7.

What is the most essential factor in the search for truth?

 

I say courage: the courage to discover one’s authentic self. To know oneself as one is, is the most essential thing. It is very difficult, but without it there can be no understanding of the truth.

 

What greater hardship is there than coming to know oneself, without any veil, in utter nakedness? But this is the price one has to pay to attain to truth. Only from there does the longing for truth begin in man.

 

Being true to the self is in itself a manifestation of an intense thirst for truth. How can one who ties himself to the shore of falsehood row his boat across the sea of truth? The shore of falsehood will have to be left behind. That very shore is an obstacle in the journey toward truth. That very shore is the bondage. True, there is safety on that shore and it is that desire for safety which is the stronghold of falsehood.

 

In our journey toward truth there should be no love of safety. Furthermore, there must be the unshakeable courage to venture out into the unknown. He who does not possess the courage to be unsafe cannot discover the unknown. Without accepting the challenge of being unsafe, no one can throw off his false masks and disguises, nor can he be free from the convictions that he has adopted for safety’s sake.

 

Is it not for the sake of safety that we present ourselves not as we are? Aren’t all these deceptions merely our strategies for feeling safe? And what of our civilizations and cultures? The proud person appears humble, the greedy one dresses up like a renunciate, the exploiter indulges in charity, the killer promotes the rhetoric of peace, and minds filled with hatred speak the language of love.

 

This self-deception is very easy. When has acting in dramas ever been difficult? In the marketplace of sophistication, attractive toys have always been sold at bargain rates. But remember: a bargain, which on the face of it seems cheap, proves very costly in the long run, because he who hides himself behind such toys gets further and further away from reality. An unbridgeable gulf is created between reality and the person, because his identity is always afraid of losing its cover. He goes on and on hiding himself beneath more and more covers and masks.

 

Falsehood does not come alone; it is flanked by its armies which come to protect it. Such is the web of self-deception and fear that surrounds us that it becomes impossible to lift our eyes to that which is beyond us. And how can a person who suffers from the fear of losing his particular false mask gather enough strength to uncover the truth? Such strength is found only through having the courage to discard these self-deceptions. A fearful mind is the enemy of seeing the truth.

 

Who then is the real friend in this situation? Fearlessness is the friend, and fearlessness of mind is gained only by one who can lay bare the truth about himself and can therefore become free from fear. If you continually mask the truth about yourself, fear keeps increasing and the inner being becomes powerless. But if you uncover yourself and look, then fear is drowned in the light of that understanding and you discover new and different sources of energy.

 

It is this that I call courage: the power to uncover the self and to acknowledge it. This is courage – and it is unavoidable in the attainment of truth. This is the first step toward godliness.

 

There is a very interesting story…

 

A young man reached the dwelling of the rishi Haridrumat Gautam. He wanted to know the truth. He had a desire to know the brahman, the ultimate. He placed his head at the feet of the rishi and said, “Oh master, I have come in search of truth. Be generous to me and teach me the knowledge of brahman; I am blind and I want light.”

 

The name of that young man was Satyakama.

 

The rishi asked him, “My son, what is your lineage? Who is your father? What is his name?”

 

This young man had no knowledge of his father, nor did he know his lineage.

 

He went to his mother, asked her, and then returned. He repeated to the rishi what his mother had told him.

 

He said, “Oh master, I do not know my lineage. Nor do I know my father. My mother also does not know who my father is. When I asked her, she said that in her youth she was associating with many respectable people and used to do whatsoever pleased them. She does not know from whom I have descended. The name of my mother is Jabali. Therefore I am Satyakama Jabal. This is what she has asked me to tell you.”

 

Haridrumat was very much moved by the simple truthfulness of the story. He embraced the young man and said, “My dear son, you are definitely a brahmin. So much trust in the truth is the very essence of a brahmin. You will also certainly be able to discover brahman, because the truth will come knocking at the doors of one who has the courage to face the truth about himself.”

 

- Osho, “The Earthen Lamps, No.7”