TRUTH—AN ANALYSIS
Relative or Absolute
IT IS GENERALLY believed that truth is not something absolute. People have different perceptions or criteria for truth. That which is truth for one, may not be truth for another. In other words, truth is something relative not real, known in other words as ‘personal truth’. A philosopher has described it in the following words:
There are no full stops in Truth, but only commas.
Some people think in this way, but this is a notion that stands rejected prima facie. This supposition does not have any logic or rational ground to stand on. In this world, whatever man believes in, he does so in an absolute sense. This is human nature. If man is not able to decipher a thing in its absolute sense, he continues his research until he has discovered it.
For example, in ancient times, man knew very little about the sun and the solar system. His search continued for thousands of years till he came to discover the overall system of the planets. As long as man had not reached this discovery, he continued his investigation.
The same is the case with other fields of knowledge. For thousands of years man has engaged himself in research and investigation in various disciplines of knowledge. This quest is ongoing till date and will continue till man comprehends the actual reality. This is because to man everything has an absolute form; from the stars to an atom, there is no exception to this rule.
Denying truth to be absolute is akin to mental suicide. Those who hold this belief are not serious in their utterance. Refusing to accept the truth in its absolute form is similar to refusing to accept one’s mother in the absolute form.
It appears that the human mind takes everything in an absolute form. This is the conviction on the basis of which the process of search and research continued for thousands of years. If man were to believe that things did not occur in their absolute form, scientific activities would come to a complete halt. Scientific discoveries would come to a standstill.
The same principle applies to personal matters. Man considers himself to be absolute. If he doesn’t think this way, he cannot stay alive for even a single day. Man takes his mother, his wife, and his children in an absolute sense—the very survival of the family system is based upon this. In its absence, the entire system of human life would be shattered. Similarly, man considers his belongings like his house, his business and his bank balance, to be absolute. If he did not think like this, his economic life would never take shape.
In such a situation, it would be an exception to consider that truth is not absolute. It would mean that in an absolute world truth has a non-absolute existence. But, there is no logical basis for accepting this concept. It is incomprehensible to believe that in this vast universe, where everything else is in its absolute sense, truth, as an exception to this rule, is not in its absolute form. This would be a contradiction in logical terms and would never be acceptable to thinking people.
This is not a simple matter. Upon reflection, we find that man has a dual existence—body, and mind. Except for truth, everything caters to fulfilling the physical needs of man. Truth is the only thing that man requires for fulfilling his spiritual needs. Now, it is inconceivable that all objects of fulfilment of our physical needs are in their absolute form while truth, that fulfils our spiritual needs, is not absolute.
To accept this division we would have to admit that there is a big contradiction in this world, that the objects of our material needs are available here in an absolute form while the objects of our spiritual needs are, by way of an exception, not available here in an absolute form.
In this world, whatever man believes upon, he does it in an absolute sense. This is human nature. If man is not able to decipher a thing in its absolute sense, then he continues his research until he has discovered it.
Truth is the biggest requirement of man. Without it, man is totally incomplete. The truth is that the denial of truth as absolute is akin to mental suicide. Those who hold this belief are not serious in their utterance. Refusing to accept the truth in its absolute form is similar to refusing to accept one’s mother in the absolute form.
Another possibility is that nothing is true, that truth is something different altogether, or that truth has no existence. This kind of thought is without doubt an intellectual luxury that no serious man can afford to indulge in.
On a serious note, a person can, however, say that he has not found the truth, or that he is just a seeker. But no serious man can say that truth is not absolute. A seeker of truth is looking for the answer to the question: “What is that knowledge by which I may believe?” When he finds truth, he makes it supreme.
In the universe that man lives in, everything is known to be absolute, and if something has not yet been discovered in its absolute sense, then man is continuously struggling hard to discover its absolute position. The same is the case with man’s identity. Man, by his very nature, is an absolute-loving person. He wants to live in conviction. Truth gives him this conviction. Only with conviction can he take any action. His behaviour is governed by his conviction. If he knows a woman to be his mother, he wants to have an absolute belief in the fact that she is his mother. Similarly, when he owns a property, his ownership should be in the absolute sense. If this does not happen, man will be in an uncertain state of mind about everything. And it is a fact that man cannot live in uncertainty.
These facts make it clear that the concept of absoluteness is exactly in accordance with human nature. On the other hand, regarding everything as non-absolute is against the very nature of human beings.
As far as truth is concerned, if it is not absolute, it cannot give us any conviction. To say that truth is not absolute is like saying that one does not believe in anything to be true. With such a belief, a person can only become a skeptic. And to be a skeptic is not a practical position for any human being.