SEARCH FOR TRUTH
An Intellectual Pursuit
MAN is a born seeker—a veritable truth-seeking being. Every human being regards himself as incomplete until he has found that supreme principle by which he can explain his existence in this world and discover the purpose and meaning of his life. Everyone is a seeker. True. But few are finders. Why? Because, where seeking is instinctive, finding is the outcome of one’s own conscious effort.
In the pre-Islamic period, there were certain individuals in Arabia, called Hunafa. They were all truth seekers. Confining themselves to solitary places, they would remember God and say: “O God if we had known how to worship You, we would have worshipped You accordingly.” This was due to their urge to come to grips with reality—an urge such as is found in every human being, the difference between one individual and another being only one of degree: in some, the urge is weak, in others it is strong.
Then, there are some deviations. Some people take certain material objects to be their goal in life and do their utmost to obtain them. But there is an evidence that they do so mistakenly. Before obtaining these material objects, they are highly enthusiastic about them. But as soon as they have them in their possession their enthusiasm turns to frustration for, with experience, they invariably find that what they have struggled for so hard, has failed to give them the desired sense of fulfilment. All these material things in this world are meant to fulfil only our physical needs. They have nothing to do with the purpose of our lives. This purpose can only be spiritual in nature, and not something material.
To make one’s life meaningful, one has to discover its purpose. One should be extremely sincere and honest in this respect.
To achieve this purpose is the greatest quest in life. Everyone is motivated, consciously or unconsciously, by this demand of human nature, everyone at one time or another suffers from a sense of frustration, with or without sad experiences. To make one’s life meaningful, therefore one has to discover its purpose. One should be extremely sincere and honest in this respect. Sincerity and honesty are an assurance of engaging oneself unremittingly in this pursuit, and never giving-up, until one has discovered the real purpose of human existence.
When a man succeeds in discovering this ideal, he becomes a person who is fit to be called a complete man, one who has succeeded in making his life purposeful, in the real sense of the word. Such a person has been called in the Quran: Al-Nafs-ul-Mutmainna (89: 27). This means a soul at rest, in peace or in a state of complete satisfaction. That is, a man who wholeheartedly follows the divine way of life and is always fully satisfied, whether or not it is in consonance with his own desires. By showing such total willingness to surrender his will to the will of God, he attains that state of humanity which is at one with the creation plan of God. This will to search for the truth is implanted in everyone. But it depends upon every individual himself, whether or not he pursues this natural urge. Only through sincere pursuit will he discover the truth and thus make his life meaningful. For any kind of negligence or apathy in this regard, there is no excuse, whatever the circumstances.
The philosophical explanation of the world requires unbounded knowledge, whereas man has had only limited knowledge bestowed upon him.
The purpose of this article is to analyze the role of philosophy, science and mysticism in this quest for truth.
Philosophy
Philosophy is the only discipline which, by its own definition, embodies
the quest for knowledge and understanding of the nature and meaning
of the universe as well as of human life. But after a long search of
more than 5000 years, to which the greatest minds of human history
have been bent, it has failed to provide any definite answer to such
questions.
The main concern of philosophy was to make a unified picture of the world, including human life. But the long history of philosophy shows that this still remains an unfulfilled dream. The Encyclopaedia Britannica in its 27-page article on philosophy and its history, admits that there seems to be no possibility of philosophical unification. The article concludes with this remark:
In the contemporary philosophical universe, multiplicity and division still reign.
Why this failure? This failure is not of a chance or intermittent nature, but seems to be a permanent feature of the philosophical approach to reality. The Quran has drawn our attention to this fact, saying: They question you about the spirit. Say, 'The spirit is at my Lord's command, and you have been granted but little knowledge.' (17: 85)
This means the problem stems from man’s own shortcomings. The philosophical explanation of the world requires unbounded knowledge, whereas man has had only limited knowledge bestowed upon him. Due to these intellectual constraints man cannot uncover the secrets of the world on his own. So it is not the lack of research, but the blinkered state of the human mind, that stands as a permanent obstacle in the philosopher’s path to reality. It is this human inadequacy which explains the unexplainable.
