“Seek truth in meditation, not in mouldy books. Look in the sky to find the moon, not in the pond.”
– Persian proverb
Wouldn’t we all like to know the truth? Not just the relative truth about who pulled the trigger, what causes hay fever, or is the earth really flat – but the absolute Truth of all existence.
We have looked around all our lives and drunk deep of outer world experiences. We have joined with science in its admirable struggle to discover truth in the material universe, and while making wonderful progress in our understanding of how cicadas ‘sing’ and what induces magnetic polarity to switch, still we are no closer to knowing who we are, where we have come from, or where we are ultimately headed.
We all somehow sense that there is such a thing as Absolute Truth, this Absolute Truth is attainable, we must be part of it, and it must be within us. So to find it, the only truly reliable place to seek must be within our own consciousness, beyond the boundaries of our present knowledge and the mechanisms of our present way of knowing.
Indeed, the quenchless thirst for Truth is one of the oldest, most compelling motivating forces drawing us into meditation and the spiritual life.
We – and the Truth we embody – are infinite. The Infinite can never be grasped by our limited, limiting and ever-changeable minds. While our mind lunges at truth, our heart embraces and reveals truth. While our mind’s speculative theories constantly change, our heart’s oneness with peace, love and joy ever deepens, expands and radiates.
Sri Chinmoy answers our eternal question perfectly and poetically:
“O Lord, where is the Truth?
‘Where your Beloved is.’
Who is my Beloved, Who?
‘In Whom your life is Peace.’”