“Is a fact equivalent to truth?”

Extract from the interview of Justice M.N Venkatachaliah “Evolution of Law & Judicial system”

In the Mahabharatha, there is an episode. Jignasu goes to his Brahimin teacher and asks him “is a fact equivalent to truth? A factual incident, does it qualify itself to be truth?’” The master says “I can’t answer this. The only man who can answer you is Dharmavyadha, (seller of meat), who administers Law in the jungle. You go to him“.

Then when Jignashu goes there, Dharmavyadha says “a factual event is not necessarily by itself equivalent to truth. For an event/fact to qualify itself to be called the truth, it must possess one quality. It must be tested on the touchstone of Dharma. There is no absolute truth. What you perceive as truth can be a falsehood unless you test it on the touchstone of Dharma. Truth contains one component; factual existence of a thing. That by itself does not culminate in its ascending to the level of truth”.

The whole story of Mahabharatha is an illustration of relative value of the truth and what is Dharma and what is Adharma. When the war was over. When Bheemasena won by violating rule of war, Yudhishtir says “ I don’t want this victory. I don’t want this kind of kingdom. It is all won by deceit” . The answer Krishna gives is the most beautiful thing. “It’s not your kingdom or your life. It’s that of society. How does it survive?”

These are things which are perpetual enigmas there is lot of subjective element in resolving this. You can’t get over it. This is the reason why proper education, cultivation of values within yourself is the most important thing. These are eternally relative. To say Satyam, Sivam, Sundaram is alright. Truth, beauty and goodness are ideals towards which we go by process of approximation. It’s an ever receding boundary. As you advance, it goes back.

Alfred whitehead says ‘growth of knowledge without a corresponding growth of wisdom, is a true recipe for disaster’. What is right wisdom? If you make darkness as your light and evil your good where do we go?

Ultimately the test is Atmasanthushti.   

Compiled by S. Basavaraj, Advocate, Daksha Legal, Bengaluru