For example, suppose, in order to unveil reality and the law of life, the enquirer starts from a study of human settlements. After a detailed survey, he comes to the conclusion that since society is composed of human beings, he had better focus on the individual, and so he studies human psychology. But there he finds that, despite extensive research in this field it has resulted in nothing but intellectual chaos.
The search for truth, by its very nature, is entirely an intellectual exercise. Its findings too are intellectual in nature.
He ultimately finds that no unified system emerges from psychology. In despair of finding any solution to the problem, he turns to biology. His in-depth study of biology leads him to the conclusion that the whole human system is based on certain chemical actions and reactions, so, for a proper understanding of the human body he begins to study physics and chemistry. This study leads him to the discovery that, in the last analysis, man like other things, is composed of atoms. So, he takes to the study of nuclear science, only to arrive at the conclusion that the atom is composed of nothing but incomprehensible waves of electrons.
At this point man, as well as the universe, are seen as nothing but, in the words of a scientist, a mad dance of electrons. A philosopher ostensibly begins his study from a basis of knowledge, but ultimately comes to a point where there is nothing but the universal darkness of bewilderment. Thus a 5000-year journey of philosophy has brought the sorry conclusion that, due to its limitations, it is simply not in a position to unfold the secrets of the universe.
It is evident from the several thousand year-long history of philosophical inquiry that philosophy has failed to give any satisfactory answer to questions concerning reality. Moreover, there is a growing body of evidence that philosophy is inherently incompetent for the task undertaken by it. The need, therefore, is to find some alternative discipline that may help us reach our desired intellectual goal.
Science
Science has divided the world of knowledge into two parts—knowledge
of things and knowledge of truths. According to this division, science
has confined its study only to a part of the world and not to the entire
world. A scientist has rightly remarked that “science gives us but a
partial knowledge of reality.”
Science has never claimed that its objective is to discover the total truth or absolute reality. The concerns of science are basically descriptive, and not theological.
This means science being confined in its scope to the physical aspect of the world, has kept itself aloof from higher spiritual matters. No scientist has ever claimed that science attempts to find out the absolute truth. All scientists humbly submit that the “search for truth” is not their target. They are simply trying to understand how the objective world functions and not why it functions. For instance, the chemistry of a flower may be chemically analyzed, but not its odour.
Science has never claimed that its objective is to discover the total truth or absolute reality. The concerns of science are basically descriptive, and not theological. Although science has failed to give a satisfactory answer to the quest for truth, it is not to be disparaged, for this has never been its motivation.
Many people had pinned their hopes on science providing them with the superior life they had sought for so long. But after more than two hundred years, it has dawned upon recent generations that science has fallen far short of fulfilling man’s hopes and aspirations, even in the material sense. Now it has been generally acknowledged that, although science has many plus points for human betterment, it has many minus points as well.
Science gave us machines, but along with them it also gave us a new kind of social problem: unemployment. Science gave us comfortable motor cars but at the same time it polluted the air, making it difficult for human beings to inhale fresh air; just as with the rise of modern industry, there came the pollution of life-giving water. Production may have been accelerated, but at the cost of adversely affecting our whole social structure.
If the object of science was to provide man with the answer to his search for truth, it had obviously failed. If the search for truth was not within the province of science, there was no reason for it to figure in such discussions at all. In other words, science cannot be legitimately blamed for not helping man to grasp the ultimate reality, for this was not something expected of it. Indeed the reality lies far beyond the boundaries of science.
Mysticism
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, mysticism is a “quest for a
hidden truth or wisdom.” The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought
defines it thus: “Mysticism is the direct experience of the divine as
real and near, blotting out all sense of time and producing intense
joy.” According to the mystics, the final state
produced by mystical exercises is inner joy
or spiritual bliss, whereas the subject of the
present article is the search for truth.
The highlight of human existence is consciousness, or the mind. The successful seeker of truth finds it at the level of the mind, or consciousness.
The search for truth, by its very nature, is entirely an intellectual exercise. Its findings too are intellectual in nature. It is successful when the seeker finds rational answers to the questions he poses about the universe and his own existence. The search for truth is not a vague matter. It begins from the conscious mind and also culminates there.
