The latest sensational news has been the mega leak of Facebook data and how it was used to influence the opinions of millions of people.

In this article, we take a broader look at the issue of falsehoods and their influence from the perspective of the Vedic scriptures and present a timely and timeless solution to this perennial problem of cheating.

DELIBERATE FALSEHOODS

First, let us take a close look at the issue of fake news. The Singapore government has given it a more precise name — deliberate falsehoods. (They specifically termed online fake news as DOF meaning “deliberate online falsehoods.”) This phrase is key because it suggests a deliberate intention to mislead people. In plain language, this means cheating.

Deliberate falsehoods can be divided into two broad categories — (1) the perpetrator knows the truth but chooses to convey something else, and (2) the perpetrator does not know the truth but deilberately positions himself as an authority of knowledge and propagates something false as truth. Both are nothing but cheating.

Cheating is as old as time because it is one of the four principal defects of every conditioned soul that is entrapped within this material world, the other three being (1) imperfect senses, (2) a tendency to commit mistakes, and (3) a tendency to be illusioned. Of the four defects mentioned here, the tendency to cheat is the most dangerous. While the other three only influence the affected person, cheating can influence many people.

THE LARGER FALSEHOOD

To solve this problem, we need to understand the fundamental root and the much bigger scope of the problem that lies underneath. What we see is only the tip of the iceberg. Take the Facebook data scandal for example. As we will explain in this article, it is actually not a problem by itself. It is only a surfaced symptom of a much bigger problem. Only from the revealed Vedic scriptures like the Bhagavad-gītā can we really understand the actual scale of the problem, as well as the simple, effective and sublime solution to it.

To be very precise, for the vast majority of us, we have been fed only false news from day one of our lives. Nay, we have been fed false news for millions of lifetimes. What is that false news? Bhagavad-gītā addresses it in great detail in its second chapter.

The gist is that we are always taught that we are our bodies. Owing to this false bodily concept of life, one thinks of oneself as belonging to a particular family, race, gender, community, species, nation, religious denomination, etc. All conflicts in this world are based on these considerations. This is the result of deep ignorance because all these are designations of the transient material body but not of the eternal soul proper. The soul’s identity is completely independent of such designations.

In other words, with the death of the body, all those definitions of our identity become null and void. The relationships we seek in this material world are also as transient as the body itself. But our existence does not cease at the time of death. The soul is eternal and its existence is unimpeded by any material condition. Our real, eternal relationship exists with God but when we forget it on account of our ignorance, we seek relationships in this material world.

UNDERSTANDING WHAT IS FALSE

According to the Vedic scriptures, this material world is not false but temporary. That is a fact. The material world and every facet of it has a beginning and an end. But between those two events, its manifestation is real. But it is only temporary. The falsehood comes when we misidentify the temporary with the eternal, or matter with spirit.

The analogy of the rope being mistaken for a snake is cited in the Vedic literature. When a rope is mistaken for a snake, it is not that the snake is false. Neither is the rope false. But mistaking one thing for another is the falsehood. A mirage offers a similar example. One may mistake land to be water. There is actually no water there but an illusion of water is created, which is called a mirage. But it is not that the water is false. Both the land and water are real. But to mistake land for water or vice versa is false.

Similarly, when we take this temporary material body to be our self, the eternal soul, that is false. Neither the body nor the soul is false. To take one for the other, that misidentification is false. That is called false ego.

 

DEVELOPMENT OF FALSEHOOD

Furthermore, every idea, viewpoint or perception that is built on that primary miconception is all false. For example, in a mathematical sum that consists of multiple steps, if we make a mistake at step 1, and then carry the result of step 1 to the next step, and work all the way to the end, we are sure to get a wrong answer. If in the first step, we add up “2 +2 = 5”, then all the calculations based on that result are bound to be wrong despite carrying out the rest of the steps correctly.

Similarly, we have built entire societies, communities, countries, and entire worldviews based on this fundamental misconception of the bodily identification of the soul. This is the real falsehood, the real fake news. Even after painstakingly graduating from the entire education system, up until even Ph.D., one still has no clue as to his real identity and the very reason for his existence.

HOW DID WE END UP IN FALSEHOOD?

We are being grossly misled from the reality of our existence and our actual aim of life. This is the powerful influence of the Lord’s illusory energy called Māyā. Every living entity is constitutionally an eternal loving servitor of Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual world where there is no birth and death. This is the absolute reality. But when we misuse our minute independence and choose to hide away from this truth and embrace the illusion of being a false controller or overlord of all that we survey, the Lord, reluctantly yet mercifully, awards us the opportunity to attempt to do so in this material world. Innumerable souls with a similar mentality of defiance to the Supreme Lord are also accommodated here. Māyā, the illusory potency of the Lord, then casts her spell over such conditioned souls and fills their hearts and minds with the falsehood that they are indeed masters. Thus we have come under her influence since time immemorial. Lifetime after lifetime, we have embraced the falsehood of being the overlord of all that we survey while constantly struggling to even keep our bodies and souls together.

