Truth is, in essence, a tour de force through the Bhagwad Gita, Vedas and monumental epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata, brought to fore by the lives of two individuals, Manish and Shatanand. Manish, a IITian and a Harvard Business School graduate, belonged to the material world, working in the higher echelons of a top investment bank in the US. In the same breath, Shatanand decided to renounce the mundane world and pursue the life of an ascetic in India. Exhaustive reflections of the Gita and ancient scriptures and writings surface when both Manish and Shatanand pass away, coincidentally, on the same day.

July 1st, 2016. Manish in St Joseph Hospital, New York. And, Shatanand at an obscure corner near Rishikesh in India, 18,000 km from New York in the United States. Teachings from the Bhagwad Gita are manifest when, in death, both Manish and Shatanand are encased by a shimmering light which not only throws up answers about existence within the body and without, but guides the two essentially confounded beings who continually fumble for answers. "I will always be with you," it says assuringly. "You are the CPU.

The body is the monitor or robot controlled by you. But, you are not the robot," the inexplicable, all-pervasive light tells Manish, as he witnesses his own body and funeral by his weeping son, Krish, wife, Geeta, and friends from a state of nothingness. Manish's life was led by avaricious ambition, where results and goals count and not the actions. The end justifies the means.

The Gita talks about focusing on actions and not just for one's own good, but for the good of all. This was why Lord Krishna joined hands with the Pandavas. Lord Krishna's words to Arjuna echo in Truth: "You have the right to concentrate just on your work, but not the outcome.

Let not the fruits of your actions be the motive." But, in pursuit of his unbridled ambition, Manish is estranged from his son and wife and gets distanced from close colleague Bob. He loses himself to alchohol and womenising, becomes a fallen human being and finally dies at St Joseph Hospital. In step, Shatanand, apparently gives up material attachments and ventures out to spend life as a monk or sadhu. He spends time in meditation and prolonged exchanges of thoughts with sages.

Then, oneday, while lying on his charpoy in a crumbling ashram, he is gripped by excruciating pain, as Manish was, and writhes on the cot. Suddenly, he collapses and dies. Manish had also shrieked in unbearable agony before dying. Just like Manish, a pall of glimmering light shrouds him. From his supernatural or paranormal existence, he, as Manish does, watches his disciples chanting mantras and arranging for his burial. He finds the rituals quite meaningless for a dead man. Shatanand gazes at his earthly abode and belongings. "Am I Shatanand," he asks the unfathomable shimmer that not only is armed with a voice, but churns out unending answers. "That is the name attributed to your body and you," replies the blinding light. Have I not attained moksha or enlightenment, contemplates Shatanand. Have I failed, he wonders.

"Shatanand, you have left your old, worn out body and will now embark on a new, exciting journey," a voice reverberates. Just as Manish experiences, through a subtle play of literary writing, Truth finds Shatanand viewing his life unfolding before his eyes. Despite leading the life of a monk, Shatanand is drawn to sensual desires. He gets attracted to a young girl and yearns to marry her. He has throughout given in to worldly frailties. Manish, in his own way, has also severely ill-treated his wife after turning an alcoholic.

This has agonised his son who leaves him. He has also cheated her by continuing his relationship with his American girlfriend, Jane. One must face the outcome of your deeds, says the Karma Yoga. A going by Gyan Yoga, the body which is just an extension of base ego, must continue its journey.