The case of mysticism is quite different. Mysticism is based essentially on intuition, and is not a conscious intellectual process. As such, the mystical experience is more an act of spiritual exhilaration than an effort to apprehend the truth in intellectual terms. Mysticism, as popularly conceived, makes the basic assumption that the physical, material, and social needs of man act as obstacles to his spiritual progress. Therefore, mysticism teaches him to reduce his physical needs to the barest minimum; to renounce worldly and social relations; and if possible to retire to the mountains or jungles. In this way, he will supposedly be able to purify his soul. Thus, by giving up the world and by certain exercises in self-abnegation, a mystic expects to awaken his spirituality.
The mystics can broadly be divided into two groups: those who believe in God and those who do not. Non-believers in God assert that there is a hidden treasure in the centres of our souls. The task of the mystic is to discover this hidden treasure. But this is only a supposition. None of them has ever been able to define this hidden treasure or to explain it in understandable terms. Tagore has thus expressed this claim made by the mystics:
“Man has a feeling that he is truly represented in something which exceeds himself.”
But this is only a subjective statement unsupported by logical proofs. That is why, in spite of its great popularity, no school of this mystical thought has so far produced any objective criterion by which one may rationally ascertain that the existence of such a hidden treasure within the human soul is a reality, and not an illusion. On the other hand, no well-defined law, or step-by-step practical programme, has been introduced by any individual or group that might help the common man reach his spiritual destination consciously and independently. Moreover, mysticism makes the claim that the natural quest of man is its own fulfilment. It does not require any external effort to arrive at the perceived goal. In other words, it is like assuming that the feeling of thirst or hunger in man contains its own satisfaction. A thirsty or hungry person is not to trouble himself to search for water or food in the outer world.
Those (of this school of thought) who believe in God interpret this hidden treasure in terms of God. To them the inner contemplation of a mystic is directed towards God.
This concept too is rationally inexplicable, for, if such mystic exercises are a means to discover God, then, there should be genuine proof that God Himself has shown this way to find Him. But there is no evidence that this path has been prescribed by God. On the other hand, there is a clear indication that this course separates the seeker from God’s creation and leads him to a life of isolation. This makes it plain that God cannot enjoin such a path to realization as would mean nullifying the very purpose of creation.
The mystics hold that although the mystical experience may be a great discovery for them, it is, however, a mysterious and unexplainable realization which can be felt at the sensory level, but which cannot be fully articulated. According to a mystic: “It is knowledge of the most adequate kind, only it cannot be expressed in words.”
This aspect of the mystical experience proves it to be a totally subjective discipline. And something as subjective as this can in no degree be a rational answer to the human search for truth. Those who have attempted to describe the mystic experience have chosen different ways of doing so. One is the narrative method, that is, describing their point of view in terms only of claims, without any supporting arguments. Another method is to make use of metaphors. That is, attempt to describe something by means of supposed analogies. From the point of view of rational reasoning, both methods are inadequate, being quite lacking in any credibility in rational terms, and are therefore invalid.
Therefore the three branches—philosophy, science and mysticism do not provide answers to a seeker as he aims at a rational explanation of the world and endeavours to discover a definite principle by which he may successfully plan his present life.
The highlight of human existence is consciousness, or the mind. The successful seeker of truth finds it at the level of the mind, or consciousness, and not at the level of ecstasy.
A material analogy is the electric bulb and the powersource. The bulb in its inactivated state is a lightless object. With no inherent light, it lacks the innate ability to give light to others. But when connected to the powersource, it immediately lights up, becomes bright, giving light to others. This exemplifies the criterion for discovering truth. Finding the truth is like consciously finding a light.
For a conscious being like man, an unawakened mind cannot realize the ultimate truth or the higher reality of God. God can be realized only through a developed mind.
The field of knowledge is vast, and can be classified as—knowledge of things and knowledge of truth. The study of man tells that deeper knowledge is required to determine how to lead life in this world.
This has been dealt with in detail by Alexis Carrel in his book, Man the Unknown. It has to be conceded that man cannot discover this necessary knowledge through his own efforts and requires external guidance. Therefore the stage is left to the Prophets to present the knowledge of truth.