Gruhastha is a Lawful Good god worshiped mostly in Vudra. He is almost unheard of in Avistan. I think this is terrible. Because the teachings of Gruhastha are, I think, ones people desperately need.
I discovered the existence of Gruhastha almost by accident. After a long time of thinking I was alone, and that no one truly understands, even if they are both good and wise.
Why didn’t I know before? Why didn’t anyone else knew? After that, I went on a small quest to find any information on all (non-Evil) deities and demigods that exist. Because what if there is someone else, just as important?
Maybe I will read out the list of them at the end, just so that people know.

My opinions on Gruhastha and his teachings aren’t the standard, orthodox opinions of his church. Partially because there is no organized church of Gruhastha in Avistan, partially because the things I do know about the church in Vudra I disagree with. But I will try, as is the way of those responsible with truth, to separate my personal opinions from truth closer to the universal.

Gruhastha is described to have been a nephew of Irori, a mortal who ascended to godhood by his own effort, and is widely known in the Inner Sea. Gruhastha is said to achieve true, enlightened wisdom, and write about it in his book; which was so perfect that divinity grew in it, and he became the book itself, ascending to godhood.
I have no idea what it means to merge with a book, or how a book can be so perfect divinity is created within it, and so can’t judge whether it is true. Though it is almost certainly not literally true, as most things concerning the true nature of divinity.
I also do not think Gruhastha was Irori’s nephew. It isn’t mentioned in the book, Azvadeva Pujila. Irori himself is mentioned in it, it is implied that Gruhastha met him, and learned some things from him. I don’t have direct evidence that he wasn’t Irori’s nephew. But it seems like the kind of detail other people came up with later, as a simplified explanation to create order in their understanding of the world. Of course if people did similar things in the same time period, there must be a direct connection between them, most probably familial, because that’s the kind of connection that is easiest for the masses to understand. And they couldn’t be brothers, or father and son, because that would contradict what is known. But a nephew is the closest connection that seems plausible.
I deeply doubt that the potential for ascension, or even enlightenment more generally, runs in the family.
It is not actually important whether Irori was Gruhastha’s uncle, it doesn’t change anything. It is just one of the things I want to be absolutely accurate about.

[The speaker explicitly doesn't use divine pronouns at any point in the broadcast. Which may be connected to his (though the gender isn't very obvious either) weird accent.]

Gruhastha is a deity whose areas of concern are very specific and narrow. Maybe that is related to him being a small deity, limited in how much he can act in the world. Or maybe not. Even those who study divine nature aren’t sure about such things.
Gruhastha’s areas of concern are said to be Peace, Understanding, Truth, and “the collective pursuit of Enlightenment”. I think all those terms are correct, though many disagree about the exact meaning and interpretation of those terms.



Truth and Understanding are nearly the same thing in that context, though still have some differences.

Understanding isn’t just knowledge. Or intelligence. Or education.
You can know a lot, and still not have Understanding. You can know how to solve riddles, and still not have Understanding. You can known all the secrets of magic, bending great forces to your will, and still not have Understanding.
My brother, who was very knowledgeable, decided at some point to memorize the names of all known countries in the world, and their capital cities, and their flags and symbols, if any. He succeeded! Depending on your definition of “all known countries in the world”, of course. This makes him knowledgeable, educated. More than me, my memory isn’t good enough for such things. And he was also smart, able to solve problems, understand complicated processes. Learned wizardry (though wasn’t very strong, last I heard from him). But he still didn’t have Understanding.
There are facts you can know about the world. Information. If you know a lot of information, can recall it at the right moment, can make conclusions based on it, this is knowledge. But after knowledge, there is insight, and wisdom. The ability to understand why you have that knowledge, what it means for you to have it, what it says about other knowledge you have, and other people who have it, or don’t. Wisdom changes the way you act because of the knowledge you have. For the better, hopefully. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been wisdom, though that is a semantic argument.
And there is much to be argued about how much knowledge Is required for wisdom, and can a person be wise without knowing anything. Those aren’t relevant to the topic. Both wisdom and knowledge are good, and are things Gruhastha teaches to aspire to, though wisdom is much more important in my opinion.

