SANATHANA DHARMA - PART 1

SANATHANA DHARMA - PART I

Sathyam and Dharmam

Truth alone triumphs – ‘SathyamEva Jayate’ is the motto adopted by the Indian government in its symbol of thelions with the Dharma chakra. This clearly shows that Truth and Dharma were heldin high esteem by the people at the helm of affairs when we became independent.It is our responsibility as good citizens of a country with a wonderful legacyto protect and practice these high ideals handed over to us from ourforefathers and we are duty bound to transmit their value to the nextgeneration. That is the reason for this article.

Sathyam and Dharmam have beenthe two pillars on which Sanathana Dharmam has been built. In the TaitireyaUpanishad, the Guru tells his disciple – ‘Sathyam Vadha Dharmam Chara’ that is alwaysspeak the Truth and follow the path of Dharma. These two attributes support allthe endeavours of an aspirant who seeks to attain perfection in thisbirth.  This is very profoundlyillustrated in the 18 holy steps that lead to the sanctum sanctorum of the SriSwami Aiyappa temple tucked in the recesses of the Western Ghats. The templerepresents Lord as jyothi or effulgence of the Supreme Truth which to theseeker is the true knowledge of the self (Athma gnana). The two banisters tothe mystic 18 steps are believed to represent Sathyam and Dharmam and the holy18 steps the 36 ideologies (Thatvas) leading from the grossest earth to thesublime supreme Shiva.

Sathyam:

Sathyam means Truth. Truth issomething which is absolute and not something which is relative. If Truth wererelative or dependant on some conditions, then it loses its validity as Truth.As such Truth or Sathyam is to be known differently from the truth which wespeak about in our normal parlance as not lying. When we speak about Truth(Sathyam), then there can be only one such truth without a second, else itloses its claim to be absolute.

What is the definition ofabsolute Truth? It is that which is permanent, that is, that which is notaffected by change, is both the cause and its effect, is both manifest and un-manifestand is without beginning or end. So we can take it that Sathyam transcends thelimitations of time, space and cause and effect and stands as ONE at all timesand in all places.  What then can Truthbe unless it is the Supreme force (God?) itself, that which had createdeverything and is both the creator and the creation.  

The ancient scriptures also talkabout ‘Rutham’ while speaking about ‘Sathyam’. Rutham means order which though subjectto change over a period of time yet maintains itself. Indisputably the entirecosmos consisting of many universes is subject to a supreme cosmic order whichenables the millions of suns and planets in various galaxies to function asordained with not even a fraction of a deviation or otherwise there would becosmic cataclysm. This order is maintained in all forms from the tiny atom tothe biggest of galaxies. The question that pops up is whether the cosmic ordercalled Rutham is also Truth akin to Sathyam? It may not be if we try to fit itinto a strict definition as the former is changeless while the latter issubject to change. Sathyam is the cause and Rutham is the effect.

It is said that ‘BrahmaSathyam – Jagat Mithyam’. Brahman represents the absolute and hence is Truth(sathyam) while the cosmos (jagat) is relative and hence is not the absolutetruth although it is conditional truth. That the universe exists cannot bedenied, but the fact that it is ever changing makes it dependant on somethingwhich impels it to change. In fact ceaseless change is its order. The followinglines of James Russel in his poem the Fountain is very apt in describing this:
“ Glad of all weathers still seeming best, upwards ordownwards motion thy rest” and
“Full of nature nothing can tame, changed every momentever the same”.

While the change isceaselessly happening within the Universe itself, the Absolute whole remainschangeless.

Truth as we know it, is however,subjective. It is qualified by two things - Knowledge and Belief. One cannothold something to be true or false unless he has knowledge of the subject.People believed that the earth was flat till a few centuries ago and that theSun was going around the earth while the earth itself was stationary. Anythingthat was held contrary to this belief was considered to be untruth and evenblasphemous. While knowledge is acquired through self effort of learning byoneself or from some one else, belief is something that evolves out of thecollective wisdom reflected by parents, ancestors, family and society.  This is called Apara Vidhya – that is,acquired knowledge and belief.  There is somethingcalled Para Vidhya, knowledge that comes automatically such as intuitions,sudden spark in the mind, thoughts of wisdom and the like which come from one’sinner core. The inventions and discoveries that science has witnessed areresults of such inspirational thoughts experienced by people that came from theinnermost recesses of their mind.

Truth is not tainted by thesubjectivity brought about by knowledge or belief.  It holds out for that particular period oftime and loses validity once the knowledge or belief is disproved, changed orbecomes inconsequential.

The Vedas ordain us to speakthe truth – ‘Sathyam Vadha’. If Truth which is always absolute and pure likethe colourless rays of the Sun becomes subjective and coloured when one viewsit through the prism of knowledge and belief, what is the truth that the Vedaswant us to speak?

It is said that there arefour aspects of speech. Speech is the culmination of thought expressed in wordsand communicated to the listener. The four aspects of speech are Para,Pashyanti, Madhyama and Vaikari.  Para isthe root stemming from desire and is located in the Mooladara chakra. When thedesire takes shape it becomes visible – Pashyanti, whose location is in theManipuraka chakra. The desire gets the cloak of thought in the Heart region –Anahata chakra and is expressed as the spoken word – Vaikari from theactivation of the Vishudhi chakra.

Desire, thought and word arethe three constituents of speech.  Whenthere is no difference between that which starts as desire, takes shape asthought and finally is expressed as the spoken word then there is no disconnectand that is what is meant by speaking the TRUTH. Unity in desire, thought andspeech is Truth. Where there is disharmony in any one of the above three, thenthere is no truth. So we can take it that the Vedas enjoin us to speak what wethink and think what we desire.

When we fail to practicethis, we get into stress – the stress caused by speaking untruth. Untruth causestress as it is divorced from our real nature which is Truth. Our sufferingsare due to the fact that we have moved away from our real nature which is Truthabsolute. We think that we are the body and the mind and lose track of ourinherent spiritual nature.  We are infact spirits who have taken a body to enjoy and exhaust our karmas. Karmas arethe root cause of desires which in turn become thoughts and words impelling usinto action leading into further karma. When we constantly meditate on our Self, our real nature of our beingthe absolute Truth gets crystallized and permeates our desire, thought, wordand action and we become one with Truth. Then whatever we do, speak or think ordesire it shall be the Truth and Truth alone as ordained in the Vedas.

The story of kingHarischandra who, for the sake of his ideal of always speaking the truthsacrificed his kingdom, his only son and finally his wife too has been the inspirationfor Mohandas Gandhi in his quest for truth which made him a Mahatma.  To take the vow of always speaking the truth underall circumstances and at all times is something which might not be possible formere humans like us.  There is a story ofa hermit in whose house a deer fleeing the pursuit of a hunter tookrefuge.  The hunter confronted the sagewith the question whether the deer had come that way and the wise man remainedmute. Had he failed to uphold his vow to always speak the truth when heremained silent? The inference is yes, since the hunter took the silence of thesage to mean that the deer was not there and satisfied left the place.  Here comes the conflict between speaking the Truthand following the Ahimsa Dharma. Our Maha Periyava aptly observes that whilespeaking the truth we should always bear in mind that we should speak onlyabout the good things and should never speak ill of others even if it weretrue. So not speaking out the truth in order not to hurt or bring hurt toanother is also deemed to be speaking the truth and the contrary is also true.