Copyright@shravancharitymission
By Kamlesh Tripathi
RELATIONSHIP OF TRUTH
WITH REALITY
The
spiritual Indian city of Kashi is located on the holy banks of river Ganges
where an able ruler once ruled. His court was blessed by many renowned scholars
who used to have big discussions and debates on ‘truth.’ And in the court it
was inscribed in golden letters, ‘In pursuit of truth.’
One day in the morning a Yogi came to his court
and suggested, the ruler change the inscription in gold, and suggested the
inscription should be, ‘In pursuit of reality’ and not ‘in pursuit of truth’
and on hearing this all the scholars in the court of the ruler were rather startled.
To convince he said, ‘Truth is not like
reality. Truth is what we believe in, but reality is the state of things as
they actually exist.’ And to prove his point he called for some barrels and got
it filled with oil and on a moonlit night he got the barrels placed in an open
field where the reflection of moon was very clearly visible in each barrel of
oil.
And then the Yogi said, ‘Dear friends when
you see the reflection of the moon in these barrels you feel there are so many
moons, but when you look up to the sky you come to know of the reality, that
there is only one moon.’
‘In the same manner if we want we can get
so many things made out of wood, but we are well abreast of the fact that all
these are made of wood. In the same manner when you’ll empty the barrels you’ll
come to know the moons have vanished but the real moon atop remains.
So also when the furniture breaks into pieces
various furniture items will lose their identity but the identity of wood
remains. In the same manner truth might be linked to the environment and times
but reality is quite different from all this.
And that is why our efforts and inscription
should be in accordance to the directive, ‘In search of reality.’ And every scholar
in the court agreed with the logic of the Yogi and the inscription accordingly was
changed to ‘In search of reality.’
After sometime another Yogi came and said, ‘Dear
friends there may be a difference between truth and reality but truth has its
own importance as we see so many moons in barrels filled with oil so we cannot
condone the truth even when we know that the moon is one. In the same manner we
cannot overlook the reality and status of various things with various names. In
reality you all are either male or female, but you cannot overlook the fact
that you too have a name. The ultimate and complete face of truth is the
reality and reality is witnessed in various forms of individual truths.
And that is why my suggestion is to change
the inscription to ‘in pursuit of truth and reality’ to which every scholar
gave his approval. But the change of inscription did not last for long as after
a while another Yogi came who wanted to change the inscription again. He said, ‘truth
cannot become truth unless it is linked to reality .’ he further said in all the barrels of oil the reflection of moon is linked to one such reality that
the moon exists and moon had not existed its reflection too would not have been
there. In the same manner the wooden furniture is linked to its basic raw material—wood.
And. you will have to agree that truth in any form is always connected to the reality
and you also can reach the substance if you change the inscription to ‘the relation
of truth with reality.’
All scholars had felt the power of real
truth in what yogi had said and therefore the inscription was further changed
as per the Yogi.
***
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