Satyam (Kavyam) The Universal Truth

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The Satyam, The Universal Truth, comprising of five hundred and three (503) elegant Sanskrit verses alongwith Hindi and English translation, is a commendable contribution to Sanskrit literature. This didactic Kavya represents the poet's experience and observations of human life. Its contents deal with general rules for the conduct of life. It is treasure trove of apophthegms in which wise and noble, striking and original thoughts are often appeared in a highly finished and poetical garb. It is full of the ends like to attain a mind tranquil, to discriminate virtue and vice, to discover the Truth and the Divine and to imbibe the love of tolerance and brotherhood. The lucidity of language, captivating malody, loftiness of new ideas and musical resonance of classical meters such as Sardulavikridita, Sragdhara, Vasantatilaka, Drutavilambita, Bhujangaprayata, Sikharini, Malini and totaka etc. leave an indeliable impression on the reader. The Satyam ranks as the best didactic poetry in Sanskrit literature.

R. V Joshi is the distinguished Sanskrit scholar of international recognition in the field of Sanskrit and Indological studies. He was Professor of Sanskrit at the university of Jodhpur and Delhi. He has been visiting Professor of Sanskrit and Indology in many countries abroad such as U.S.A. Mexico, Czechoslovakia, Poland Hungary, Costa Rica, Gauatemala and Combodia. He has been Head of the department of Sanskrit at the universities of Jodhpur and Delhi for a period of fifteen years. He has several works to his credit written in Sanskrit, in English, in French, in Spanish and in Hindi. He is a recipient of several awards and Gold Medals including 'Certificate of Honour' from the President of India and Sahitya Academy Award'. Creative and critical writings are his forte. Above all, he is a humble devotee and yogi. At present he is Professor of Sanskrit in Mexico.

Introduction

I am now presenting to the public my new Sanskrit Kavya entitled 'Satyam' (Universal Truth). This Kavya represents my experience and observations of human life in India and abroad.

We all suffer in this world. We are never satisfied. The main cause of our dissatisfaction is desire: desire of power, desire of money, desire of fame and desire of sex. A millionaire wants to be multi-millionaire. Even the President or the Prime Minister of a country remains unsatisfied. The reason is that we all perceive only through our six senses. Hence our desire, anger, greed, infatuation, pride, envy, jealousy, enmity and arrogance never come to an end, and we all suffer in this world.

We are never conscious of our own essence and reality. Real happiness does not depend on wealth, prestige, or opportunist friends. It depends on pure affection and real friendly attitude towards every human being. I may point out that there are two paths:

The path of truthfulness,
and The path of falsehood

The wise men follow the path of truth, and the majority of human beings follow the path of falsehood because their arrogance is very powerful. Only the follower of truth achieve peace and harmony in life.

We all see truth but nobody speaks truth. Consciously we hide truth from each other. The parents hid from their children, husbands hide from their wives, but everybody feels that he tells truth.

Happiness is not in wealth or in power. Happiness is really in the understanding of one's own real essence. Thus we obtain real satisfaction and our desires become satisfied. Then one controls his ego, envy, pride and jealousy. Our real essence is not our body and senses which are not stable and take us to unestability. We should always select good company and constantly think of our own essential reality. This will take us to the state of non-attachment and our stable mind will not run towards the objects of pleasure, and we become self controlled, and self-centered. When we concentrate on our real essence and put our mind to truth, infinity and bliss, our actions become like a child – most simple and guiltless.

Time is only relative and we are all captives of time. Nobody can escape from time and death. Suffering is also a part of reality. We are all victims of sickness, agony and death. Despaire and hopelessness raise the risk of heart attacks, and thereby shorten the span of life.

Our bodies are part of universal body, our minds are part of universal mind and our selves are part of universal self.

We have to understand to speak truth. This looks very strange. It is not enough to desire to speak truth. People generally tell lies. Mostly people think that they speak truth but still they tell lies all the time. When they want to tell lies or tell truth, they tell lies. The husband to his wife, the father to his sons and the sons to their mother, all the time tell lies. It is very difficult to tell truth. To tell truth one has to learn very much. We have. To study a lot. Only desire to speak truth is not sufficient at all.

There is a Maxican saying:
Truth is not a sin
but it is inconvenient.

We all live according to our customs, traditions, believes and values – customs based on false or real believes. Nobody wants to discuss or destroy his customs. The new generation with the impact of science and technology do destroy the values. This is happening in all countries, religions and traditions. Thus we live for convenience.

In order to understand the universal truth, the present 'Kavya' enumerates some excellent ideas. The follower of even some of these ideas will understand 'truth' and will be happy in life.

