Truth Doesn't Assert Itself

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Q: Surely truth gives you the power to help others.

M: This is mere imagination, however noble!  In truth you do not help others, because there are no others. You divide people into noble and ignoble and you ask the noble to help the ignoble. You separate, you evaluate, you judge and condemn - in the name of truth you destroy it. Your very desire to formulate truth denies it, because it cannot be contained in words. Truth can be expressed only by the denial of the false - in action. For this you must see the false as false (viveka) and reject it (vairagya). Renunciation of the false is liberating and energizing. It lays open the road to perfection.

Q: When do I know that I have discovered truth?

M: When the idea 'this is true' does not arise. Truth does not assert itself, it is in the seeing the false as false and rejecting it. It is useless to search for Truth, when the mind is blind to the false. It must be purged of the false completely before Truth can dawn on it.

Q: But what is false?

M: Surely what has no being is false.

Q: What do you mean by having no being? The false is there - hard as a nail.

M: What contradicts itself, has no being. Or it has only momentary being, which comes to the same. For, what has a beginning and an end has no middle. It is hollow. It has only the name and shape given to it by the mind, but it has neither substance nor essence.

Q: If all that passes has no being, then the universe has no being either.

M: Who ever denies it? Of course the universe has no being.

Q: What has?

M: That which does not depend for its existence, which does not arise with the universe arising, nor set with the universe setting, which does not need any proof, but imparts reality to all it touches. It is the nature of the false that it appears real for a moment. One could say that the true becomes the father of the false. But the false is limited in time and space and is produced by circumstances.

Q: How am I to get rid of the false and secure the real?

M: To what purpose?

Q: In order to live a better, a more satisfactory life, integrated and happy.

M: Whatever is conceived by the mind must be false, for it is bound to be relative and limited. The real is inconceivable and cannot be harnessed to a purpose. It must be wanted for its own sake.

Q: How can I want the inconceivable?

M: What else is worth wanting? Granted, the real cannot be wanted, as a thing is wanted. But you can see the unreal as unreal and discard it. It is the discarding the false that opens the way to the true.

Q: I understand but how does it look in actual daily life?

M: Self-interest and self-concern are the focal points of the false. Your daily life vibrates between desire and fear. Watch it intently and you will see how the mind assumes innumerable names and shapes, like a river foaming between the boulders. Trace every action to its selfish motive and look at the motive intently till it dissolves.