Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, you said, facts are the great enablers to reach the Truth. Is not Truth in itself a fact?
Acharya Prashant (AP): (Shakes his head in denial)
Q: Cannot we see Truth as a fact?
AP: (Shakes his head in denial)
Q: I see it as the biggest fact.
AP: If you see it, it is not the Truth. Even to see the Truth you will have to be there. In Truth, only the Truth is. Therefore, you can have no relationship with the Truth. As long as you exist, your best and highest relationship can be with a fact, with Truth only annihilation or surrender is possible, absence is possible, relationship is not possible. You cannot find out the Truth; you cannot relate to the Truth; you cannot do anything with the Truth.
You and the Truth cannot coexist, so there is no relationship possible. But you are there, you are surely there as of now, in your own eyes, right? So, what is the best you can hope for? The best that you can currently hope for, as you are, is called a fact. And if you can give yourself the best that you can currently have, then you will have the next best thing on its own. That next best thing does not involve you; it rather involves your disappearance.
Truth is not a fact. Facts are with respect to you. Truth is when there is no ‘you’.
Q: Sir, I have to ask the question because there’s no way to put my views.
AP: Language is the way.
Q: I was absolutely silent, so being silent is also in itself a fact.
AP: Hmm. Silence of words is a fact, it can be expressed in language; facts can be expressed in language. When you say, “I am silent”, the ‘I am’ is still there, right? And not only is that ‘I am’ still there, the ‘I am’ is free not to be silent. Therefore, ‘I am silent’ is not an expression of Truth, it is just a fact. ‘I was silent’, in the physical sense, ‘for a period of two hours’, a fact, alright.
Truth does not involve any expression of ‘I am’; you cannot say, “I am with the Truth,” or “I am the Truth.”
When you cannot even say, “I am silent”, then there is just silence. As long as you are there to say, “I am silent”, there is a lot of noise. So, all these are facts; ‘I am silent’ is a fact, ‘he asked a question’ is a fact, ‘he’s wearing white’ is a fact, ‘he is reclining a bit’ is a fact.
Q: If I don’t ask a question, then what?
AP: Nothing.
Q: Is Truth a fact then if I don’t ask?
AP: Truth is. You keep doing whatever you want to; Truth is.
Q: When Truth is, then it’s a fact, right?
AP: Truth is, not to you; Truth is. Truth is, not to you. Truth is. Were the Truth to you, then the Truth would have been a fact. Therefore, personal truths are facts, and therefore they are not truths at all. There is something called the Truth and then there is 'my truth'. This ‘my truth’ is the truth to me, and therefore it is not truth at all. People come and say, “You know, there is your truth and there is my truth”, and when you say, “There is your truth and there is my truth and both are true in their own places”, then this is very very false nonsense, there is no truth in it. You will not be able to conceive it. If you are trying to imagine how a truth, sans you, would look or feel or taste or smell, you will fail. Don’t be puzzled.
Q: I’m not trying to picture anything.
AP: Just don’t do anything. Truth is already there, don’t be worried. Is there any fact that the mind cannot know of? Potentially the mind can know all facts; all facts are in the dimension of the mind, and all facts can be described using three-dimensional space geometry plus time. All facts can be described using a tri-dimensional geometry plus time. Truth cannot be described, that’s the difference.
The mind cannot know the Truth; the mind can know all facts, so the Truth is not a fact.
Do not even say that ‘the Truth is a universal fact’. Where the Truth is, there is no universe, so the Truth cannot be called ‘universal’.
The Truth is not a property of the universe; the universe is a bubble in the Truth.
Therefore, the question, ‘what is the Truth?’ can at best be a death hope. Do you see that? If you’re asking, “What is the Truth?” then what you’re saying is, “I want to be absent, I want to be gone”, because as long as you are there Truth can’t be. Truth is unknowable to the limited brain apparatus. So, anybody who comes and says, “What is the Truth?” is actually asking for death, true death, not the ordinary brain death.
Don’t be so interested in the Truth anyway. The moral of the story is – limit yourself to facts, for that is the best that you can know and that is sufficient. Do the best that you can do. What is the best you can do? Be fully conscious of the facts, and after that let the Truth do its own thing. We do not know what the Truth is; we do not know what it would do. You say you have done your best, and then as they say, ‘leave unto God the rest’.
