Is Truth a fact?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, you said, facts are the great enablers to reach the Truth. Is not Truth in itself a fact?

Acharya Prashant (AP): (Shakes his head in denial)

Q: Cannot we see Truth as a fact?

AP: (Shakes his head in denial)

Q: I see it as the biggest fact.

AP: If you see it, it is not the Truth. Even to see the Truth you will have to be there. In Truth, only the Truth is. Therefore, you can have no relationship with the Truth. As long as you exist, your best and highest relationship can be with a fact, with Truth only annihilation or surrender is possible, absence is possible, a relationship is not possible. You cannot find out the Truth; you cannot relate to the Truth; you cannot do anything with the Truth.

You and the Truth cannot coexist, so there is no relationship possible. But you are there, you are sure there as of now, in your own eyes, right? So, what is the best you can hope for? The best that you can currently hope for, as you are, is called a fact. And if you can give yourself the best that you can currently have, then you will have the next best thing on its own. That next best thing does not involve you; it rather involves your disappearance.

Truth is not a fact. Facts are with respect to you. Truth is when there is no ‘you’.

Q: Sir, I have to ask the question because there’s no way to put my views.

AP: Language is the way.

Q: I was absolutely silent, so being silent is also in itself a fact.

AP: Hmm. Silence of words is a fact, it can be expressed in language; facts can be expressed in language. When you say, “I am silent”, the ‘I am’ is still there, right? And not only is that ‘I am’ still there, the ‘I am’ is free not to be silent. Therefore, ‘I am silent’ is not an expression of Truth, it is just a fact. ‘I was silent’, in the physical sense, ‘for a period of two hours’, a fact, alright.

Truth does not involve any expression of ‘I am’; you cannot say, “I am with the Truth,” or “I am the Truth.”