Grace and Power of Truth
“Truth alone wins,” (Satyameva jayate) is the ancient statement of the Veda (Mundaka Upanishad, Atharva Veda). Equated with God, Truth has infinite intelligence and the human mind has limited intelligence. To lose faith in Truth is tantamount to losing belief in God.
The corrupt seem to win in this world and the good seem to be losing. This is not so from a larger angle of view. When we see life in greater depth and larger scope, we discover that our usual ideas of victory and defeat themselves are shallow and therefore defective. Leave others. Just think deeply and find out what corruption, deceit or lack of integrity would definitely do to our life. We might certainly grab some pleasure, position or power by our selfish, clever or dominating ways but pretty soon those achievements cease to have significance or value to us. What is more, our wrong ways leave behind such impressions on our psyche that we feel lonely, isolated.
Hardly anyone of us has lived a totally virtuous life. We have made mistakes. If only we see our own inner unrest more clearly, we cannot fail to identify the damage that false values (that prompted those errors) have done to us. Examining life in its wholeness reveals the sad limitations of social position or economic stability. Deep inside we continue to remain insecure unless we let go of the self (our false ego) at the altar of truth.
Superficially, making money is regarded success and not having enough wealth is considered failure. While money certainly has its usefulness, to equate success in life with being wealthy is most immature. So is the case with the value we attach to fame, popularity and possessing talent etc. Alas, even spiritual teachers are measured in this world by criteria like how popular they are and how many influential people are their students etc.! Many gurus, who have rich and famous disciples, are actually groping in darkness for total freedom. They have not touched that ground at all, where the ‘me’ dissolves in the indivisible one. At best they have talked eloquently about God.
Life is short. Do not spend it away in the tinsel town. Do not judge yourself by those usual yardsticks like wealth and power. Do not conclude about others also hastily, merely looking at their external appearances. Your real journey is in the company of truth. Be loyal to it.
Swami Chidananda
Monday, April 23, 2006