Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on September 21, 2014.

Swami Bhaskarananda explores what we mean by truth and how to know it, walking listeners through classical Indian methods of validation — perception, inference, reliable testimony, comparison, postulation, and non-perception — and showing how each plays a part in everyday and philosophical judgment. He asks what counts as “real,” noting the Hindu criterion that the truly real is changeless and eternal; by that standard the world of change is provisional, while the transcendental source (divinity) alone is ultimately real. Using vivid analogies (dreams, waves and ocean, the movie screen) he explains why our ordinary certainties can be limited and how the mind must be purified and disciplined to apprehend deeper truth.

Turning from theory to practice, the Swami treats truthfulness as a discipline that strengthens the mind and supports social trust and spiritual growth. He discusses the difference between lower and higher truths, and the Sanskrit teaching that truth should be spoken kindly (satyam brūyāt, priyam brūyāt), while acknowledging rare situations where compassion or prudence may require withholding or adapting a truth. Practicing truthfulness, he suggests, helps one gain control of the mind and prepares it for knowledge of the Self and an awareness of inherent divinity — the highest form of truth.