1. One should carefully examine the qualities of a girl or a boy to marry her or him. The selection of girl or boy should not depend on money, beauty or any pressure.
2. One should always remember the dates of births of those who send you greetings and presents of birthday.
3. One should daily collect new books and read them whenever there is sometime.
4. One should return loans as early as possible.
5. One should make new friends and cherish their long time friendship.
6. One should never abandon his own people being blind by pride of wealth.
7. All objects like clothes, if not used during five years, should be given in charity.

This Kavya states that whenever there is some dispute or difference of opinion between husband and wife, one should not impose fault on one another, but should immediately embrace and go out for walking.

When one has always helped some relatives or people and they became antegonised, one should not mind at all but should continue to help them and maintain good equilibrium.

By the follower of truth achieves peace of mind and by the follower of falsehood one gets purturbance. Those who torture others by harsh words, they are themselves ruined. By and by the river of their wealth also becomes dry.

One should never be afraid of poverty. In the contrary, one should have faith in himself that one day he will be on the top of everybody.

There should always be compassion towards poor and miserable people in order to enter in the state of pure love and happiness.

Good people learn even from foolish ones like geese who drink only milk mixed with water and the wicked men do not take even a drop of knowledge from the wise men like snakes who always drink blood in the ocean of milk. If one always speaks truth and is always ready to help others, he will live long with wealth and fame.

One should always help his own people as well as others. Thus mind becomes free from affliction.

A friend only wants your time and advice. He never wants your money. By the desire of money the friendship comes to an end. A good friend flows like pure air, clear water and fire. He should always find good friendship.

One should always be liberal hearted towards every human being and live with ideal values. Thus there will be no worry and tension and one will live long with infinite wealth.

This Kavya states that poor people always speak truth and so they enjoy religious duties. The wealthy men normally do not speak truth and therefore they are full of envy and show arrogance.

One should not call anybody poor, cheat and wicked. Infact, cheat is that person who uses such faulty language and the real rich is that one who is full of compassion and who uses pure language. The wicked men are filled with poison in the heart and they cheat others with false sweet words.

In fact, one should never talk to old men and women with faulty language. Old people should always be respected in a vehicle or on the road. One should give a seat to old man or woman and help them in the way by holding their hand.

We perform actions. Actions generate re-action and there is always inter-action. If we perform bad actions, we receive bad results. If we perform good actions, we receive good results.

There are three types of actions :

1. Actions what we perform in this life.
2. Actions which have not give results and as such remain accumulated.
3. Actions which have started giving results in this life.

On account of the auspicious deeds of the previous births, self takes birth in the house of auspicious people who are pure and endowed with wealth. They remain engaged in righteousness. Even then some people fall down from the path of righteousness due to bad association. He even beats his wife or ignores her but finally he suffers.

Some ignorant people say that there is no god, no rebirth, therefore one should freely enjoy women. One may drink and eat whatever is tasteful.

Only knowledge is the way to liberation. Knowledge destroys anger, infatuation and brings peace of mind. Without knowledge one cannot perform even an ordinary work in life. Knowledge expands righteousness, wealth, desire and liberation.

The knowledge of universal self is such a pure flower from which constantly drips fragrance. Any one who smells this fragrance, becomes liberated.

If anybody visualizes early morning a pen shining like jewels and observes that the Supreme God is writing a book by that pen, his intellect becomes extra-ordinary. He easily breaks down the limitations of time and space and can see the three periods of time precisely.

A father should equally divide his loan and money among his children. Even then if any some remains unsatisfied, the reason is his own greed. A father always wants that his son be the richest man, follower of proper duties and inclined to righteous path.

In this world people observe others' conduct, behavious and language. Therefore, one should keep his eyes open and always speak true and sweet words.

If one desires to obtain the "supreme truth he should completely give up the longing for money, abandons woman like the poison in the mouth and should always speak truth. He should love all human beings alike. He must abandon enmity and hatred towards all.

The arrogant money-blind man does not know that money is not permanent. He deceives even his own wife and sons. But when his will be destroyed, his own people will abandon him. It is also true that friends and relatives encircle only for money. Otherwise they will throw him out like a fly from the milk.

In every human being there exists some strong energy hidden by the layers of ignorance. Anybody, who always speaks truth, breaks these layer of ignorance. They majority of people call it 'fate' because they do not speak 'truth'.

One has to make continuous efforts in business or in any enterprise. Man crying 'O Milk! O Milk!' will not get even a drop of milk without effort.

