Relative truth (Conv and Letters)

Expressions researched:
"relative truth" |"relative truths" |"truth within this material world is relative"

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Absolute Truth cannot be two. Then it is relative truth.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Now, the next verse, the Absolute Truth is explained, analyzed, vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam (SB 1.2.11). Now, Absolute Truth is always one. There is no... Absolute Truth cannot be two. Then it is relative truth. Absolute Truth means one. So the knowledge of the Absolute Truth is one.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Relative means you cannot understand anything without the other. That is called relative. Suppose if I say "good man," I cannot understand a good man without having another man, bad man. This is called relative truth.

Morning Walk -- April 29, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Like in chemistry, for example, the molecule of Benzine. So you present it just like six lines, but a hexagon figure with a circle inside, they condense a lot of information.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is a code, sūtra. But the chemical symbolic representation, that is understand by the specialist. But this sūtra can be understood by anyone. Just like athāto brahma jijñāsā. The meaning is: "Now, this is the time for inquiring about the Absolute Truth." So this is a question for everyone. Any intelligent man. Here we are understanding everything relatively. Relatively. Just like when I say: "Father," there must be one son... (break) ...truth, there must be one truth. In this way, this is, this world is relative truth.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Duality?

Prabhupāda: Dual... No, relative. Relative truth. You don't understand relative? Relative means you cannot understand anything without the other. That is called relative. Suppose if I say "good man," I cannot understand a good man without having another man, bad man. This is called relative truth. Is it clear or not?

Athāto brahma jijñāsā means we are now studying the relative truth. I'm studying black. You're studying white. He's studying another, another. In this way. Partial.

Morning Walk -- April 29, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So Brahman means bṛhattva, being the largest. The largest means it contains everything. Just like the sky. We have got the idea. The sky means it, it, it contains everything universal. This is the idea of greatest. So athāto brahma jijñāsā means we are now studying the relative truth. I'm studying black. You're studying white. He's studying another, another. In this way. Partial. But what is that biggest thing which includes everything? That is called brahma-jijñāsā, to inquire about that thing. Just like you are studying chemistry. We are studying Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But there is something which contains the chemistry, Kṛṣṇa consciousness and everything. That is called Brahman. Athāto brahma jijñāsā.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

We take knowledge from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is unconditioned.

Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 14, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: (loud waves) So we are conditioned. And still, we are searching out the truth. What is your truth? You are conditioned.

Bali Mardana: So they only end up with a conditioned truth, a relative truth.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The more you are not conditioned, the more your finding out truth is perfect. But it is not possible for you to become completely unconditioned. That is not possible. That is mukta puruṣa, liberated. Therefore we have to take knowledge from the person who is not conditioned. That is perfect knowledge. And one who is conditioned, what is the value of his giving knowledge? So therefore we don't accept any knowledge from the conditioned souls. Conditioned soul is imperfect by the four deficiencies. Bhrama, pramadā... He must commit mistake. So what is the value of his knowledge? There is no value. We take knowledge from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is unconditioned.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Truth is truth, not Indian truth or American truth. That is not truth. That is relative truth. The Absolute Truth is absolute.

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Professor: If Indian philosophy...

Prabhupāda: No, no, it is no Indian or American. It is the philosophy. It is philosophy. The philosophy is not Indian or American. Truth is truth, not Indian truth or American truth. That is not truth. That is relative truth. The Absolute Truth is absolute.

Bhāgavata says, satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi, the real truth, not this relative truth.

Room Conversation with Indian Scientists and Dr. Fenton, Professor of Religion at Emory University -- March 1, 1975, Atlanta (excerpt):

Prabhupāda: Therefore Bhāgavata says, satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi (SB 1.1.1), the real truth, not this relative truth. Satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi.

Indian man (1): Certainly I recognize that happiness does not come out of material prosperity. But material prosperity is also equally important for a good existence.

1947 to 1965 Correspondence

The relative truths are creations of the daivi maya qualified by the three modes of Nature. They are all insurmountable.

Letter to Mahatma Gandhi -- Cawnpore 12 July, 1947:

You must know that you are in the relative world which is called by the sages as Dvaita i.e. dual- and nothing is absolute here. Your Ahimsa is always followed by Himsa as the light is followed by darkness or the father is followed by the son. Nothing is absolute truth in this dual world. You did not know this neither you ever cared to know this from the right sources and therefore all your attempts to create unity were followed by disunity and Ahimsa. Ahimsa was followed by Himsa.

