Foundation in First Principle of Truth & Colour for UPSC Essay Aspirants
In the 2025 UPSC essay paper, the Essay Prompt “Truth knows no Colour” is considered as the most difficult.
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At the first glance it looks highly Ambiguous, and in exam conditions where time is of essence, might give a sense of “Déjà Vu”, because the Theme is Paradoxical, even though both “Truth” and “Colour” are Profoundly Pervasive, they dominate our everyday life and experience, every moment since our birth.
Ambiguous it Isn’t, but Perfectly Hiding in our Plain Sight
Why?
Simply because We Aren’t Curious, We ain’t asking or Questioning the Status Quo!
We are Happy in Just Accepting what comes to us.
The prompt feels particularly Paradoxical because it pits two fundamentally Contrasting Characteristics of Reality against each other.
Truth, which we consider Objective & Unchanging, while Colour our most vivid and Subjectively Variable Experience. Colour keeps changing with Our Emotions, Contexts, Situations & Interpretations.
Simply putting, it is the Tension between “Seeing” & the “Unseen,” between what We CAN and what We CANNOT easily Perceive Visually for our Comprehension & Experience
The Essence of this prompt perfectly fits into the Core Theme as to why UPSC has ‘Essay’ as a paper in the Civil Services Mains Examination –
You will figure that out as we keep going!
Here, let me ask you – Can we see the “Electron”?
The answer is Emphatic “No”; we cannot see Electrons, neither with our naked eyes nor with any instruments ever invented; but humanity has established the undeniable Existence of Electrons!
But we often say “to See is to Believe!”
But what We Say and what We See are so often Flawed and Untruthful, just as this statement.
Let me explain this to you.
The ability to directly Visualise or Observe Electron is both Intrusive & Prohibitive, not just because, it is Infinitesimally Small, with no Spatial Extant or Dimension – just a Point Particle, but more fundamentally because of the limitation imposed by the Uncertainty Principle of Quantum Mechanics, which Defines the Constraint set by the Universe as a Fundamental Rule due to which Observation of the Purest State of Matter is Impossible.
This is because We the Observer are Never Neutral, and our very act of looking at, is only by Trying to “Colour” it with Our Perception, and that very act of trying to see the electron, Alters its very State of Existence, which then Ceases to be in its True Self, and this is the Revelation – a Powerful Parallel for the Essay.
The paradox here is that, just as Truth, the Electron stays out of our Visual Perception. It remains a Concept, which we know is Real, but One we can Never Truly See or Directly Observe; only remains as a figment of our imagination, uncoloured by our perception.
The Profound Implication here is the Gap between Reality & Our Mental Models that are Shaped by Our Perceptual Limits, born from the Limitations of our Biological Perceptions (Limits of our Biological Brain).
The Electron Serves as a Powerful Demonstration that Our Attempts to Visualise Facts & Truth are often just Constructs to Aid Our Understanding & Colour Our Comprehension. The drawings of Electrons Orbiting a Nucleus are Not Literal Truths but Simplified Representations; Our Tools to Grasp a Phenomenon that lies Beyond the Direct Reach of Our Senses. Such Representations are Useful, but not Wholly Truthful! They are Approximations, Metaphors, Not Perfect Representations of the Underlying Reality.
Our Perception-Limited Attempts to Define Reality are Flawed Representations that are Useful only for Our Survival, Navigation & Prediction in Our World and in Our Practical Life, but should Never be Mistaken, for the Ultimate Truth or Reality.
Now, let’s flip this paradox on its head with the visible illusion we call Colour.
The essence of Colour is an Inversion of the Electron’s Paradox. Unlike the Electron, We See Colours Everywhere they Appear Vivid, Tangible & Undeniably Real; precisely because We can See it!
The True Understanding of Colour however lies at the intersection of Physics, Human Biology & Cognitive Neuroscience.
In our school days we learnt that “Chlorophyll” is the “Green Colouring” substance present in Leaf of Plants that are Pigment Molecules responsible for making “Energy” for the Plant by Absorbing Sunlight.
Plant Leaves, Absorb Wavelengths of Light, Corresponding to the Red & Blue Bands of the Visible Electromagnetic Spectrum, to make their Food, but reflects back certain Wavelengths of Light, which Enters our Eye & gets Converted into Electrical Signals, then Processed by our Brain, is Interpreted as “Green.”
