Does Truth Matter

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Reality is mediated by language. Words, sentences, phrases, metaphors, symbols, myths crowd language in such a way that we are now beginning to suffer from language pollution. Does language express truth? This question cannot wait for an answer as Bacon’s Jesting Pilate did not wait for an answer to ‘What is Truth?’ Our teachers told us to speak truth. We interrogate people charged with crimes to speak the truth. Witnesses in court rooms take oath on the Gita or some such texts to speak the truth and nothing but truth. But truth is an elusive ‘substance’ which reveals the surface hiding the essence. The Greeks called truth a goddess who is always naked: whoever speaks truth puts on her the garb of his/her own imagination. The Indian sages said, Satyam Ekam, Biprah bahudha Badanti, that is truth is spoken by various voices of individual tone and tenor. Then what is this Truth we talk about? If truth is the being of a substance what is fact? If fact is the state of truth what is fact and why should the word exist if truth is the being? Well, such conflicting confusions abound if we try to know what is truth. History reveals that truth is searched for and worshipped but never practised except for those who prefer death to speaking falsehood.

Truth seldom gives joy. Those who adhere to truth suffer unspeakable agony. Ram, Harischandra and our Gandhi never experienced life as a joyous manifestation of being. They had everything but they had to suffer for the very truth which they wished to establish as the greatest value in creation. They believed that truth leads to God; truth validates life’s divinity; truth wards off all evil; truth ultimately triumphs over the illusion which prompts man to have recourse to falsehood. And this belief gives human beings the courage to accept suffering. But if a person suffers all his life why should he live for truth?

Truth, morality, righteousness, sacrifice, honesty are all interlinked. We see however those who practise the contrarian values- falsehood, immorality, depravity, selfishness ,dishonesty live in better houses, eat better food, enjoy better clout and are feared, if not adored or admired. Kings who are just, truthful and honest they lose their kingdoms in no time. We have seen in our lifetime the life led by Lal Bahadur Shastri, Guljarilal Nanda and their ilk. History hardly remembers them beyond a line or two in a text book. Politicians, who lie their way about, indulge in false propaganda against their adversaries flourish. An honest officer is hated by the common man for he is useless to them. He will not and cannot give them anything unless it is legitimate. He is not useful hence not harmful for only when someone is harmful he is useful. Human society does not thrive on truth values. A cheat has more friends than a man of principle. You may argue, ultimately he is caught by the long arms of law: but ultimately all of us will die. What matters is the quality of life in terms of comfort, power and influence.  What we call happiness, advancement in life and a sense of well being are all mundane values, and for these the so called higher values can be sacrificed. For atonement of ‘sins’ committed willfully we have Ganga, temples, donations and charitable work. You earn happy sobriquets like philanthropists, social workers and million others. But a truthful man earns enemies, poverty, suffering and failure.

Our ideal value is ‘Satyameva Jayate’ . Yes we accept the maxim. But who and how many believe it and how many live by it? People excel in falsehood. Most of our literature comprises imaginative lies. Love too is a great value but most lovers (of either sex) are sweet liars and noble cheats. Lawyers earn their livelihood by twisting and spinning falsehood in plausible rhetoric. Actors on stage live a lie truthfully. The saints sleep with the virgins to test the strength of their celibacy. Teachers speak ‘truth’ as they understand it. They run to the temples privately but publicly teach rationality. And the bureaucrats, politicians often are compulsive liars otherwise they cannot brainwash the gullible public. Parents lie to their children, wives resort to sexy lies to cover their blue stockings and writers, journalists, in fact all agents and instruments of civilization go off tangentially to be politically correct.

Who cares for truth then? But we can not say that truth seekers are liars? No that would be blasphemy. Truth is difficult to accept and practice. But those who live truthfully at least hold their heads high despite their lonely miseries. They prove the presence of divinity by their personal fire tests.

For You-

For You-

I will light candles

to dispel darkness

to greet you with pellucid light

shall pave the road

strewn with flowers of glory.

For You-

The world is wide open

the birds sing at morn

the flowers bloom and blossom

the orchestra plays

the symphony  of love  day and night.

For You-

My arms are open

my heart beats and blips

my mind functions

life flows with love.

For You-

The bridal chamber is ready

my poet I lay the table with

love beauty and fame:

never feel forsaken and alone

I’m always there here and hereafter.

Sabita Sahu

Setting Sail

The fleet of my heart is scattered
some way-lost, some under the sea.

