From Absolute Truth

Contents 1 Absolute Truth 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Absolute vs Relative 1.3 Vedic conception of Absolute Truth 1.3.1 Pramanas - Vedic Epistemology 1.3.2 Hierarchy in realization of the Absolute 1.3.3 Is Absolute Truth personal or Impersonal 1.3.4 The concept of Bhagavan 1.4 References

Absolute Truth

Introduction

The material world is ever changing. Could the idea of an absolute truth be utopian?

The whole idea in philosophy is to reach the platform of knowing or perception of the Truth. But, at this point appears the famous One-Many problem of philosophy. How can we regard the truth? As a One or as a Many? Can everything be regarded as a unity, as a single unifying principle? Is the world a One or a Many? At one hand, the "diversity" is a fact of our experience. Anyone can perceive that there are many different kind of things and many different things. At the other hand, there is an innate tendency to reduce the world's diverse phenomena to a single basic kind or a single basic stuff. This is monism. There are also some arguments for monism: (1) ultimately everything in the world is related to everything else, the Absolute being the means of this relatedness; (2) any two things are, in a sense, the same, etc. The characteristic feature is the breaking down of distinctions.

Absolute vs Relative

As the word signifies anything can be truth within its limited jurisdiction. Like if I say the climate is cold, its only cold to me and not to my friend. Wheras if I say the sun rises in the east it is true for all inhabitants of the earth but maynot be for someone from other planet. So what is absolute.? In general, absolute truth is whatever is always valid, regardless of parameters or context. The absolute in the term connotes one or more of: a quality of truth that cannot be exceeded; complete truth; unvarying and permanent truth. It can be contrasted to relative truth or truth in a more ordinary sense in which a degree of relativity is implied.

• In philosophy, absolute truth generally states what is essential rather than superficial - a description of the Ideal (to use Plato's concept) rather than the merely "real" (which Plato sees as a shadow of the Ideal). Among some religious groups this term is used to describe the source of or authority for a given faith or set of beliefs, such as the Bible or Bhagavad Gita.

• In science, doubt has been cast on the notion of absolutes by theories such as relativity and quantum mechanics . Attempts to tie together all the known facts about the universe into a single unified theory (one example is string theory ) could be seen as efforts to discover absolute truth about this set of facts. Eienstien has incorporated this concept in his general relativity theory.

• In pure mathematics , however, there is said to be a proof for the existence of absolute truth. A common tactic in mathematical proofs is the use of reductio ad absurdum , in which the statement to be proved is denied as a premise, and then that premise is shown to lead to a contradiction. When it can be demonstrated that the negation of a statement leads to a contradiction, then the original statement is proved true.

The logical proof of the statement, "There exists an absolute truth," is almost trivial in its simplicity. Suppose we assert the negation of the statement, that is, that there is no such thing as absolute truth. By making that assertion, we claim that the sentence "There exists no absolute truth" is absolutely true. The statement is self-contradictory, so its negation, "There exists an absolute truth," is true.

Vedic conception of Absolute Truth

The Supreme Absolute Truth is defined by the invocation mantra of the Iso-Upanishad as The Absolute Truth is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.

Pramanas - Vedic Epistemology

According to the Vedic conception, there are three sources of knowledge (pramanas): perception, inference and testimony. Yet, in essence, the process of knowing is of two kinds: (1) rational and (2) intuitive. In rational thinking or inference, a thought is built up from simpler thoughts, which are in turn built up from still simpler thoughts. In Sanskrit inference is called anumana. This anumana is analyzed thoroughly in Nyaya. Aristotle also investigated systematically the principles of inference or logic in his work called "Organon." He realized that ultimately logic is only a tool (organon means instrument in Greek), a technique of a correct discourse. The reasoning can be analyzed into units of reasoning, called arguments. An argument is composed of at least two statements, one of which (the conclusion) is claimed to follow necessarily from the other statement or statements (the premise or premises). The premises must be logically connected with the conclusion, in other words, the argument is valid if it has a logical form. If the logical form is followed and the premises are true the conclusion is true with certitude. But, in fact, the deductive argument has nothing new to say. The truth found in the conclusion exists already in the premises. The conclusion is tautological. In Logic the only concern is to establish the correctness of the formalism.

On the contrary, the intuition is concerned to establish or recognize the truth. Intuition is a vision (the word comes from the Latin tueri = to see), a process of knowing the truth. In Sanskrit, the term Veda denotes "that which is known", comes from the root vid, "to know." This root is a cognate of the Latin vid, which means "to see," as in the word video. As a matter of fact, the Vedas have been "heard" or "seen" through a kind of 'internal television,' an intuitive process.

Hierarchy in realization of the Absolute

This is described in the Vedic text known as Bhagavata Purana 1.2.11 as follows:

vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam yaj jnanam advayam brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabdyate

The Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding by the knower of the Absolute Truth, and all of them are identical. Such phases of the Absolute Truth are expressed as Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan.