Let us Rephrase this to get a New Perspective. The Leaf isn’t Projecting “Greenness.” By Reflecting certain Wavelengths of Light – the Leaf is actually Rejecting a Part of the Light band that it doesn’t Need!
We see “Green” not because “Greenness” Inhabits the Leaf as its character, but because Evolution Tuned the Cones in Our Eyes to Register that Reflection, that very Rejection. So what We are Literally Seeing is that Discarded Element by Nature while the Truth lies Invisible and Colourless to Us.
An interesting observation here will be that of an Apple placed inside a Dark Room and Under Pure Blue Light. The Apple will completely Absorb this Blue Light & Scatter or Reflect back Nothing; so the Apple appears to us either as Black or invisible in the dark.
The philosophy here is that – Reality Exists Independently of Our Observation or Our Ability to Observe anything.
That Visual Perception of Apple in Black colour, is actually a great Shift from the usual understanding that “Apple is Red,” and here, it shatters Convention; because our Perception of Colour is Conditional, Fragile & Contingent to our living environment, Our World.
Simply speaking Whatever We See & Whatever We Cannot are the Limits of Our Physical Being.
The Vivid and Tangible Perception of Light and Colour that we See does not Exist Outside of our Mind in the physical reality of this Universe; but only Perceived through our Sense of Vision – as our World, and our Truth; Filtered by Evolution, Constructed by Biology and Interpreted by our Brain, and that is the Lesson from Colour – it Exists, Not in the Real World, but in Us, as an Useful Fiction, Created by Our Biological Limitations as a Shimmering Veil, just “Maya” Draped across Reality. This is our Truth, but not the Absolute Truth!
But now we have a Created a Compounding Paradox, due to the Profound Conflict that – the Electron is a Truth Without Colour & Colour is a Perception Without an Objective Truth.
This Paradoxical Meaning however finds its Reasoning in One Critical Distinction – the Difference between what is Truthful & what is Useful, primarily because Evolution has Shaped our Perception to be Useful not Truthful, a Humanly Useful Slice of Reality, Carved out by Evolution just for our Survival and as an Useful Interface only to help us Distinguish and here, if we may say, to distinguish between a ripe and a raw fruit!
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Our Visual Rendering of our World Enables us to just Navigate its vast Complexities in SOMEWHAT Meaningful & SEEMINGLY Objective Manner.
The Universe has Allowed us Just Enough Perception to Navigate our Survival but NOT to Uncover the Absolute Truth of the Inherent Process & Functioning of Existence.
This Gap between Usefulness & Truthfulness is Not a Weakness of our Perception – it is the Design for Us!
The Universe through Evolution has Shaped our Eyes and Brain to make Sense of the World in ways that are just Functional, but has Cleverly Limited our Ability to Physically Render the Truth.
Thus Truth as Colourless lies Elsewhere Beyond our Lenses & Neural Renderings.
This is particularly the reason why Humanity created Ethics, Science and Philosophy; because Usefulness triumphs Truthfulness both in our World & in Nature and unlike animals, we Aspire to go beyond mere Survival, and Ethics, Science and Philosophy are our attempts to re-Balance the absurdity of the Evolutionary Bias; to Align ourselves with the Truth, Impartial, Objective & Universal Wisdom.
The Essence of Ethics, Science and Philosophy lies in the Lives of Great Personalities who Heralded Civilisational Progress through their curious minds and with their Unwaveringly Intentional Desires in Pursuit of Truth; their Lives, their Works, their Philosophy lies deeply anchored, resonating deliberately as Functional Themes for YOU to Explore in this Essay prompt. [Gautama Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, Socrates, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Leonardo de Vinci, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Leo Tolstoy, Martin Luther King Jr., ….. …. ..]
Remember, Essay means to make an “Attempt”! Not merely to Write, but an Intellectual Effort to Examine, Explore & Express Ideas shaped in Clear, Coherent & Structured manner.
So, by Examining the Deepest Meaning of Truth and Colour & Exploring the Essence lies the most Powerful way to Build your Foundation for the Depth of your Expression.
This 2025 UPSC Essay Prompt is Asking you to Examine, Explore & Express the Philosophy that “Truth Exists Independently of Human Perception.”
In our Next Episode, we shall articulate this prompt to make a clear, coherent and structured Attempt in writing the Essay
However before we conclude I will leave you to Tinker with a Profound Truth – the “Light” that we See, is itself INVISIBLE!
Let me know Your Thoughts Your Comments and visit our YouTube Channel to see the Podcast Video of this Blog Post.