Talks Excerpt 449. Swamiji says: All originates from truth; everything. There is nothing greater than the truth.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
The Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.6 proclaims that truth alone triumphs – ‘Satyam eva jayate.’ Truth always triumphs. Although untruth gives you a little sense pleasure for a time in the end that untruth will perish. The divine path, the life of spiritual striving, is paved with truth. The same Upanishad says that the Atman can be realised only through truth and tapasya [austerity].
In the Puranas we hear beautiful stories illustrating the greatness of truth. The exemplary characters of the Puranas are those who have given up everything for the sake of truth. Take King Harishchandra for instance. He gives up his wife and only child and he himself becomes the servant of a chandala in order to keep his word.
Mahabali is another hero who lost everything for the sake of truth. He even disobeyed his guru to keep the word he had given to Vamana. Thereby he received the blessings of Lord Vishnu who came as Vamana. He tested Mahabali in many ways. In spite of all the humiliations he had to undergo, Mahabali did not give up his truthfulness. By adherence to truth he conquered maya, so the Lord blessed him with the highest [moksha] – something which is not even attained by the gods.
In the Ramayana we see Sri Rama, the very embodiment of truth, saying that Truth is the Lord of the world. Prosperity depends on truth. All originates from truth; everything. There is nothing greater than the truth. Again he says that the whole world is established in truth.
Righteousness and truth are the greatest pillars on which the universe rests. Mahabali was given the highest truth, the highest goal, and that was Self-realisation.
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These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.