For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Truth is God and Mahatma Gandhi

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net;

dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

Truth is God and Mahatma Gandhi

All dharma culminates in truth. Truth is God. There is no dharma which is above truth. Undoubtedly, truth is difficult to follow. If a man can be truthful both in thought and word, he will need nothing more. He will find in truth everything else. The path of truth is only for the brave. “Truth” is a simple word. Anyone who fails to follow it in his dealings will lose his honour and his credit. If some dirt mixes with a quantity of milk, all of it is considered impure; likewise, the value of words otherwise unblemished is diminished if falsehood mixes with them. Thus, it is not only for an ill-spoken word that one has to pay; even innocent things are regarded as evil when mixed with evil. 1

For, to me Truth is God and there is no way to find truth except the way of Non-violence. And I do not seek to serve India at the sacrifice of Truth or God. For I know that a man who forsakes Truth can forsake his country, and his nearest and dearest ones. . . . Now is the time to act. For how long is a man to go on talking? He may do so once, twice, aye, a hundred times, but action or example is his last resort. . . . Even if the whole of India ranged on one side were to declare that Hindu-Muslim unity is impossible, I will declare that it is perfectly possible; I will say that, if there is anything like God or Truth on earth, Hindu-Muslim unity is also possible. Even if masses of people were to burn khadi publicly and say that it is an insane programme, I will declare that those people have gone mad. In the same way, even if all the Hindus of India were to be ranged against me in declaring that untouchability, as we know it today, has the sanction of the Shastras or the Smritis, I will then declare that these Shastras and these Smritis are false. Everywhere shall I go forth thus uttering the three articles of my creed my kalma and my gayatri, so that I may be true to myself and my Maker. 2

The word ‘satya’ is derived from sat, which means that which is. Satya means a state of being. Nothing is or exists in reality except Truth. That is why sat or satya is the right name for God. In fact it is more correct to say that Truth is God than to say that God is Truth. But as we cannot do without a ruler or general, the name God is and will remain more current. On deeper thinking, however, it will be realized that sat or satya is the only correct and fully significant name for God. 3

I went a step further and said Truth is God. You will see the fine distinction between the two statements: God is Truth and Truth is God. And that conclusion I came to after a continuous, relentless search after Truth which began so many years ago. I found that the nearest approach to Truth is through love. But I found also that love has many meanings, in the English language at least, and human love in the sense of passion becomes a degrading thing also. I found too that love in the sense of ahimsa and non-violence has only a limited number of votaries in the world. And as I made progress in my search, I made no dispute with “God is love”. It is very difficult to understand “God is love” (because of a variety of meanings of love) but I never found a double meaning in connection with Truth and not even atheists have denied the necessity or power of Truth. Not only so. In their passion for discovering Truth, they have not hesitated even to deny the very existence of God— from their own point of view rightly. And it was because of their reasoning that I saw that I was not going to say “God is Truth”, but “Truth is God”. Therefore I recall the name of Charles Bradlaugh a great Englishman who lived 50 years ago. He delighted to call himself an atheist, But knowing as I do something of his life.

I never considered him an atheist. I would call him a god-fearing man although he would reject the claim, and I know his face would redden. I would say: No Mr. Bradlaugh, you are a truth-fearing man, not a god-fearing man, and I would disarm his criticisms by saying “Truth is God” as I have disarmed criticisms of many a young man. Add to this the great difficulty that millions have taken the name of God and have committed nameless atrocities in the name of God. Not those scientists do not very often commit cruelties in the name of Truth. I know today in the name of Truth and science inhuman cruelties are perpetrated on animals when men perform vivisection. To me it is a denial of God whether you recognize Him as Truth or by any other name. So I know that there are these difficulties in one’s way no matter how you describe God. But human mind is a limited thing, and you have to labour under limitation when you think of a being or entity that is beyond the power of man to grasp. But we have another thing in Hindu philosophy viz., God alone is and nothing else exists. Now the same truth you find emphasized and exemplified in the Kalama of Islam. There you find it clearly stated a Mussalman has to recite it at all his prayers that God alone is and nothing else is and that is the same about Truth. And the name that Sanskrit has for Truth literally means that which is sat. For these and several other reasons that I can give you I have come to the conclusion that the definition. “Truth is God” gives me the greatest satisfaction. And when you want to find Truth is God, the only inevitable means is love, non-violence and since I believe that ultimately means and ends are convertible terms I should not hesitate to say that God is love. 4

Do you remember my definition of God? Instead of saying that God is Truth, I say that Truth is God. I did not always think thus. I realized this only four years ago. But without knowing it I always acted as if it was so. I have always known God as Truth. There was a time when I doubted the existence of God, but even at that time I did not doubt the existence of Truth. This Truth is not a material quality but is pure consciousness. That alone holds the universe together. It is God because it rules the whole universe. If you follow this idea, it contains the answer to all your other questions. If you have any difficulty, however, put your question to me. For me this is almost a matter of direct experience. I say “almost” because I have not seen face to face God Who is Truth. I have had only a glimpse of Him. But my faith is unshakable. 5 I can live only by having faith in God. My definition of God must always be kept in mind. For me there is no other God than Truth; Truth is God. 6