Rarely there are some such charming women, who even insulted by their husbands, do not manifest angerous account of their gentleness. Infact, there is a net of attachment of such charming women and only some very intelligent men are able to remain out of their net.

Some people bound by desires and remain allured by wealth. They do not speak truth. The best man is he who is faultness, who does not search faults in others and who remains equal to all. The degraded man is he who calls even his wife, children and even most sincere friends demonical. Having performed himself hundreds of sins, one who, sees sinless persons as sinner, is himself a great sinner.

Pure love does not want any thing else but only love. It produces excessive bliss. Thus there is no desire, no sex feeling, no anger and no hard words.

Man is considered the only animal who strikes the same stone again and again. Everybody commits the same error for several times but a wise man does not repeat the same error.

One should never indulge in any kind of demeritorious activity by mind, words and action. If you enjoy truth alone, you will always be victorious and will get abundant wealth and imparallel fame.

If one's mind remains perturbed and he outwardly shows happiness, he is a foolish man. Whatever glitters is not gold. One should first cleanse his own mind. When mind is happy, there is peace. If mind is unhappy, what money will serve for.

When somebody first tells lies and thus to hide that lie, he tells another and another lie. But when one speaks truth, there is no tension. By speaking truth, mind remains pure and 'Self' is always chaste. By constant practice, one conquers death and attains supreme abode.

In this world, somebody many become very rich but his heart will remain poor. He does not give anything to anybody. He becomes a snake after his death. Such one arrogant man goes on accumulating money throughout his life and never gives even a Penney for the welfare of others. Who is that individual in this world who never suffers from pains? All people are tortured by some worry or tension. Only by speaking truth and keeping the mind in the welfare of all human-beings, one remains free tensions and pains.

In this world there is always a combination of qualities and defects. However, everybody observes in himself only qualities and perceives defects in others. When one speaks truth and begins to be aware of his own defects, his qualities increase. Normally every human being perceives defects in others and qualities in himself. By this false arrogance and ego increase. If one searches for qualities in others and look for defects in himself, his mind will be cleansed and there will be no worry and disease.

When the aim is good, obstacles disappear. The Goddess of prosperity begins to reside in his house permanently. Then the mind will not remain in affliction and the intelligent will also abandon jealousy. Now when mind and intellect and praiseworthy, one will only perform meritorious deeds.

People speak something but do not act accordingly. Their acts are different. The wise man knows well what is in the heart and what is the action. The wise man can easily read the expression on the face and enters in the heart of the speaker. He reads the ideas correctly even spoken by false words. Anybody, who wants to acquire 'knowledge' and 'liberation', should give up attachment and always speak truth. Then all the obstacles from his life will be destroyed and he will become successful in all his undertakings. His demeritorious deeds will vanish and he will obtain abundant wealthy and fame all over the world.

I have composed this new poetry entitled 'Satyam' (Universal Truth). It is based on my observation in life. Every reader will feel as if it is written for him. Herein my observations are main and imagination is new. Anybody, who will follow this poetry in his practical life, will get numerous new opportunities and his fame and wealth will increase day by day. But and by he will take his take away his mind from accumulating wealth after helping poor needful persons in the world. He will also donate books to needy students, clothes and food to poor persons. Finally, by the power of always speaking truth, he will inculcate wonderful capacity and whatsoever he will speak will become truth. He will be completely satisfied, free from fear and enmity. He will remain in 'Supreme God' and will obtain 'liberation' from the cycle of birth and death.

I have composed this poem 'Satyam' easily without any effort by the grace of the feet of my dear mother Tulsi Bai and dear father Pandit Rampratap Sastri. They may be pleased by this poem and take my mind at the feet of the 'Supreme God'.

I am really happy in bringing to the knowledge of the public the valuable application of 'Truth'. I hope that all scholars, devotees, public and new generation will understand the value of speaking 'truth' and will benefit by the practice of 'truth'.

It is my pleasure to recall helpful conversations with Prof. Dr. Benjamin Preciado Solic, Director, Center of Asian and African Studies, El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico, My sincere thanks for his advice in the composition of this Kavya. I also bless my pupil Dr. M. M. Agarwal for bringing out this excellent edition this Kavya 'Satyam'.

I dedicate this Kavya 'Satyam' to my very deer father and respected Guru Pandit Rampratap Shastri. I am giving here my recently published 'Dasa-sloki'. I pray to Rampratap to accept this Kavya. It is only by his grace that I am able to compose this wonderful poem. Let the scholars be pleased by this poem and let the public practice and profit by this wonderful word. Most of these verses were composed between March 2005 and March 2006.