I have no boats to sail
the sea is frozen...
Will Prometheus get the fire again-
What  a thought!!
Where is fire in heaven,
and what will I do with it?
To fire my spirit
to warm up the world again
I have wasted my years
in mindless non-existence.

He would come with
light, hope and love
but how long should I wait
let me ignite my remnant soul
and go in search of him
burning the sea again
with my swimming strokes.

Sabita Sahu

Choice

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Democracies ensure that the ‘right to choose’ of an individual is to be protected by all means. This choice is however limited to national choice or social choice. One may choose one particular political party or candidate without intimidation. One may go to a temple or church to get married or can go to the Marriage Registration Court and get married legally. The state cannot compel him to go to a particular temple or church nor can it compel the individual to go in for a court marriage. Whom to marry, when and where, however is entirely left to the individual. But choice is not limited to the elections or marriages: it is mainly the individual’s prerogative to choose his being. W.H. Auden had already asserted: if we choose to die it does not matter, let’s start dying soon. And if we choose to live, it does not matter again, let us start living soon. But choice is not so simple as it is made out to be. Life and death are binaries and the contrast is so obvious that choice appears to be almost a naivety. But one who chooses life knows how difficult it is to exercise a choice. And he who chooses death also confronts million challenges to his being.

Choice has now become an existential term. Soren  kierkegaard has made ‘choice’ an oft discussed word in the existential vocabulary. Choice validates life especially of an individual. At the national level too a different validation comes beyond the moral- legal questions. Choice, its authenticity and validity defines the character, integrity and sense of responsibility of a state. Take for instance the present situation in the Indian sub continent. The world knows that after 1971, especially after the dismemberment of Pakistan, this new country which was carved out of India in the name of the two nation theory, has been bleeding India with thousand cuts by sending terrorists to different parts of the country. India with its thousand years of philosophy, poetry, religion and culture has not been responding in equal measure. The world thought of India as a soft state. But after the Pulwama massacre the present Prime minister of India, Narendra Modi has resorted to a muscular policy. Instead of being reactive, this time India has become proactive and has attacked and demolished the terror infrastructure deep inside Pakistan using its air power. How could this choice be made? If a terrorist attack is a bloody revenge in the name of self preservation or righteous indignation is also bloody. If by choice, as Jean Paul Sartre says, we choose ’good’, is it good that India chose? Was it a moral good? Yes it was, otherwise the alternative choice would be termed as cowardice. A heroic proactive attack often is necessary to demonstrate one’s moral and national integrity. The ‘good’ chosen is ‘bad’ in terms of morality, for bloodshed whatever be the provocation is unacceptable. Yet what India chose was being to become a self-respecting country in the eyes of the world.

Kierkegaard would definitely approve of India’s choice. In Either/ Or he clearly states: “My either/or does not in the first instance denote the choice between good and evil; it denotes the choice whereby one chooses good and evil/ or excludes them. Here the question is under what determinants one would contemplate the whole of existence and would himself live”. In the case of India the determinants are life positive.

But the individual choices are more complex. If we are born ‘nothings’ and choose to become something which may be termed as ‘being’, does the validity depend on moral choices? In a world where man kills to survive, the question of being and choice are irrelevant. Man has his instincts and often instinctual choices are Hobson’s choices. If you do not kill the enemy, say a hungry tiger, you are sure to be dead. Here instinctually you kill, a choice you may not have exercised in more sober situations.

Career choices, choices of life partners, are made if not instinctively, by considering the information or determinants, available at the moment of opting for one alternative. That choice may in the future prove to be totally wrong and you cannot regress to the original moment again. Choices are to be made from situation to situation, moment to moment. Being comprises the totality of choices made for life is such that one choice made at a critical moment determines your being at that moment only. Being too is a process not a product you can opt for at a moment of need.

The Valentine Martyrs

Life perambulates death,

when death benumbs the nation beyond shock.

When terror in thief like steps strikes

without giving a chance to the braves

to die like heroes to sing their swan – song

half choked in terror’s shady blasphemy.

The martyrs lay in coffins
fulfilling their tryst
with their valentines

the band played last salute

the nation perambulated

in teary farewell to the brave hearts.

Why this untimely ceremony

when the nations flag is half furled

the glory half honoured why then  

the candles are lit in shady pavements.

Terror has no face its body must also be buried

under unredeemable deapth

for life is great and noble to hold the human banner,

Let’s all raise it to the downy stars.


Dedicated to the martyrs of CRPF jawans on 14th Feb 2019 at Avantipura Pulwama.

