative Truth. This has been my journey…seeing only part of the Truth, and sometime getting peeks at the whole thing. He also connects Love and Truth: “Love and truth are two sides of the same coin.”
And finally Gandhi said: “Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected.”
Which brings me to Jesus who said: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
So even if our culture tells us it’s naïve to believe in Truth, there’s lots of evidence in our own lives that we should run after it with all our hearts. As a wise person said: “Listen to the voice within, it will set you free. And that promise is true for all time.”