But it is better late than never. You must know now something about the Absolute Truth. The Truth with which you have been experimenting so long is relative. The relative truths are creations of the daivi maya qualified by the three modes of Nature. They are all insurmountable as is explained in the Bhagavad-gita (7.14). The Absolute Truth is the Absolute Godhead.

In the Katha Upanisad it is ordered that one must approach the bona fide Guru who is not only well versed in all the scriptures of the world but is also the realized soul in Brahman the Absolute—in order to learn the science of Absolute Truth. So also it is instructed in the Bhagavad-gita as follows:—

tad viddhi pranipatena

pariprasnena sevaya

upadeksyanti tad jnanam

jnaninas tattvadarsinah

(BG 4.34)

Truth means Absolute Truth. Relative truth is conditional and when the conditions fail, the relative truth disappears.

Letter to Jawaharlal Nehru -- Allahabad 20 January, 1952:

Truth means Absolute Truth. Relative truth is conditional and when the conditions fail, the relative truth disappears. But Absolute Truth does not exist on conditions it is above all conditions. So when we speak of truth, we may take it for the Absolute Truth. And when we speak of approaching the Truth by new ways, we may take it for granted what we want to approach the Truth by the inductive way.

Absolute Truth is described in the Vedas as Satyam Param Dhimahi—the summum bonum. And from this Absolute Truth everything emanates. "Janmadyasya yatah". This Absolute Truth is described in the Vedic literatures as Sanatana or Eternal. And the philosophy or science which deals in such eternal subjects is described as Sanatana Dharma.

Therefore, we have first to find out the Eternal Absolute Truth by some new ways(?) and then we have to find out the new aspects of Absolute Truth in harmony with our present environment.

People in the present age have no scope for high thinking because they are perplexed with different relative truths.

Letter to Jawaharlal Nehru -- Allahabad 20 January, 1952:

The present environment is undoubtedly different from the old. And if we compare the present with the old—we can very easily discover that

1. People in the present age are generally shortliving. The average duration of life being 30 years or so.

2. They are generally not very simple. Almost everyman is designing and crooked.

3. They have no scope for high thinking because they are perplexed with different relative truths.

4. Unfortunate as they are in this age their problems remain unsolved for the whole life even though they are tackled by their leaders. They make the best effort to solve a problem but unfortunately the same becomes more acute and stringent.

5. And above all, people in this age are always distressed by famine, scarcity, grieves and diseases in an increasing ratio.

In the old days life was not so much conditional and encumbered. The simple problems were then the problems of bread, clothing and shelter which were solved by the simplest process. By agriculture they used to solve the bread, clothing and shelter problems and industrialization was unknown to them. Thus they had no idea of living in big palatial buildings at the cost of sacrificing the boon of humanity. They were satisfied to live in the cottages and yet they were perfectly intelligent. Even the famous Canakya Pandit who was the Prime Minister of India during the reign of Candragupta, used to live in a cottage and draw no salary from the State. Such simple habits did not deteriorate his high intelligence and dignity and as such he had compiled many useful literatures which are still read by millions for social and political guidance. Thus the simplicity of Brahmanical culture was an ideal to the subordinate others of the society and in the Deductive way the subordinate orders, namely the the Ksatriyas, the Vaisyas and the Sudras would follow the instruction of the cultured Brahmin. Such ways of approaching the Truth is always simple, plain and perhaps the most perfect.

1969 Correspondence

In the material world there is the influence of past, present and future, and this past, present and future is a relative truth.

Letter to Charles McCollough -- Los Angeles 12 February, 1969:

Regarding your question about time, time is eternal, but in the spiritual world, there is no influence of time. In the material world there is the influence of past, present and future, and this past, present and future is a relative truth. This is because the past of one man is not the past of another; past, present and future are relative to the person, and there are different grades of persons. For example, Brahma's day is calculated as thousands of our years. In one day of Brahma there are millions of our pasts, presents, and futures. So this is all relativity, whereas in the spiritual world, there is no such relativity. Therefore, time has no such influence in the spiritual world.

1970 Correspondence

The truth within this material world is relative. The Absolute Truth is outside the relative world.

Letter to Robert, Karen -- Los Angeles 19 April, 1970:

The truth within this material world is relative. The Absolute Truth is outside the relative world. Just like when a child is born, he is relative—he is born by his father. Then you go on researching and you will find that his father is also born of his father and so on. In this way if we go on searching out the Absolute Truth, you will find Him, the Supreme Person, not imperson. Just like the child is a person, therefore the agent or the truth which begot the child is taken without any hesitation as a person. Therefore the Absolute Truth cannot be imperson—that is a fact.