I recently touched on the idea of God as Truth in my contemplation God as a Verb, as well as briefly mentioning it in another article or two.
But I was first introduced to the idea of God as Truth some years ago in my studies, and though at the moment I don’t recall exactly where, I believe it may have been in The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit Conditions Methods
“Truth is eternal, and therefore divine; thus the quest for Truth is, in fact, a spiritual one.”
(I’m in the process of re-reading this amazing book, and hope to find the exact passage in there somewhere, in which case I’ll updated this article).
And now, I’m currently reading M. K. Gandhi’s Autobiography, The Story Of My Experiments With Truth, and early on I’ve again come across the idea of God as Truth:
But for me, truth is the sovereign principle, which includes numerous other principles. This truth is not only truthfulness in word, but truthfulness in thought also, and not only the relative truth of our conception, but the Absolute Truth, the Eternal Principle, that is God. There are innumerable definitions of God, because His manifestations are innumerable. They overwhelm me with wonder and awe and for a moment stun me. But I worship God as Truth only.
Gandhi also published a book entitled Truth Is God, which I have found enlightening. Here’s the book description on Amazon:
“Truth is God—nothing else, nothing less… The nearest word answering to Truth in Sanskrit is Sat. Sat means ‘being’. God alone is Sat. He alone is; nothing and no one else is. Everything else is illusion. Satya means sat. Truth alone is in the world, nothing else is. This is easy enough to understand. Then what is truth? For us it is a relative term. Absolute Truth is God. Whatever we understand by God is implied in Truth…. It alone really sustains us. For a time many other things may sustain us, but this alone sustains us for all time. Truth gives perennial joy. In Sanskrit we have the word Sat, Chit, Ananda. It is a fine combination. The three together make one word. Truth is knowledge also. It is life. You feel vitality in you when you have got Truth in you. Again it gives bliss. It is a permanent thing of which you cannot be robbed. You may be sent to the gallows, or put to torture; but if you have Truth in you, you will experience an inner joy.
And Gandhi opens the book with the following note to the reader:
I would like to say to the diligent reader of my writings and to others who are interested in them that I am not at all concerned with appearing to be consistent. In my search after Truth I have discarded many ideas and learnt many new things. Old as I am in age, I have no feeling that I have ceased to grow inwardly or that my growth will stop at the dissolution of the flesh. What I am concerned with is my readiness to obey the call of Truth, my God, from moment to moment, and therefore, when anybody finds any inconsistency between any two writings of mine, if he has still faith in my sanity, he would do well to choose the later of the two on the same subject.
In chapter 4, entitled Truth is God, he states:
“Deep down in me I used to say that though God may be Love, God is Truth, above all. If it is possible for the human tongue to give the fullest description of God, I have come to the conclusion that for myself, God is Truth. But two years ago I went a step further and said that Truth is God. You will see the fine distinction between the two statements, [namely] that God is Truth and Truth is God. And I came to that conclusion after a continuous and relentless search after Truth which began nearly fifty years ago.”
And then in chapter 10, God realization:
“My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than Truth.”
And in chapter 11, The Path of Ahimsa:
“Whatever difficulties we encounter, whatever apparent reverses we sustain, we may not give up the quest for Truth which alone is, being God Himself.”
And as a syncretistSyncretism:
The merging or assimilation of several different traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting an underlying unity; the reconciliation or fusion of differing systems of belief such as in philosophy or religion., I also found the article Truth is God on the Tatta Gyan website interesting, as it not only conveys the idea of God as Truth, but that anyone who holds a single, rigid view of God is “deluded because he has fixed opinion only, he is narrow minded, he is not able to understand any principle from others point of view.”
Here’s a few relevant passages:
“…different philosophers have different views on how is that Paramatma, what is his nature?
“Conversely, Anekantavadi is very tolerant and liberal – he sees the things as they are – is ready to listen and understand all sides because for him truth only is God.”
“One who believes in one view only is deluded because he has fixed opinion only, he is narrow minded, he is not able to understand any principle from others point of view. He becomes so much self-opinionated and prejudiced that left alone he does not want to understand others opinion; he does not even want to listen.”
And finally, back to The Intellectual Life by :
“Intelligence only plays its part fully when it fulfills a religious function, that is, when it worships the supreme Truth in its minor and scattered appearances. Each truth is a fragment which does not stand alone but reveals connections on every side. Truth in itself is one, and the Truth is God.”
“We are taught to live in the presence of God; can we not also live in the presence of truth? Truth is, as it were, the special divinity of the thinker.”
Conclusion
I’ve never conceptualized God as a deity, so discovering an acceptable (and, frankly, credible) conceptualization of God has been a lifelong quest, and I am increasingly coming to believe that God is Truth; or rather, Truth is God—just as God is a verb, and true religion is found in living and doing, and in self-mastery, and in espousing non-violence. And dovetailing with my quest of seeking, discovering, assimilating, and disseminating Truth is action based on Truth and the anticipated consequences thereof—or cause and effect.
So perhaps I’m getting there: God, being omnipotent, is both a noun (Truth, in all forms), and a verb (Love, expressed via non-egocentric living and non-violence)…
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