Reality or Truth

By Miss Tanya Singh 10th A

The world is full of unique individuals, with different opinions and ideals but we all accept the reality
of the world, we’re presented with. Reality is one of those things that not many people tend to
question because they never doubted it in the first place. This is because everybody accepts things as
they are as they’ve seen people doing it for years. Some people do it because of a certain experience
which gave them the epiphany about the existence of their respective reality. People; basically form
an empirical truth for themselves even though it may not be true.
Reality is something that is perceived through one’s senses. Suppose a person enters a dark room
and sees a long rope lying on the floor, their first reaction would be to perceive that it may be a
snake. After this perception is made, a reaction is given, which can include shouting and running
away based on the characteristic traits of the individual. Due to lack of light, the person is unable to
make a correct assumption therefore the first perception was taken as a reality and a reaction was
made with respect to the perceived reality. Therefore, a reality may not always be the truth but it is
usually taken as one, even when being misinterpreted.
Everyone perceives reality according to their personality, need and opinion about the situation. If the
person who had entered the dark room would’ve been a snake charmer, he would’ve been happy
about finding a snake but if it was a school teacher, she would’ve run away screaming in fear. Thus,
every person has a different reality.
Now, how do we know what is a reality and is it the truth? Well, if we continue with the example of
the snake, we could’ve lit the room or maybe tried to move the rope to see if it is a living snake. The
actions we used to clarify the situation gave a favorable outcome; we can refer to them as test or
experiments which determine the difference between a perceived reality and a factual truth.
In life, we must always try and challenge our realities because in the past, whoever as tried doing this
has aided the human race by developing technology and by contributing to the advancement of our
society. The saadhu – sants of ancient India used to observe the society and tried to change it by
improving the conditions through pondering upon solutions which were usually beyond one’s ken.
Nowadays, people do this through R&D. The intellectuals and scientists are trying to make cancer
curable but before, people used to perceive the fact that it is not possible to cure cancer but when
the scientists challenged this reality and found the solution, the truth was revealed. This is how we
will succeed in dealing with the problem of the world. We must challenge our present reality and try
and make the best of what we have through courage, hard work and dedication. Reality is taken as
static but needs to be changed and that is what we must do.