Truth! It stands alone – tall and magnificent. Truth is. It is One. It does not change. A great deal is written about the truth of life in various religions books. Ancient tomes, holy texts and scriptures, works of saints and seers, teachings of Avatars like Jesus, Rama, Krishna, Zoroaster, Buddha and others teach us about the truth of life. Hinduism alone has a vast array of scriptures which teach the truth of life: the Vedas and their four subdivisions; the six Vedangas; the hundred and eight Upanishads, the eighteen Purnanas: the two great epics - Ramayana and Mahabharata and dozens of other scriptures including texts on yoga and their subdivisions.
The truth about God and self, about life, about the universe, about the elements and their nature, about the nature of God and man, the soul, the consciousness, the secrets of higher living and thinking, nature of mind, secrets of body, meditation, mantra, chakras, Kundalini Maha Yoga, our lives on earth, dying and death, life after death and so much more are explained in great detail in these books. These books have been translated in all Indian languages and major languages of the world. We find texts from all religions speak about the truth. Truth of God and Life is known to all of us.
Most of us read these truths and mouth them like a parrot. We memorize verse and chapters from Holy Scriptures and speak them with great eloquence and diction. We recall them well and quote them effortlessly when needed. It is very important to know the words as they give us a description of what is and can be when certain procedures are followed. The truths remain as words only unless we experience them and make them our own. Great saints like Meera, Thyagraja, Bhadrachala Ramdas, Tukaram and others speak of the sweetness of the name of God. They say it is sweeter than honey or brown sugar or rock sugar and they drown themselves in the sweetness of the name of God. We can mouth their songs but they will be just words unless and until we do the japa of the name of God and experience the truth of sweetness of the Ram Nam for ourselves. Truth without experience is like a beautiful dead body – the soul is gone and the body is only fit to disposed off. It is like holding a bird cage without the bird in it. The story of the drunkard illustrates the truth:
A drunkard used to have the same routine daily – after work, go to the liquor shop, sit there and drink till the shop closed and then stagger home and wake up in the morning and go to work. Once, on his way to his drinking joint, he noticed that it was dark moonless night. So he bought a lamp and carried it with him so that on the way back home he would not blunder against any object or fall down and hurt himself. As usual, he was more than fully drunk when the owner of the bar asked all the customers to leave. He picked up his lantern and began to walk home.
On his way back home, the drunkard stumbled against a rock, then a dog and later a donkey. He hit a tree too. He looked at his lamp and wondered why after carrying a lamp he was stumbling so much. He hit against a fence and fell down on the pavement and passed out. In the morning, some of his friends found him on the pavement and carried him home. The drunkard did not go to work that day as he was bruised and hurt. In the noon, the owner of the drinking joint came to his home and said: Please return my parrot. Instead of taking your lamp, you have carried my parrot cage!
Unless we follow the teachings of the Avatars, Masters, Gurus and the Holy Scriptures and experience the truth for ourselves, we are like the drunkard carrying a parrot cage instead of the lantern. We will stumble around in the darkness and keep hurting ourselves and wonder why we get hurt despite carrying a lantern. Words without experience give no light and we will stumble through life even though we quote the sacred scriptures well. Let us follow the teachings and practices given by the Guru and experience the truth for ourselves.
