Words From The Master: 30 Dec 2007

It’s true that truth hurts

A western philosopher wrote beautifully: Please don’t take lies away. Let man live on them, live with them.

Truth is too much for us to bear. Our lies become deep-seated in life. Lies turn out to be the base on which we live and further lie.

We cannot handle too much truth. If truth is say up to 30 to 40%, we can take it well. Beyond that, the truth starts transforming us. We feel that the ground upon which we are standing is giving way.

To be honest, none of us really want to know the truth. If truth and nothing but truth is given, no one would listen, except, perhaps, a few teachers.

When truth is spoken people get frightened. Truth frightens both the speaker and the listener.

In our life, we don’t want to see the truth. Why else would we wear make up, dye the hair, or dress up? We cannot accept the truth of our aging. We pretend, fantasize, and lie. We dress up colorfully to hide from the true self within ourselves. We know that we are not what we show ourselves to be.

There are many other ways in which we try to hide the truth. Why do you think we have so many formal, social courtesies? We respect each other. We are taught, from childhood, to say please and thank you, irrespective of whether we mean it or not, and whether the situation demands it or not. We say it because social etiquette demands so.

Whenever we meet someone, we say ‘Nice to meet you’, even though we may not like that person.

When we really feel nice, our whole body, our being will show it. We don’t need to say ‘nice to meet you’ for the other person to understand that you are happy to meet him or her. Our body language, smile, and our sheer pleasure of meeting that person will be obvious.

We dare not face the truth in any language. We know that the truth is usually something else. Neither verbally nor in the body language do we feel comfortable being truthful.

But, the moment we imbibe a single point or any single dimension of truth in any way, if we catch an idea and imbibe it honestly, truthfully, it can do wonders. Truth gives us enlightenment; it transforms us.

When we meditate we rise in truth. We become aware of our true Self.

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This article was earlier published in the Economic Times, an Indian newspaper.