What is Truth? What is Love?

?.What is Truth? What is Love?

SriSri: Truth is that which does not change. So to know what is truth, you have to go through the process: What is not truth! … And what is not truth? All that which changes. When do you ask someone, “Why do you lie?” When they change what is or they say something, then they change that… So all that changes, is not truth not that they are lies; it is simply not truth. So life is a quest to find: `What is truth?’ Don’t be in a hurry! It can’t be read in newspapers, libraries or books. Truth is what IS … and that you can only realize when you go deep into meditation. Once you know what is truth, love is the other side of the truth… the other face of truth. Truth and Love are just two sides of the same coin! Love is something, which cannot be described. If you can describe love, it ceases to be love! So in short, you can say, truth is that which never changes and love is that which is indescribable.

?.Are mind and the Self, one and the same? If yes, where is the mind?

SriSri:This is like asking: “Are the ocean and the waves, one and the same? If so, where are the waves?!” Hmm…. The Self is the ocean. The mind is the wave. Without the Self, there can’t be mind, but there can be an ocean without waves… Without the big waves… There could be some ripples in the ocean… The ocean can never be still always…. The ocean can never be without waves.

?.Mahavira and Buddha said that `life is misery’… but you say that `life is a celebration’… Aren’t the two contradictory?

SriSri:Yes they are… That is why they are complementary! Buddha definitely said `life is misery’. Yes it is! You acknowledge misery… and then when you meditate, you overcome misery. When you overcome misery, there is joy. If life is misery and everything stops at that, what is the need of any meditation? What is the need of going any further? What is the need of nirvana? Why do you want nirvana? Buddha didn’t stop at that. Buddha began at that point: Life is a misery… and that is an experience. Here I don’t need to say that! Everybody is already experiencing! In those days, Buddha had to say `life is a misery’ because people were all so comfortable in their lives and they thought that was the end of life… They didn’t even wake up to see that there is misery in life… So today I feel that people are already aware of enough misery. Now we have to tell them the next step: “Come on! Life is not just misery. There is a way to get over the misery… and then life is celebration!”
Make that your goal.