Even the so-called learned class of people who pass off as scientists and philosophers are as clueless about the meaning and aim of life as the animals in the wild. Still, they pose as authorities of knowledge and this is certainly cheating. This is deliberate falsehood. Misled by such leaders of society, the entire population presently is blind to the knowledge of the Absolute Truth. Thus, they do not know what to do and what not to. Such people do things that are destructive to everyone’s real interest.

ABSOLUTE TRUTH TO COMBAT FALSEHOOD

To save the society from this suicidal path, the pristine knowledge of the Absolute Truth has to be propagated. There is no other way. It is certainly a great challenge to enlighten the souls who are under the influence of the base modes of passion and ignorance. As the saying goes, it is a folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss. But the tolerant and merciful Vaiṣṇavas (devotees of Kṛṣṇa) take compassion upon the people in general and preach the knowledge of the Absolute Truth while enduring all sorts of inconveniences in the process of doing so.

Knowledge of the Absolute Truth comprises five parts — (1) knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, (2) knowledge of the individual living entity, (3) knowledge of the situation of material nature, (4) knowledge of the time element, and (5) knowledge of activity and its concomitant reactions. All of this is thoroughly explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Every intelligent member of society should undertake a serious study of the Bhagavad-gītā under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master in order to acquire a scientific understanding of everything.

The unique feature about Bhagavad-gītā is that it is spoken directly by the Lord, the creator and maintainer of everything. Who else is a better source of knowledge of a machine than the engineer of the machine himself? Since the Lord is the engineer of the cosmos, it is best to know from Him instead of speculating with our tiny, imperfect brains. Thus the knowledge can be received as is and there will be no fake news about our origin and existence.

UNADULTERATED KNOWLEDGE

Most unfortunately, however, there are certain mischievous miscreants who unceremoniously misinterpret the Lord’s words to suit their whimsical agendas and thus propagate untruth in the name of the Absolute Truth. Therefore, in order to preserve the science of the Absolute Truth from being adulterated, Lord Kṛṣṇa, the self-same Absolute Truth personified, established a fool-proof system called the parampara, or the disciplic succession, wherein the knowledge is carefully passed down by the Lord to His devotee, who after having attained self-realization, would pass down to his disciple and so on and so forth. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā [4.2].

In fact, the Mahābhārata explains that dry arguments are inadequate to ascertain the Absolute Truth. Even after reading all the variegated scriptures, one cannot come to a proper conclusion. Approaching various philosophers is another futile attempt because each philosopher may put forward his own philosophy and may not agree with other philosophers. The only way one can thoroughly understand the Absolute Truth is by accepting the path of the great saintly devotees who have captured the Lord in their heart. So we have to approach such a pure devotee in order to understand the Absolute Truth substantially.

Thus, knowledge of the Absolute Truth is carefully fenced by the principles of sādhu (great saintly persons), śāstra (Vedic scripture) and guru (bona fide spiritual master) as established by Lord Kṛṣṇa. We have to receive knowledge in this channel. Anything else is untruth or fake.

THE COST OF EMBRACING FALSEHOOD

In this way, one can understand that everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa including our very selves. Therefore everything has to be utilized in His service. If the entire population of the world can be convinced to work with the common cause of satisfying the Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead, there will be perfect harmony in the world.

As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā [7.7] Lord Kṛṣṇa is the background of all existences. Any understanding that suggests the existence of anything independent of Kṛṣṇa is falsehood. According to this definition of falsehood, everything that we have learnt is pretty much false. The influence of such falsehood is very dangerous because our meaningful human life is being wasted owing to this misunderstanding. We are paying a very heavy price for this ignorance by undergoing unending suffering in the material world.

THE PRAGMATIC SOLUTION

Therefore the greatest welfare activity is to widely propagate this knowledge of the Absolute Truth. As confirmed by Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.15), He is the Absolute Truth and is the end of the quest of all knowledge. When we say the word ‘Absolute,’ there is no relativity in Him. For example, there is no difference between His name and His person. The name and the named are nondifferent in the Absolute world. That means, when we chant His name, we are not only just referring to Him but are actually directly associating with Him in the form of His holy name.

Since Kṛṣṇa and His holy name are nondifferent, by chanting His name, one gets the full benefit of studying the Vedic knowledge concerning the Absolute Truth because all Vedic knowledge is meant to convince us to associate with Him. Therefore, in the Kali-santaraṇa Upaniṣad, it is emphatically concluded:

 

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa

kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare

hare rāma hare rāma

rāma rāma hare hare

 

iti ṣoḍaśakaṁ nāmnāṁ

kali-kalmaṣa-nāśanaṁ

nātaḥ parataropāyaḥ

sarva-vedeṣu dṛśyate

 

“The sixteen words of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra are espefially meant for counteracting the sins of the age of Kali. To save oneself from the contamination of this age there is no alternative but to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. After searching through all the Vedic literature, one cannot find a method of religion more sublime for this age than the chanting of the 16-word Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.”

Therefore, full support should be given to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement to propagate the congregational chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare and to discuss the knowledge delineated in the Vedic literature like Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Only in this way can all falsehood be destroyed by the light of transcendental knowledge of the Absolute Truth. [End]