A Question On Reality

by Peepal Grove | 5-Dec-17 | Thought Leadership

Many times in life, when we are neck deep in dilemma and do not know what to do, we often hear ourselves saying “I just want to do the right thing”. Here, a fundamental question on and for humanity arises. What is right?

In a classroom, recently, I was unfortunate enough to witness a small but bitter quarrel between a few dear ones. When it came to judging who I thought was right, I was at sea. Knowing the people on both sides of the quarrel fairly well, I realized that in their own ways, they were both right. Both had their own ideals, their own opinions and they were both faultless.

Then the question arises: if two rights fight to prove each other wrong, what does the result turn out to be? What is finally right? What is the truth? “To each his own” is a favorite axiom of mine. However, I’ve found it incredibly challenging to follow. To me, what I believe is my truth.

For whatever reason, another person might differ from me. Nevertheless, both the truths are true. It is our very own truth and it makes us who we are and makes us do what we do. To a jihadi terrorist and a Tibetan monk, the truths are very different. But to them, it is their truth and it moulds their life.

At an individual level, we all have a truth (or something we would like to call our truth). But in the larger canvas of life, which truth must we believe in? Which truth is the right truth? Is there a right truth as such?

Here is a question to the whole of humankind. Before we ask the human kind as a whole, why not begin with our own minds?

– Gauri Kashyap (2012, student of The Peepal Grove School, an alternative residential school in India)