A famous Bollywood movie “Aankhon Dekhi” with Sanjay Mishra in the lead role starts with a scene in which he is informed about the whereabouts of a young boy who is frequently seen with Sanjay Mishra’s daughter.
Mishra has heard negative reviews about the young boy. When Mishra reaches the boy’s location to teach him a lesson, he is shocked to see that the young boy treats him with respect, is preparing for a competitive exam to make a decent career, and hails from a good family.
This fills Mishra with guilt for having a prejudiced opinion about the young boy based on what he has heard and not based on his actual meeting with the boy.
Finally, Mishra decides he would henceforth believe only the things to be true that he has lived and not the ones he has been taught by others.
On the lines of this movie, this essay too endeavors to dwell upon the questions, as to what is truth? How does one know and understand truth by living and not just from hearing or learning about truth? Can some truths still be taught? And the symbiotic relationship between truth and life.
Let’s first understand what is truth.
The closest definition of truth can be something that cannot be rejected by anyone at any time.
If you say “sun rises in the East,” or “the Earth rotates around the sun,” or “everything falls on earth due to gravity.”
Can anyone refute these claims at any time? No one can! Hence such things can be called as truth.
But it is difficult to live these truths. So we shall take some examples of truths that have been learned through actually living them.
In the earlier times, people thought that the earth was flat. That was the prevailing truth.
But a man named Ferdinand Magellan took his boat, started from a point and after taking an exhaustive journey reached the same point. What did he discover? He discovered that the earth was not flat but spherical. He had lived that truth.
From scientific examples, let us move to some philosophical ones.
It is a truth that violence cannot be the solution to any problem and will only lead to death and destruction. This truth was realized by King Ashoka only after lakhs of people were butchered in his Kalinga adventure. It is also a truth that you can trust no one more than yourself in life as people closest to you may harm you. This was realized by Julius Caesar when he was backstabbed by his most trusted ally Marcus Brutus. Hence the line – “Et tu Brute.” meaning “you too Brutus.”
Another truth that we have been taught is that there is widespread poverty and misery in the world. But we relive this when we see people begging, or small children polishing shoes or infants dying of hunger. No book can teach this until we see this ourselves.
It is a truth that there are various forms of discrimination prevalent in society. But this discrimination has been lived through by many great people in the past.
Let’s take Mahatma Gandhi. He was aware of the racism prevalent in South Africa. But he did not realize its severity until he himself was thrown out of a first-class compartment with a valid ticket, just because he did not have fair skin.
Or let’s talk of discrimination based on caste. Is caste not a reality in our society?
Ask Bhim Rao Ambedkar, who had lived through the truth of casteism his whole life. Even after becoming a barrister from Columbia University, people did not approach him because of his caste. Ambedkar lived through the evils of casteism to understand its debilitating effect on people.
People say women are discriminated in society. This is a truth that has been valid since Vedic times. But ask Indira Nooyi, CEO of Pepsico who once described how one day when she returned home late at night after work found out that there was still no dinner made as her husband and children were waiting for her to come home and cook.
The above examples validate certain truths of life. But there are certain truths that we as common people can realize in our own lives.
Take success for example. It is said that being successful wins you admirers and being a failure wins you despisers.
I have lived through both phases. When I had failed in a certain entrance examination, people had doubted my capabilities. But when next year I cleared that exam, these same people came to me and said “we always believed you had this in you to clear this exam.”
We are taught to do good things, as the truth goes “good work gives satisfaction”. I had realized this when once I saw two kids looking at a popcorn shop but couldn’t buy it since they had no money.
I immediately bought them two packets of popcorn. They were so happy and delighted that remembering their smiles still gives me a sense of satisfaction.
Having lived through many truths, we must also talk about certain truths that can be taught also.
For example, it is a truth that being respectful to others earns you respect. Now you do not have to disrespect the other person to know whether this truth holds good or not.
Or for example, it is a truth that arrogance leads to destruction. Now we already have the example of Raavan before us. We need not first become arrogant and then learn how it is bad for us.
The hitherto mentioned examples show the symbiotic relationship between truth and life. Life is all about learning truth, applying them, living them, and correcting them.
What is true for us may not be true for others. Hence it is very important to find our own truth.
Because after all, we too are nothing but Sanjay Mishras of our lives.