Acharya Mahaprajna
What is truth? This question has been discussed since the beginning of time. That which is eternal and unchanging is truth, but that is not the only truth. Change is directly perceivable and it cannot be said to be untrue. Change in itself is truth, but that again is not the only truth. Change is only possible in a particular context. That which is visible is truth, but truth may also be invisible. Truth has many forms. Only as a part of diversity, is uniformity true. Without diversity, it has no validity. Truth is not the creation of any religious preceptor. It is something spontaneous, uncreated. A religious preceptor makes the unknown known and makes manifest the unmanifested. Lord Mahavira said - 'Truth is that which is imaged in a veetaraag’.
In a way, truth is indivisible. What is real, what has existence, is true. This is a totally integrated approach; both the animate and the inanimate have their being in the world. Therefore, both the animate and the inanimate are endowed with truth. Man is animate, embodies truth in himself, and yet has no direct contact with truth because attachment and aversion stand in the way of his union with truth. A man charged with passion looks at every thing with an eye of attachment. Therefore, truth does not reveal itself before him. On the other hand, a man swayed by aversion views everything with contempt, thereby repelling truth. Truth opens itself to an objective viewer. Only that man has an objective vision whose eyes are not coloured by attachment and aversion.
