Speaking the Truth

A believer in God is also necessarily a truth-loving person. He always speaks the truth. In all matters he says just what is in accordance with reality. A true believer cannot afford to tell lies, or hide facts. What does it mean to speak the truth? It is to have no contradiction between man’s knowledge and the words that he utters and for that matter; whatever he says should be what has come to his knowledge. Falsehood, by contrast, is the utterance of statements, which do not tally with knowledge. Truth is the highest virtue of a believer’s character. A believer is a man of principle. And for such a person telling the truth is paramount. For him no other behaviour is possible, for he finds it impossible to deny the truth. The world of God is based wholly on truth. Here everything expresses itself in its real form. The sun, the moon, rivers, mountains, stars and planets are all based on truth. They appear just as they really are. In this unfathomably vast universe of God nothing is based on untruth. There is nothing which shows itself in any form other than its real form. This is the character of nature, which is spread out on a universal scale. A believer too has exactly the same character. He is totally free from falsehood or double¬-standards. A believer is all truth. His whole existence is moulded to truth. From the very first he appears to be a true person both inside and out. Speaking the truth is not only a matter of policy for the believer: it is his very religion. Compromising in the matter of truth is not possible for him. He speaks the truth as he cannot live without doing so. He speaks the truth because he knows that not speaking the truth is the negation of his own personality and commitment to something, which is the negation of the self, is not possible for any worthy person.