These three features, known technically as Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan can be understood as follows.Brahman is the all-pervasive impersonal form of God or the Absolute Truth which is formless and devoid of any attributes; Paramatma is the localized form of God within the heart of every living entity; and Bhagavan is the personal form of God who resides in His spiritual abode with all name, form and attributes.

Is Absolute Truth personal or Impersonal

There are many school of thought in Vedantic tradition the principal one's are advaita, dvaita and acintya-bheda-abheda schools they emphasize on the Brahman only, Paramatma only and Bhagavan as the absolute truth respectively.

The Absolute Truth, abstracted from His personality, is sometimes understood as the perfect source of all existence, one without a second. This view, taught in the Vedic Upanishads, appeals to philosophers who prefer the truth to remain impersonal. The same Supreme is conceived as nothing more than the creator of this world by those who cannot imagine God as having more important activities of His own. And the same Supreme, as Lord Narayana (Vishnu) in the infinite spiritual world, is the object of worship for devotees in awe of His supremacy.

When one perceives the Absolute Truth vaguely, having approached Him too distantly to discern His distinctive qualities—His transcendental bodily form and His personal character and powers—one identifies Him impersonally as the perfect existence of pure consciousness. This level of realization is taught in the Upanishads, the special portion of the Vedas that are their philosophical culmination (Vedänta). In the Upanishads (Taittiriya 2.1, Katha 6.13) we find such statements as satyam jnyanam anantam brahma (The Absolute Truth is real existence and consciousness, unlimited) and astity evopalabdhavyah (One can know it only to the extent of saying ‘It exists’ ). In this way the Vedas provide an impersonal understanding of the Supreme.

Ultimately, however, the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person who shares intimate loving exchanges with the best of His devotees, accepting roles in which He is equal and even subordinate to them. Only devotees who have taken shelter of Him in His original, most confidential form can experience such pure love. The Acintya-bheda-abheda of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu being the most perfect understanding of the absolute truth where the Supreme Person is regarded as the one who has the other two features namely Brahman and Paramatma as a inferior features of absolute whole. Srila Prabhupada one of the contemporary proponents of Acintya-bheda-abheda explains as follows:

These three divine aspects can be explained by the example of the sun, which also has three different aspects, namely the sunshine, the sun's surface and the sun planet itself. One who studies the sunshine only is the preliminary student. One who understands the sun's surface is further advanced. And one who can enter into the sun planet is the highest. Ordinary students who are satisfied by simply understanding the sunshine-its universal pervasiveness and the glaring effulgence of its impersonal nature-may be compared to those who can realize only the Brahman feature of the Absolute Truth. The student who has advanced still further can know the sun disc, which is compared to knowledge of the Paramatma feature of the Absolute Truth. And the student who can enter into the heart of the sun planet is compared to those who realize the personal features of the Supreme Absolute Truth.

The concept of Bhagavan

Those empowered with the vision of pure devotion, however, can also perceive in the statements of the Upanishads the personality of the Supreme. In fact the Upanishads enumerate many qualities of the Absolute Truth that it could not have if it were purely impersonal. The Taittiriya Upanishad, for example, follows the above utterance that Brahman is “real existence and consciousness, unlimited” with a detailed description of Brahman as ananda-maya (ecstatic) and as rasa (the taste of personal reciprocations). Raso vai sah, rasam hi ayam labdhvanandi bhavati: “He is the reservoir of pleasure, and one who realizes Him as rasa also becomes ecstatic.” (Taittiriya Upanishad 2.7)

God is one. And according to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that one God is Krishna, the cowherd boy of Våndävana, who chooses to expand Himself unlimitedly and still remain the same one Supreme Person, just to increase His own pleasure. Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.3.28) designates this original Godhead as svayam bhagavan:

ete camsa kala pumasam krishnas tu bhagavan svayam 1.3.28

“All the expanded incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Krishna is the original Personality of Godhead.”

So to conclude in the words of Srila Prabhupada: The Absolute Truth is true for everyone, and the relative truth is relative to a particular position. The relative truth depends on the Absolute Truth, which is the summum bonum. God is the Absolute Truth, and the material world is relative truth. Because the material world is God's energy, it appears to be real or true, just as the reflection of the sun in water emits some light. That reflection is not absolute, and as soon as the sun sets, that light will disappear. Since relative truth is a reflection of the Absolute Truth, Srimad Bhagavatam states: satyam param dhimahi.1.1.1 The Absolute Truth is Krsna, Vasudeva. Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. This cosmic manifestation is relative truth; it is a manifestation of Krsna's external energy. If Krsna withdrew His energy, the universal creation would not exist. In another sense, Krsna and Krsna's energy are not different. We cannot separate heat from fire; heat is also fire, yet heat is not fire. This is the position of relative truth. As soon as we experience heat, we understand that there is fire. Yet we cannot say that heat is fire. Relative truth is like heat because it stands on the strength of the Absolute Truth, just as heat stands on the strength of fire. Because the Absolute is true, relative truth also appears to be true, although it has no independent existence. A mirage appears to be water because in actuality there is such a thing as water. Similarly, this material world appears attractive because there is an all-attractive spiritual world.

References

1. Vedantic conception of Absolute_Truth.