Truths are not truths to you unless you realise them within yourself. Without realization, they are just ideas. This is why, before spiritual development comes, individuals, and nations too, go through ruts of spiritual suspicion: what is spirituality? why is it necessary? will it really male me happier? what is truth? Doubt is removed only by realization. So the best laboratory in which to test truth is your own Self-realization; for spiritual perception, spiritual consciousness, lies not in vague theological ideas, but in the acquisition of Self-realization. Individual knowledge and the knowledge of nations should be tested by this criterion.
The word “truth” has been so abused that it has come to mean most anything one wants it to, especially when used to connote spiritual ideas. In everyday living, truth is a consciousness that is guided by spiritual wisdom, which propels us to do certain things, not because anybody says to, but because they are right.
Truth cannot be monopolized by any group or individual. Every human being has a right to express truth within his own life. Its expressions may be various, but its substance will ever be one and the same. This is what makes it so interesting. Truth cannot be circumscribed. It is eternal. It will keep on manifesting eternally, through cosmic law and through enlightened human beings, whether or not the majority of the world accepts it. Fortunately, the cosmic absolutes are not dependent on man’s belief and sanction.
Extract from the book “The Divine Romance” by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda