AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

The subject of my post is “THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE”. A little unusual subject, this is. Once you read me full, I strongly feel that you will find it relevant. You will see the line, THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE, in Bible in the New Testament under John, Chapter 8 Verse 32. Upon the question of his identity, to the Jews, Jesus uttered these words. The full sentence was; “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”. It was his reassurance to an audience who doubted him. In ancient India too, there was a very strong allegiance to truth. In BC 250, in Saranath, King Ashoka engraved these words on the Lion statue that he had erected. It said, SATYMEVA JAYATE, which meant ‘Truth alone Triumphs’. Today, for us Indians, it is our national motto. All of us have heard of Mahatma Gandhi and his pursuit of truth. His autobiography is titled, MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH. For the father of the nation, only truth was the ultimate. He lived the life of truth and he gave us a strong value system, something very eternal, very sublime and very everlasting. I am a Rotarian for the last 14 years. My association with the Rotary movement began just along with the beginning of my entrepreneurial days. What attracted me the best in Rotary was the 4 way test. And it said that in whatever things we think, say or do, please ask: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendship? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? What noble thought s indeed! I had never seen such a practical wisdom anywhere. But how many Rotarians had internalized these words and follow it in their thoughts, words or deeds? Incidentally, it was Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor, Rotary International President in 1954-55, who coined the 4 way test. During a business crisis in 1932, he wrote the Four Way Test as described above. It was adopted as part of Rotary International in January of 1943.Actually he wrote these tenets when he was undergoing a crisis? He used the 4 way test to overcome his crisis. Today whenever crisis comes to us, we set aside the truth and the ethics! We now see lots of untruths around us. We see people, societies, companies, and groups indulging in acts and deeds that are far from the truth. Our aspirations, our ego and our greed are pushing us away from the truth. Many a time, we are forced to think, is there truth at all? We, therefore, feel that things have come to pass and truth is unnecessary. But whenever things have come to pass, truth had prevailed and truth had triumphed. You have seen companies such as Enron, WorldCom, Satyam, Baring Bank, Lehman Brothers etc. withering away when there was no truth in their existence. We have seen many greedy organizations and individuals going down when they deserted the truth. Progress without truth is a mirage. Whatever you see in a mirage is unreal, it doesn’t exist and therefore, it is untruth. Then, what is truth? Many of us tend to believe that whatever we perceive is truth. Is perception the truth? One’s perception is whatever one believes. This need not necessarily be what others see. You know the story of the definition of an elephant by a group of blind persons. One said elephant is a trunk, the other said it is a stump and the third said it is a tusk and so on. Perception is what you see and what you feel. Many times, perception is far from the truth. A rose flower to some would be the smell that it delivers; it would be the beauty of its color to someone. To a cat, it could be the thrones and for the bees, the rose flower may be the nectar it gives. So, the rose flower is many things to many beings. Each one’s perception of rose flower is different. So, what is the truth of a rose flower? Great Western thinker Immanuel Kant said truth is whatever that is felt by a being about itself. So truth of a rose is what the rose feels about it. Simply said, truth is the DNA of the things. It is the core of whatever. It really needs some good understanding to understand the truth. It is important for us to have a value system. It shows our character. Values lead us in our life. In addition to truth; ethics, morale, and other value systems such as love, compassion, charity, harmony, dharma, peace, happiness etc .give a purpose to life. People who lived their life with these value systems are everlastingly remembered. There are so many examples to show. Socrates, Lincoln, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, many wonderful, truthful leaders! Let us come to leadership. Leadership has many attributes combined. Leadership can be defined by the excellence in you, it can also be the quality that you show and it is about the progress that you are capable of making. It is the mentoring, fostering and coaching that you are capable of. There are so many attributes to leadership. But more than any of the attributes mentioned above, Leadership depends largely on the attribute of principles. And it is the principles that make a true leader. Principles in you ensure that your name stays much beyond you going away from the face of earth. As in the case of Gandhi, Lincoln, Socrates and many like them. That brings me to Mahabharata. At the end of the war the five brothers along with Draupadi decide to leave the mother earth. They take their walk towards eternity. They are followed by a dog. Yudhishtir saw one by one behind him falling. It was Draupadi first and then Sahadev, Nakul, Arjun then Bheem. Only he and the dog were left, and they reach a plane that was waiting to take them to heaven. When the dog was not allowed to emplane, Yudhishtir refuses to board the plane and soon the dog take the shape of Yama, the king of life. He asks Yudhistir three questions before he is allowed to board the plane. One question was, “what accompanies death”? And Yudhishtir replied,” it is the fame”. Yes, it is the fame that accompanies a person’s death. Now it is up to us to find what fame we want to leave behind. Fame is called Prassidhi in Sanskrit. It is up to you to have Suprassidhi (Positive fame) or Kuprassidhi (Bad, negative fame). The famous psychologist, Abraham Maslow, through his theory of the Hierarchy of Needs, gives us an excellent growth profile of every man. In the beginning, the man is only worried about subsistence and once that is taken care of, it is the security of life that he is bothered about. Once that is taken care of, it is his need of being part of a society and thereafter, he looks for recognitions and finally, every one of us comes to the need of self actualization. Self-actualization or atmasashatkaram, allows you to do what you always wanted to do. And enjoying whatever you do. It could be anything. It could be social service, it could be mentoring youngsters. It could be spirituality; it could be travelling…… whatever it is. It is what you enjoy. By doing so, you derive your bliss and e by virtue of it, your moksha. And when we attain our moksha and leave the face of the earth, it is all about the fame that we leave behind. When others speak about it, even when we are not around, we would want them to speak good about us. And if that has to happen, we need to ensure that we lived a principle centered life in the earth, thru which we had added value to society, and left behind the fame. Among all the qualities, the only quality that can give us the highest fame is TRUTH. And the truth allows us to attain our moksha that is all about setting us free. And here is wishing you all that bliss, that moksha, thru the Truth.