I was not led to the conclusion that Truth is God by considering that God is formless and so is Truth. But I saw that Truth is the only perfect description of God. All other descriptions are imperfect. Even the word ‘Ishvar’ is a descriptive term, applied to an omnipotent something which cannot be described by human speech. If we think of the etymological meaning of the word ‘Ishvar’, the word does not touch our heart. Thinking of God as a ruler does not satisfy our mind. It may produce a kind of fear in us, which deters us from sin and impels us to be virtuous. But virtuous actions inspired by fear cease to be virtuous. If we act virtuously, we should do so through love of virtue and not through expectation of any reward. These and similar reflections resulted one day in my realizing that the statement that God is Truth is also imperfect. The statement that Truth itself is God is a perfect statement as far as human speech can express anything perfectly. We shall come to the same conclusion if we consider the etymological meaning of the word ‘satya’. It is derived from the root ‘sat’, which means to exist eternally. That which exists eternally is satya, Truth, it can be nothing else. But belief in Truth as God should not diminish our faith; on the contrary, it should increase it. That at any rate has been my experience. By regarding Truth as God, we save ourselves from many a pitfall. We no longer desire to see miracles or hear about them. We may find difficulty in understanding what ‘seeing God’ means; there can be no difficulty in understanding the meaning of ‘seeing Truth’. Seeing Truth may itself be difficult, it is so. But as we go nearer and nearer towards It, we can have an increasingly clearer vision of Truth that is God, and that strengthens our hope and faith that one day we shall have a full vision of it. 7

God is Truth. For the past few years I have been saying that ‘Truth is God’ instead of saying that ‘God is Truth’. I feel that this is a more logical way of putting it. Truth is the only reality in this world. 8 My advocacy of temple-entry I hold to be perfectly consistent with the declaration which I often made in Europe that Truth is God. It is that belief which makes it possible, at the risk of losing friendships, popularity and prestige, to advocate temple-entry for Harijans. The Truth that I know or I feel I know demands that advocacy from me. Hinduism loses its right to make a universal appeal if it closes its temples to the Harijans. 9 That means to say that you want a God who has form. Truth is too impersonal for you. Well, idolatry is embedded in human nature. But you may if you like worship God as Truth, if not Truth as God. God is Truth, but God is many other things also. That is why I prefer to say Truth is God. But you need not go into what may sound like mystic lore; you may simply worship what you find to be the Truth, for Truth is known relatively. Only remember that Truth is not one of the many qualities that we name. It is the living embodiment of God, it is the only Life, and I identify Truth with fullest life, and that is how it becomes a concrete thing, for God is His whole Creation, the whole Existence, and service of all that exists. Truth is service of God. 10

I claim to be a votary of truth from my childhood. It was the most natural thing to me. My prayerful search gave me the revealing maxim ‘Truth is God’ instead of the usual one ‘God is Truth’. That maxim enables me to see God face to face as it were. I feel Him pervade every fiber of my being. With this Truth as witness between you and me, I assert that I would not have asked my country to invite Great Britain to withdraw her rule over India, irrespective of any demand to the contrary, if I had not seen at once that for the sake of Great Britain and the Allied cause it was necessary for Britain boldly to perform the duty of freeing India from bondage. Without this essential act of tardy justice, Britain could not justify her position before the unmurmuring world conscience, which is their nevertheless. Singapore, Malaya and Burma taught me that the disaster must not be repeated in India. I make bold to say that it cannot be averted unless Britain trusts the people of India to use their liberty in favour of the Allied cause. By that supreme act of justice Britain would have taken away all cause for the seething discontent of India. She will turn the growing ill-will into active goodwill. I submit that it is worth all the battleships and airships that your wonderworking engineers and financial resources can produce. 11

I used to say ‘God is Truth’. That did not completely satisfy me. So I said ‘Truth is God’. He and His law are not different. God’s law is God Himself. To interpret it man has to resort to intense prayer and merge himself in God. Each one will interpret the same in his or her way. As for the relationship between man and God, man does not become man by virtue of having two hands. He becomes man by becoming a tabernacle of God. 12 I have not the ability for foretelling the future. I have no strength except what comes from insistence on truth. Non-violence too springs from the same insistence. God alone knows absolute truth, Therefore I have often said, Truth is God. It follows that man, a finite being, cannot know absolute truth. Therefore I had nothing but my instinct to tell me that Netaji was alive. No reliance can be placed on such unsupported feeling. 13 Truth is God. And He is discoverable only to non-violence and all it means. Here will be decided the clear issue. Those who think of separation must know where we stand. Let the facts be faced. If people will not tolerate differences in religion, usage, food, dress or individuality and will insist on boycott, then they cannot do so without the help of the Government which represents the people. 14

I call that Great Power not by the name of Allah, not by the name of Khuda or God but by the name of Truth. For me, Truth is God and Truth overrides all our plans. The whole truth is only embodied within the heart of that Great Power Truth. I was taught from my early days to regard Truth as unapproachable something that you cannot reach. A great Englishman taught me to believe that God is unknowable. He is knowable but knowable only to the extent that our limited intellect allows. 15 Truth and ahimsa must come alive in socialism. This can only be possible when there is a living faith in God. Mere mechanical adherence to truth and ahimsa is likely to break down at the critical moment. Hence have I said that truth is God? 16

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