Today's thought:
The saying "satyameva jayathe" translates to "truth alone triumphs".
I wonder whether it is a man made slogan or as it is generally believed and which I trust, is a part of an Upanishadic vakhyam?
I am only intrigued by the word "jayathe" meaning "triumphs" , which would assume some battle. If it was a man made slogan, in today's times "asathyameva jaythe" --- untruth alone triumphs, would seem more appropriate. History is always biased towards the "victor" you see.
And even in the context of Govt vs opposition battles, in today's Democracies it is difficult to believe that "truth" survives let alone triumphs....
On the other hand if it is an Upanishadic quote, the use of the word "jayathe" is not easily understood. I wonder what is the word for "prevails" in Samskrit which should have been more apt for usage.
"Truth alone prevails" is the original interpretation, BTW.
Perhaps the appropriate word today could be "jaayathe" ( instead of "ja" it is "Jaa") which means one which "goes". "Truth alone goes /vanishes" is a catchy phrase......
In a highly spiritual sense also this is explainable; The moment "creation" takes place "truth" alone goes/vanishes and we get caught in the web of the gross material world. This would be its purport. Quite attractive interpretation?
Think it over...
Love
Vichu
Cypress Folks comments :
ReplyDelete"Adhi thishthati" comes close to "prevail". Surprisingly I cannot find this word in Apte's!! I do not even see "Adhikaar" which is such a common word.This is perhaps yet another tease from our Lord that we can't find the word that we are particularly looking for in,of all places, Apte's. You could check also.
This saying "Satyameva Jayathe" could have been expanded just a bit to end with Anthe, meaning that at the end or ultimately,only truth will prevail thereby dispelling our expectation that Satyam will always win which it seldom does. That would also have acknowledged mankind's repetitive experience of victory of asatyam over satyam at any point in history or even in mythology where God intervenes to substantiate this wisdom but only after interminable waiting by the faithfuls. The process of creation the seers explain, is to create "opposites" that have no real existence yet are indispensable to producing of experience in the relative realm. The usual health vis a vis disease,forgiveness vis a vis hurt,affluence vis a vis poverty and fundamentally, good vis a vis evil, stretching further,the ultimate opposites are truth and untruth.
The inviolable rule that keeps "order" in this creation of relative reality is that truth will eventually prevail over untruth in their eternal conflict.Faith in and comfort with this rule is set to be established by the Vedic declaration that the truthful eras are of way longer duration than the "sinful" ones in one of which BTW we have landed ourselves. You know the duration of Krita yuga is four times that of Kali yuga.
The Satyam in the realm of the Absolute is said to have no opposites about which the one appropriate declaration could be "Satyameva avashishyate" (Satyameva avashishyate). That would mean "Only Truth will remain" the import of which will be that Truth was all that there was and thus Truth is all that will remain after the curtain is drawn over this make believe conflict between our relative "truth" and "untruth".
Arjuna's "Tvam Aksharam sath-asath tath param yath" meaning "You are the imperishable One beyond truth and untruth" may be a soothing quote to end my "scholarly" contribution.
Let us see truth prevail resoundingly just once in a while.
Gulpa
Thank heavens Kruta is much longer than Kali. The last two paras about "truth" in the realm of absolute, and Arjun's Tvam.....etc are beautiful. But I am still left wondering about the usage of "jayate".
ReplyDeleteIf Kali was the start and kruta was the end it would have been so pleasing... The pralayam would then be the most obviously conscious wish of all namely merger/going back in absolution. This would seem like a progressive evolution to that final beatitude.
With Kali being the final yuga, Evil has to be won over by pralayam to usher a new Kruta, it would appear perhaps. Thus "jayate". Kruta is termed "satya" yuga in some texts BTW.....
I do hope I am making sense....
Love Vichu