Tag Thought

What Is Truth Its Twelve Aspects Hinduism

Truth is generally believed to the understanding of a Fact , Event , reporting them.

The attributes of Reality are Truth Consciousness and Bliss, as enumerated in Indian Philosophy.other Religions , Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity,Judaism and Islam also speak of these as the Attributes of God, though by different names.

When one thinks of Truth, speaking what is, what is a Fact, is what one comes to one's Mind.

Life does not consist of only Speech.

One performs actions, which repeated become Habits, and then there is the Thought process.

Where do we find Truth in these and what are its characteristics?

Truth is perceived from the perspective of the individual.

Everyone looks at it or reports it from one's angle.

Then what is Truth?

Truth has many facets or perspectives which can be perceived and in fact is perceived to suit one's dispositions.

How does one find the attributes of Truth is all its glory?

Hinduism classifies Truth into Twelve Categories,Types.

This is explained in the Bruhat Purana.

They are:

1.Amityavada-Not speaking facts.

Here again there is a problem.

There are times when speaking the fact harms the speaker , the listener and those who are not involved in any way.

One can not afford to speak at all times to every one at any place.

There are instances when keeping quiet or divulging information in such a way that it does not hurt any one involved.

Tamil Saint Thiruvalluvar explains it eloquently .

'One has to speak the facts after evaluating the place where he is speaking, to whom he is speaking to, the time he is speaking about it'

'Even a Lie is considered as the Truth as That which does not cause harm anyone'

So speaking the fact is the first aspect of Truth with all the points mentioned here.

2.Sathyam.The Absolute Truth.If one were to report facts, it should be in its full form,; no partial understanding or reporting is enough.

We can see it in operation in our daily Life.

We say things about what has happened to suit our convenience.

Adi Shatakam Descartes Advaita

The essential difference between the philosophers of The East and The West lies in fact that while those in the East relie on Direct Experience more, while those of the West go through Reason(Rationalists)

True there are also philosophers called Empiricists, who rely on Empirical experience,starting from John Locke.

But their experience is limited to Experience as a Tool and not anything more.

In India the experience which the Philosophers speak of is the actual feeling of Oneness with the Reality.

In the sixteenth century there was a reassessment of Scientific thoughts and Philosophy.

Though most of the earlier thoughts of Socrates, Aristotle and Plato were accepted, the Philosophers wanted to reason them out.

Also there was the Church Dogma.

In came Rene Descartes,a Great Mathematicians(Nearly all great Philosophers were great Mathematicians too,Descartes, Locke, Leibniz,Spinoza, Pythagoras,Bertrand Russel).

He wanted to find the Truth of the origin of the World.

He started by questioning his beliefs, for , to him, they were planted in his Mind by others.

He tested the senses , found that they do not give out the facts exactly(ex.You dip your hands in cold water, then in hot water;the warm water takes more time to be felt as warm, similarly with Cold water:another instance he quotes is that of a Man with jaundice, for him the World is Yellow-which it is not).

Therefore he discounted the senses as well.

In the same vein he discounted and rejected all the sources of Knowledge.

Then he observes,

Cogito ergo sum (French: "Je pense donc je suis"; English: "I think, therefore I am")