A Life Devoted to Truth

Secrets of A Happy Life

—Part 3—

A Life Devoted to Truth

Ultimately, happiness will touch life when Truth has come! Truth and happiness are two shiny friends…one comes and the other follows.

Our whole life is invested in untruth. Our hopes, dreams, aspirations—they all take birth in our untruths. Yes, ‘untruth’ can be plural, because only Truth has no versions, but falsity can have millions…

But what is Truth or Sat? How to find Truth? And how to be constantly in touch with Truth so that illusions don’t drown us in ignorance?

Truth: The Eternal Sunshine

Truth is that sun that is ever-present, ever shining. It is only we who are blind. We have knowingly and unknowingly cast veils of ignorance and illusions over our eyes. What is worse still, we have accepted it as real, as true. 

An ignorant or even a simpleton can feel Truth, but not he who is blind to Truth! We are blind from innumerable lifetimes—due to karmik accumulation, due to our deep-rooted ignorance—avidya. Our whole life is a movement in ignorance, and therefore the suffering. Those who think—ignorance is bliss—have completely missed it. 

Once, the Devil—or call him the Untruth—was taking a stroll with his comrade. After a while, the Devil suddenly stopped and bent forward to pick up a pebble. He promptly put it in his pocket. 

His comrade was intrigued. He asked, “what is it, my Lord?” The Devil replied, “I’ve just found the Truth, and I’ve picked it up.” The comrade was alarmed!—“What! The Truth?!… That means your days are outnumbered.” The Devil rather calmly replied, “Don’t worry, comrade, I’ll organise it. I shall veil it. Nobody will ever see the Truth.”

So, that is the tragedy. Truth is always there, shining like the bright sun, but we’re blinded by so many veils, which are our own making (sorry to disappoint you, no, no divine hand in there!). We are responsible for our blindness, no God is! So, it is our responsibility to destroy all those veils.

Satsang: In Communion with Truth

Satsang is a very common Indian term. It is a gathering of devotees and seekers who come to sit with their guru or some holy person. The purpose of such gathering is to know and imbibe the truths of this life and that of beyond. The guru or the holy soul imparts wisdom, gives valuable insights into human life and helps seekers and devotees to walk on their spiritual paths.

But often we miss this point. We go there and get entertained! The guru, or the holy figure, imparts his or her teachings, and we become a follower. But the whole point is to be in constant communion with Truth, not to follow some authority. 

We are blind souls. So we need to go to these purified souls because they have seen the Truth (although, the real Truth-knowers are very rare). But, what do we do? We go, hear something, and when we come back, we are again the same creature, back to where we were—in our ignorance. We don’t change, don’t remain with the Truth. Only for those few hours, we pretend to be in touch with Truth. 

So, satsang is not outside, not with someone else. It happens inside. If we are in constant connection with Truth, Satsang happens in our hearts. This should be our effort. So, how to make satsang happen in our hearts? 

Spirituality: Walking the Path

This is spirituality—to walk on the path of the Ultimate Truth. What we call God, or the Creator, or the Divine, is nothing but the sheer essence of Truth. Truth is the ultimate power, the ultimate authority. Only sat is eternal…all that is asat will decay. So, this is the definition of Truth—

Truth is that which was, is and always will be, pure and unchanging.

Think over it. This is the definition we give to God, isn’t it? They are the same. Where there is Truth, God is also there. I’m reminded of a Kabir doha which I read in Om Swamiji’s book A Million Thoughts:

“Saanch barabar tap nahin jhooth barabar paap.

Jaake hriday saanch hai, taak hriday prabhu aap.”

“There’s no penance greater than truth and no sin worse than lying. God lives in the one who has truth in his heart.” (From chapter titled Truthfulness, p.176)

When we walk on this path of the Ultimate Truth, it is spirituality. And when we constantly walk on this path, we are constantly in touch with Truth. Satsang happens.

But the tragedy is, we are all lost souls, misdirected and even arrogant. We don’t want to live a life of truth. Truth shatters our illusions—which we don’t want. We don’t want to see the Truth, ignorance gives us much joy! So, why would we want to? 

This is what the Devil meant to say—he’ll veil us. And, we must say, he is largely successful. His track record is quite exceptional! What ingenuity he has! He has crafted a million different veils. Traditionally, in India, we have called this aspect Maya, the illusory energy of the Divine Personality of Godhead. We are submerged in Maya.

But, once we realise this, once we see that it is because of our deep-rooted ignorance that we are suffering like this, we try to live differently. Spirituality begins after this realisation. As we see the Truth more and more, lifetimes of ignorance start to vanish, and the thick veil of Maya starts to disappear. We start to see the bright dazzling radiance of the eternal sunshine—the sheer essence of our consciousness. Happiness or bliss cascades in torrents. 

Here are the Part-1 & Part-2 of this series.

Thank You for reading.

With Love, Alok 🙏