Sabita Sahu

The Anxiety of Terrorism

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

If we go by the dictionaries, terror simply means extreme fear and terrorism means an attempt to cause fear in order to achieve political ends. If this is the meaning of terror and terrorism, a terrorist is the instrument and agent of fear. And fear is the basic element which a state should not have  in any political territory so that the people can live with hopes for tomorrow. It’s the responsibility of the state to ensure terror free life to its people. Any agency or enemy (country or organization) which attacks to kill unsuspecting people to cause panic and destabilize a state, is a terrorist activity. Terror also aims at destroying the symbol of national pride in another state as was the case in the 9/11 attack. The twin towers of the World Trade Center was destroyed in a dramatic manner which the world watched on television. India has been a victim of Pakistani terror for more than 30 years, particularly after 1971 when India dismembered Pakistan into Pakistan and Bangladesh. Pakistan too is a victim of terror. In fact the entire world is now under the grip of terror of one kind or another.

But the United Nations has not yet accepted any definition of terror, that is, the member countries have not yet agreed upon a definition. When America after 9/11 attacked Afghanistan and Iraq and Tony Blair echoed the words of George Bush the U.N accepted the classroom meaning of terrorism. When France pounded Syria with bombs terrorism had meaning. But when India wanted U.N intervention after 26/11 the U.N had doubts over the meaning of terrorism. During the Modi regime Pathankot Uri and now Awantipura(pulwama)  have happened but Jaish e Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar cannot be declared a global terrorist because, One : ‘terrorist’ has not been defined and Two: China applies veto nullifying the wisdom of America, European nations and others. It is obvious that the UN. Security Council Members do not accept the stated meaning of terrorism or terrorist when non SC Member countries complain. China has its own economic interest to safeguard. The CPEC ( China Pakistan Economic Corridor) can develop dangerous bumps if Masood Azhar is declared an International terrorist. Self interest of China is more important than defilement of human rights by terrorists. Very often a terrorist is defined as a freedom fighter, Subhas Chandra Bose, for the British Administration was a terrorist, so was Bhagat Singh. Thank God Gandhi was not declared a terrorist. Martin Luther king (jr) was not hanged as a terrorist. But countries which play with the destiny of weaker nations decide the meaning of freedom fighters and insurgents keeping in view their own interest as the hallowed repository of meaning which they give to terror.

But who is a terrorist? A terrorist is a weak person who cannot inflict greater damage on his so called enemy. He can, however, change the political climate by causing a sense of fear in the normal people by daring military action. He is no hero; he is essentially a coward who can never challenge his ideological adversary to a single combat. He masks his face, lives in dark jungle areas and under the cover of darkness blindly kills and destroys. He kills a few people but he spreads panic. The political and intellectual establishment reacts so vociferously that the impact of it on the general unsuspecting public, is full like war. The media sensationalizes the terror strikes and the echo is of a higher decibel than that of the explosion. The terrorist thinks he has a cause. It may be political or religious. But at bottom it is a cynical hatred for life and human well being which makes him play anti- God to destabilize the balance of societies.

Our Awantipura experience reinforces the idea that the terrorist is a vengeful cynic who cannot tolerate the rise and prosperity of India. Be he Masood Azhar or Hafiz Sayed, he is an enemy of man. The religion he professes and the god he worships, he definitely knows, will not ratify his action. But he must falsely convince himself that he is doing the work of God. He plays anti god to deceive himself. This gives him a sense of power and self importance to be feared by many and hunted by organized forces. He is anti-life and worships death for its own sake.

How to combat this menace? If by some quirk of luck they lay their hands on Nukes what will happen to mankind? Well these are imponderables. If such an eventuality ever becomes a reality perhaps the world will go back to the stone age. But hopefully man and his civilization will be responsible for man in the 21^st century. Bioterrorism and nuclear terrorism are possible but man will reduce its probability by his innate reason and humanity. Man must celebrate life and its glories even by embracing dissent of all forms. But it is easier said than done for we are all slaves of interests and motives.

My Love is Wordless

May be I’m not the right one

to walk stepping up with you,

I'm a half fluttering candle

half speaking in half flickers.

Your thought speech and action

I do not conceive

I hear and see your love

and  burn in anger
at my own comprehension.

My love replaced by anger

flows like the hourglass

in the silence denying

every flaw done or undone.

May be when you wake up oneday

find my space empty simply tilt

the hourglass and listen to the wind

my final breath will whisper

my love was wordless, mum

but I loved you with all the jest

all the nerves my body and mind

throbbed with as long as I lived.

Sabita Sahu