Satyameva Jayate

"Satyameva Jayate"(Sanskrit: "Truth Alone Triumphs") is the national motto of India. It is inscribed in Devanagari script at the base of the national emblem, which is an adaptation of the Lion Capital of Asoka at Sarnath, near Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The origin of the motto is a well-known mantra 3.1.6 from theMundaka Upanishad.

By the way, what exactly is thetruth? If you know about the whereabouts of a man hiding from a lynching mob, and if the mob asks you about him, will you tell what you know? Will that be thetruth? The definition of truth itself is not totally agreed upon in the intellect society. There are so many theories, which try to explain the real meaning oftruth,but almost all agree on the point that,truthmeans what is right. But again, the word “Right” is a relative one. What is right for one might be wrong for the other fellow.

In 19th century, Europeans thought that they were doing a favour to this world by civilizing the population in less privileged countries, while the people in colonies thought that they were being exploited by the naked greed of the imperialist west. Who was right? The Europeans ruled the world for 200 years. Wasn’ttruthon their side for those 200 years, since they kept on winning during those times, ortruthwas on Gnadhi’s side who hammered the final nail in the coffin of “The Empire”? It’s arguable, who is right and who is wrong and it’s even more difficult to argue, who is true and who is not?

But why exactly, we always hear people saying that truth always triumphs? If we see any struggle or compare any two opposing theories, many arguments can be given for and against of both the counterparties. Hence, as and when the struggle is on, it can never be classified that which side astruthwith it?

Can we classify, whether US is right in its war against terror (read: Islam) or the mullah are right in their pursuit of spreading their philosophy. Whether India or Pakistan is right in claiming Kashmir? Whether Big B was a bigger star than SRK? Whether Pele was better than Maradona? Whether Sachin is better than Sir Bradman?

Equal number of arguments can be given for each counterparty in above examples, suggesting that a particular party is right andtruthis on its side.

Now lets’ take few examples, where we certainly know which side hadtruthon its side:

Hindus worship Lord Rama as “Maryada Purshottam”, meaning “Great Among People”, and they say that he was the most ideal person ever walked on this earth, he always did the right thing,truthwas always on his side and hence he always won. But, he left his wife in jungle just because someone had some apprehension against the way she had been with the Ravana. Was that also right? Wasn’ttruthon the other side of the Lord himself, when he believed some nonsense saying by some idiot about his wife, who was an incarnation of goddess Lakshmi herself?

Just because Ram won, we believe that everything he did was right andtruthwas always on his side.

We also worship Lode Krishna as the 8th incarnation of Lord Vishnu. We call him by 108 different names and regard him as the master manipulator, strategist, protector of the truth and the ultimate power. But, why do we forget that, as per the epic too, Lord Krishna had too many illegitimate relationships, he manipulated too many rules of the battle, he had the ability to brainwash people to an extent that people were ready to switch sides in the battle ofMahabharata. Wastruthon his side, when he persuaded Arjuna to kill his own grandfather, or when he persuaded Draupadi to marry five men simultaneously?

Just because Krishna won, we believe that everything he did was right andtruthwas always on his side.

We Indians, always curse England to invade us and exploit us for 200 years. But we forget the fact that, we Aryans are also invaders of India. Our forefathers settled here 4000 yrs. back after killing the aborigines of North India and after annihilating the flourishing “Indus Valley Civilization”. North Indians are whiter skinned than south Indians because North Indians are came from Middle East. But we always accuse Moghuls, Turks and English invaders to ravage the society and civilizations of our motherland. How Aryans crossing Indus 4000 yrs. ago is different from English sailors landing on Kerala beach 300 yrs. ago.

Just because Aryans won, we believe that everything they did was right andtruthwas always on their side.

World history tells us that Stalin was a saviour of mankind. He saved the earth from the naked greed and wrath of Hitler. To some extent it is true also. USSR sacrificed 20 million lives in war against Germany between 1941 and 1945. In other terms the war cost USSR more than 10% of its population. We proudly say that during those yearstruthwas on Stalin’s side and Hitler was an evil. But the same Stalin regime was responsible for at least 10 million death of its own people by a series of purges, gulags and ethnic cleansing. The word “Genocide” was coined for German Pogrom against Jews, but Communists had already perfected the practice in Russia. By no means, Stalin’s atrocities were less cruel than that of Hitler’s, but we somehow feel that Stalin was correct.

Just because Stalin won, we believe that everything he did was right andtruthwas always on his side.

Human beings are good at finding patterns from the bunch of random numbers. We always conclude what we want to conclude.

Whomsoever Wins the War, Writes the History.The winner always decides what was right and what was not? Whose side was truth on and who was evil?

Hence going by the same logic, we can very well say:

Truth doesn’t triumph always, that which triumphs, become truth ALWAYS.