Law of Truth

One of the axioms of religion is, there is no religion other than truth. Another is, religion is love. And as there can be only one religion, it follows that truth is love and love is truth. We shall find too, on further reflection, that conduct based on truth is impossible without love. Truth-force then is love-force. We cannot remedy evil by harbouring ill will against the evil-doer. This is not difficult of comprehension. It is easy enough to understand.
In thousands of our acts, the propelling power is truth or love. And we therefore consciously or unconsciously apply truth in regulating these relations. If we were to cast a retrospective glance over our past life, we would find that out of a thousand acts affecting our families, in nine hundred and ninety-nine we were dominated by truth and that in our deeds, it is not right to say we generally resort to untruth or ill will.

It is only where a conflict of interests arises that there arise the progeny of untruth, namely, anger and ill will, and then we see nothing but poison in our midst. A little thinking will show us that the standard that we apply to the regulation of domestic relations between rulers and the ruled, and between man and man is based on truth.

Those men and women who do not recognize the domestic ties are considered brutes or barbarous, even though they are human. They have never known the law of truth. Those who recognize domestic ties and its obligations have to a certain extent gone beyond that brute stage. However, if they are challenged, they would only prioritize family interest and care for nothing else in the world. The measure of their truth, therefore, is less than that of a drop in the ocean.

When men and women have gone a stage further, they would extend the law of love from the family to the village. A still further stage away from the brute life is reached when the law of truth is applied to provincial life, and the people inhabiting a province regulate their relations by love rather than hatred.

In modern times, people cannot go beyond the nation stage in the application of truth. We are not free from the brute nature because we continue bearing ill towards other nations and show disregard for life, to that extent we disregard the law of truth. Still, truth is the only religion that enables us to rid ourselves of the brute nature. All religious sects and divisions, all churches and temples, are useful as long as they make us recognize the universality of truth.