Truth: A Study
If a man does not discover the truth in its absolute sense, by his very nature, he will continuously pursue his search until he finds the absolute truth.
Some people argue that there is nothing like Absolute Truth. Everything is relative, they say. Every claim to truth is socially constructed. They claim that truth is subjective, i.e., each person has his own truth. Something that appears true to one person need not be accurate for someone else. In other words, they argue that truth is something relative; it is not something real. One can put it thus: ‘There is no full stop in truth, only commas.’
This way of thinking is entirely erroneous. There are no logical or rational grounds for this sort of hypothesis. In this world, everything that man accepts, he does so in an absolute sense. It is the way human nature is. If man does not discover something in its absolute sense, he continuously pursues his search until he finds it. For example, in ancient times, man knew little about the sun and the solar system. Nevertheless, he sought to investigate these phenomena for thousands of years until he finally discovered their reality. He remained continuously engaged in this search until he arrived at this discovery.
The same happens in all other fields of knowledge, too. For thousands of years, man was engrossed in research in different areas and is still thus engaged. He keeps up his research as long as he does not discover the reality of something that he seeks to know. In other words, everything has a final form for man—from the stars to the atom, nothing is an exception to this rule.
In man’s mind, it is as if everything has an absolute character. This certainty is based on curiosity and research that has continued for thousands of years. Therefore, if man starts to believe that things do not have a final form, all scientific activities will halt, and the journey of knowledge will permanently end.
The very same principle is at work in our personal affairs as well. Man considers himself an absolute being. He cannot remain alive even for a single day if he does not think so. Similarly, a person considers his mother, wife, and children absolute. The system of family life is based on this conception. If this were not so, the whole of human life would disintegrate. Likewise, man also considers his property—his house, business, and bank balance—absolute. He could not manage his economic affairs if he did not regard them this way.
In this situation, to believe that truth is not absolute is to think that truth is an exception to what is a general rule. It would be as if, in an absolute world, the status of truth is that of an exceptional non-absolute! There is no logical basis for this utterly absurd belief. It would be incomprehensible that every other thing has an absolute reality in this vast world, but truth alone is non-absolute, being the sole exception. It is a logical inconsistency that any intelligent person cannot accept.
It is no minor matter. If one reflects deeply, one will find that man is a dual being—consisting of body and soul. Other than truth, all things that are a part of human life are connected with man’s bodily needs. Truth is what is desirable at the level of man’s spiritual needs. It would be incomprehensible if one were to say, that the things needed to fulfill man’s physical requirements are all absolute, but the truth, which meets man’s spiritual needs, is non-absolute in character.
To accept this sort of division, one would have to believe that a vast contradiction is present in this world—that here, the things we require for our physical needs are present in an absolute sense, but what we need for the satisfaction of our spiritual needs—The Truth—is the only thing that does not have an absolute character.
Truth is man’s greatest need. Without truth, man is incomplete. Truth is such a basic need for man that even if truth was not absolute, we would have to pretend that it was so. The fact of the matter is that not accepting the truth as an absolute is intellectual suicide.
To not believe in absolute truth is like someone saying that he does not accept his mother as his mother in the absolute sense. In other words, he might say, “It may be that she is my mother, but it may also be that she is not.” No serious person can tolerate this concept of non-absolutism. In the same way, a serious person cannot accept to say that to him; the truth is not absolute but merely relative. That is to say, that A can be confirmed and B, too, and C as well, all the way up to Z! It may be equally true that from A to Z, everything is utterly false and that there is no such thing as truth! No serious person can accept this absurd intellectual jugglery.
A serious person searching for the truth can honestly admit, “I have not yet found the truth. I am presently only a seeker.” However, no serious and sane person can say that truth is not something absolute and that there is nothing like Absolute Truth.
Every single thing in the universe in which man lives is absolute. So, a star is a star; it is not an elephant. An elephant is an elephant, not a star. Likewise, everything is, in a known sense, an absolute thing. Moreover, if anything has not been known in an absolute sense, then man continuously tries to discover it in the absolute sense.
The same thing applies to man’s personality. By his very nature, man desires the absolute. He wants to live in certainty. He wants that when he knows a woman is his mother, he should know this fact as certainty. In the same way, when he knows a house is his house, he wants to feel sure that it is indeed his. If this were not the case, man would be uncertain about everything in life. Moreover, it is a fact that man cannot live very long and be at peace in the face of uncertainty.
These facts clearly show that the concept of the absolute is entirely in accordance with man’s nature. Contrary to this, thinking that nothing in this world has an absolute character or reality goes against the basic demands of man’s nature.
To believe the truth to be non-absolute or relative is like saying that one does not believe anything to be true. Such a belief can only make someone a sceptic, but that is not the recipe for a successful life.
