When we shed body consciousness and identify ourselves as a soul, truth prevails

We all know that dishonesty is a part of life and the majority of us lie, cheat, and deceive not just to increase our gains but for a variety of reasons that relate as much to our own particular social and moral underpinnings as to the task at hand. A commonly accepted definition of the term lie is a false statement made by an individual who knows that the statement is not true. This definition emphasises the volitional nature of a lie, recognising that not only must the liar make a false statement, but that he/she must also know that the statement is indeed false.

Looking around would make us realise that we are living in a world where conditions are so fertile for falsehood to flourish that the very idea of truth is tainted. Isn’t it? One of the reasons for this is that it is easier to climb down the ladder of values than climb up. There are several versions in which falsehood breeds. Corruption is rampant in every sphere. To tackle this menace, the governments are installing and sharpening anti-corruption machinery. However, as we can see, corruption is growing like a chain reaction.

Anti-social elements find newer ways of perpetuating corruption. Similarly, to ensure a just society, parliaments keep making new laws while the judiciaries keep guard, pronouncing more landmark judgements. But with changing times, more and more unique cases of crime and dispute come up and the current measures of justice fall short hence the chain continues. To ensure equity, governments give special privileges to women, scheduled tribes, backward castes, and others. There is no end to this list as groups demanding special status due to discrimination in the past have been increasing instead of reducing and laws fail to strike at the notion of separateness that causes this division.

Thus the whole idea of fairness or equity keeps getting fainter. The criteria of a healthy society today, paradoxically, is the number of hospitals, which is false in its very sense, because more hospitals are an indicator of more illness and greater physical and mental distress. A major percentage of a country’s wealth that is spent in the name of security concerns proves the concept of security a sham because more and more sophisticated technologies are developed today to make weapons causing more destruction under the pretext of protection. It is a great irony of the age that while making weapons in the name of security, nations spread insecurity and hold to ransom the sea of humanity against which they may be used. In short, our every step towards progress is split and ends with several steps towards downfall. We fail to see that notions of equity, security, and peace have contradictory characteristics that perpetuate what they aim to restrain. 

The need of the hour is to view the current state of affairs in totality from a broader perspective. It is not the result of individual problems cropping up together at the same time. In reality, all this is an indicator of the fact that the present time is in a state of spiritual crisis where values of mercy, kindness, humility and love have been replaced by cruelty, aggression, dominance and hatred. Concepts of happiness, joy and peace have become false & faithfulness and loyalty have become dubious. Remember! there will be no end to falsehood unless its root cause i.e. the identification of self as the body is not removed. We must realise that the soul is eternal. In other words, it is the truth. The body is prone to destruction and is hence transient. When we shed body consciousness and identify ourselves as a soul, truth prevails and other constructions, which were built on faulty foundations, collapse automatically.

(The writer is a spiritual educator and popular columnist; views are personal)