All human beings are capable of grasping truths to varying degrees. These truths can be considered relative, in the sense that their veracity is dependent on the validity of underlying assumptions or theories.[5] They are relative also in the sense that no finite human mind can grasp truth in all its entirety. Nevertheless, our very ability to imagine the possibility of knowing truth in its totality leads naturally to the concept of absolute Truth.
Gandhi identified absolute Truth with God, and therefore he considered the existence of God to be almost tautological:
There was a time when I doubted the existence of God, but even at that time I did not doubt the existence of truth. This Truth is not a material qualityHe also believed that the identification of Truth with God is the clearest definition of God, and that this definition can provide an opportunity for theists and atheists to find common ground in terminology:It is God because it rules the whole universe.[6]
I found that the nearest approach to Truth is through love. But I found also that love has many meaningsHe delighted to call himself an atheist. But knowing as I do something of his life, I never considered him an atheist. I would call him a god-fearing man although he would reject that claim, and I know his face would redden. I would say: No, Mr. Bradlaugh, you are a truth-fearing man, not a god-fearing man, and I would disarm his criticisms by saying `Truth is God' as I have disarmed criticisms of many a young man.[7]
The idea that absolute Truth is God can also be found in the earliest Bahá'í sacred texts.[8] The Báb said that the ``Lord, the One true God, is none other than the Sovereign Truth.''[9] Later texts also contain such references. In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas (the Most Holy Book of the Bahá'í Faith) Bahá'u'lláh refers to God as the ``Sovereign Truth,'' ``the Eternal Truth,'' and also simply as ``the Truth.''[10] `Abdu'l-Bahá also refers to God as ``the Truth.''[11] Explaining how finite minds can never grasp the whole Truth (God), but only partial truths, `Abdu'l-Bahá writes,
The pictures of Divinity that come to our mind are the product of our fancy; they exist in the realm of our imagination. They are not adequate to the Truth
Moreover, the Bahá'í writings frequently refer to divinity as the ``Sun of Truth.''[13] `Abdu'l-Bahá writes,
Truth may be likened to the sun! The sun is the luminous body that disperses all shadows; in the same way does truth scatter the shadows of our imagination. As the sun gives life to the body of humanity so does truth give life to their souls. Truth is a sun that rises from different points on the horizon.[14]
The sun is the life-giver to the physical bodies of all creatures upon earth; without its warmth their growth would be stunted, their development would be arrested, they would decay and die. Even so do the souls of men need the Sun of Truth to shed its rays upon their souls, to develop them, to educate and encourage them. As the sun is to the body of a man so is the Sun of Truth to his soul.[15]It is interesting that in The Gita According to Gandhi, we find the same Sun of Truth mentioned in the book's introduction, by Mahadev Desai:
The Truth has been revealed over and over again and will go on being revealed until the end of time. We hear it said that there is nothing new under the sun. Well, there need be nothing new, for the Sun of Truth, exhaustless in his manifestations, ever presents aspects and visions new.[16]
In view of such statements, the rest of this chapter uses the words Truth and God almost interchangeably.