Acharya Tulsi
Every person wishes to adore a great personality. The greatest personality is God. The scriptures have described Truth as God. Only he who worships Truth can become great. That is why I have composed a song in which it is said:
Give up fear and worship Truth
You must bring the age of Truth,
So Worship Truth.[1]
Since man cannot remain all by himself, he has to worship someone or the other. It is said that formerly, God was alone. Being alone was irksome for Him. So He thought,'I am alone, now let me be many.' And with thought of becoming many, He created the universe. This is God according to the view of those who believe in the doctrine of Creationism.
The Jain philosophy does not accept God as the creator of the universe. According to it, the universe is spontaneous. It always was and always will be. The principle of T am alone, let me be many,' can be applied not to God but to man. Because man cannot be alone, he worships someone. In my view, there is nothing greater than Truth. Therefore, Truth should be worshipped.
Truth is one and also many. When one Truth is regarded from various angles, it becomes many. Rama returned to Ayodhya after his victory in Lanka. One day, Sita and Hanuman were seated with him. There was a discussion about Ashoka Vatika. Sita said, "All flowers in Ashoka Vatika were white." Hanuman disagreed and said that all flowers in Asoka Vatika were red. Sita and Hanuman both stood firm on their grounds. Rama said that both were right. "The flowers were originally white and from that point of view, Sita is right. When Hanuman went there, his eyes were red because he was enraged. The redness of his eyes spread on those flowers and they appeared red to him. From that point of view, Hanuman is also right." Both of them were satisfied by that many-sided approach to Truth.
Bhagwan (the Omniscient Lord) has been described as anantachakshu i.e. one who is possessed of infinite number of eyes. He interprets a single Truth from infinite number view-points. Without infinity of outlooks, it is not possible to know the infinite number of properties of things. In the state of embodiment before the attainment of liberation, Bhagwan has only two physical eyes. But He has infinite number of discerning eyes within, alone through which the nature of Truth is known to Him.
Seeing the reflection of the sun in the moving water, a child said, "The Sun is moving." While a person who knew the reality said, "It is the reflection which is moving." With the help of the pluralistic attitude both these statements can be shown to be valid.
Children were asked a question in their examination: "What is stationary-the earth or the sun?" One student wrote: 'In the school, the earth moves and the sun is stationery, but at home, the sun moves and the earth is stationary.' This answer of the young student cannot be treated as wrong. This is because the mind of the child is undeveloped. He experiences what he hears. Listening to contrary things in two places, he sees them accordingly. Such implied interpretation of the real situation is found when there is a desire to hide the truth even while knowing it.
A child used a stick as a horse. A sadhu who saw it, called it only a horse because it hurts the child, if he called it a stick.
A man for some reason, dressed himself as a woman. The sadhu knew that it was a man, still he called him a woman, because by calling him a man, he would reveal the secret which that man wanted to hide. Thus, describing a thing in its present form is practical truth.
Truth has many forms, like the name, form, feeling, etc. The reality of a thing is established on the basis of its various needs.
Who has ever seen the sky? Generally, every person says that the sky is blue. But in principle, the sky is formless. The blue colour of the sky is its practical reality and its being formless its reality. In principle, religion has no form, but we confine it within a limit. Because of this demarcation, religion has come to be known as Jainism, Buddhism, Vaishnavism, etc. Religion cannot be identified without the name of its sect, but it is not correct to confine religion only to the sect. It would be a mistake if anyone wants to abolish the sects- altogether. Sect by itself is not bad. What is bad is the narrow mindedness. It is absolutely necessary that attempts are made to do away with narrow mindedness.
There were many learned scholars in the court of Raja Bhoj, all having different views and attitudes. The king wanted to unite all of them. He summoned them and locked them in a big hall. He ordered them to be united by whatever means-whether after fighting or giving up their differences.
A Jain acharya also happened to be there. He was greeted respectfully by the king. The acharya said, "I am going to Gurjardesh after staying in Dharanagari. If the people there show the desire to know about Dharanagari, what should I tell them?" The king described the greatness of his kingdom and said, "We have hundreds of industrial activities here and military bases. We have so many business centres and hundreds of shops in each one of them."
The acharya said, "Why so many different shops? Would the customers not be confused to see the same things in different shops?"
The King said, "Then what is to be done?"
The acharya said, "Turn them into one big shop. All things would then be available in a single shop at the same time."
The King said, "That would be real trouble. People would crowd in the same place and no work would be done."
The acharya said, "Then why are you thinking in terms of combining all the religious sects into one?"
The King said, "Religious sects have got to be one. When there is unity, mutual love can be developed. Otherwise, the poison of sectarianism would completely separate one religion from other religions."
The acharya said, "That would never be. When all people gather in the same place, tensions would grow. There would be no chance of understanding Truth and ideological differences would create a mental wall."
There is no diversity in the personal religion. Who could ever have different views with regard to religion based on forgiveness, truth, renunciation, simplicity and equality? But because people do not understand this reality, they give importance to sectarian religions "
Those who wish to pursue Truth should first evoke fearlessness. Now, people have generally come to believe that Truth cannot take them far. But I believe that with the pursuit of fearlessness and Truth, it is possible to bring satyug even in this kaliyug. But, for the one who see only blackness everywhere, every age is Kaliyuga.
It has been said in that scripture,[2] "You would hear something or the other in any of the directions."
There are always things to be seen and heard in the world. A person may live in absolute solitude, but he cannot but be influenced by the world so long as he does not realise Truth. In fact, Truth is all there, Truth alone is God. Only with such faith the individual can move in the direction of Truth. The person who is eager to unite with the ultimate reality, insists about nothing. His attention is always turned towards the soul. Not being insistent and diverting attention to the soul help him reach his destination.