Truth is the other side of the same coin as Understanding. Truth doesn’t mean just honesty, as many gods, and approaches of honor not connected to gods, teach to be honest and not lie. Truth here is inseparable from Understanding. In the simple sense, information should be true, as false information isn’t useful. But in a deeper sense, the teachings of Gruhastha focus on study of truth itself: the nature of truth, what it means for a thing to be true rather than false, how to define truth, and how to judge whether a thing you know is true or not. [1]
And when talking to others, Truth means not just to “not tell lies”, but to, first, say things that are accurate reflections of what you know, and second, say things that will help the people you are talking to achieve Understanding. Though that is much harder, as the minds of others are hard to comprehend, and the consequences of our actions are hard to predict.
And my exact rules for telling the truth are highly unusual, though I have trouble saying if they are less strict or more strict than is usual for Gruhasthans.

[1] Unfortunately, Taldane doesn’t have the word “epistemology”. Though Vudrani might.

Many people use the word Enlightenment. What does it truly mean?
Well, no one really knows. But there are directions to look at, some of which I consider more accurate than others.
One description, of the thing that Gruhastha himself achieved, is “a universal understanding of the world, each creature’s place within it, and how each person might best contribute to the completion and transcendence of the whole.“
And I agree with that. To be enlightened is to have a very deep understanding of the world. Of yourself, of other people. Have that understanding so deep, it changes everything about you. It makes you a better person. A person who is both happier, and makes the people around you happier (what “happier” means here is a huge separate topic). One saying is “enlightenment is knowledge guided by wisdom and tempered by empathy”.
I also think there is no single threshold that separates enlightened people from “normal” people. You understand more and more, you become closer and closer to enlightenment. To think yourself perfect is a mistake, a sign of imperfection. As is judging others for not being perfect.

And here it is important to see the differences between the philosophy of Gruhastha, and the philosophy of Irori.
Irori is a very simple god, or at least the god of a very simple instinct. To become better, at whatever it is you do, and strive towards perfection. This instinct is universal. Most people have it, though not at a strong enough level to dedicate their lives to it. That is not the entirety of The Way, but it is the beginning, for everyone.
And Irori is Neutral on the moral axis. This principle applies regardless of your intentions or morals, regardless of what you want to be better at it, or what you will use your skill for.
The Way of Gruhastha is similar. It has the same focus on learning to become better, on always walking The Way towards perfection. But is far narrower. Gruhastha will not help you become better at sword fighting, or painting, or cooking, or singing. “Becoming better” means becoming a wiser person who makes better decisions, better understands and controls their emotions, acts better towards their friends (and enemies).
Better at being a Good and Lawful kind of person. Which is also a skill, requiring both training and knowledge, people just rarely see it that way.

Here I must note that I myself, to the best of my knowledge, am Neutral Good, and not Lawful, despite being the cleric of a Lawful Good god.
I consider Goodness to just be much more important and meaningful than Lawfulness. Law is also useful, an important thing to aspire to, but as there are points where it comes to conflict with Goodness, I choose Good each time without hesitation. Despite the fact that my desire to reach to reach Heaven is much stronger than the one for Nirvana.
Maybe in a better world it wouldn’t be so, and being both Good and Lawful was easier.
Or maybe I am just not good enough at that skill, and don’t have enough strength of spirit to succeed at the goals I have. Don’t know.
(Gruhastha himself built his divine realm in the Neutral Good Nirvana, and not Lawful Good Heaven. One explanation I saw is that it is because Gruhastha can do much more for people in Nirvana, as it is much more open, easier to get to, both because being Neutral and not Lawful is easier, and because Nirvana wants to house all souls which want it, and Heaven only chooses the ones that fit the most. Another is that Heaven already knows most of the things Gruhastha wants to teach, so his impact there is lesser.)

And the other difference is that the Way of Irori is always very personal. Individuals walk it, not societies, at best you can have a society in which many individuals walk it, individually.
The Way of Gruhastha is the collective pursuit of Enlightenment. Everyone should become wiser, more insightful, more Good and hopefully more Lawful. Even if only by a small amount. For some purposes, the total amount, like the height of the sea, is much more important than the existence of enlightened individuals. A society that is a little more honest, where people understand each other a little better, is a vast improvement. And that would allow it to continue becoming even better.
Irori views obstacles as individual challenges, but Gruhastha considers them something that must be addressed for the greater good of society as a whole, and by the whole society, through rules and agreements. Because most of problems with society, and many problems of physical nature, cannot be solved by a single person, however exceptional they are.

I can imagine a collection of Irorans, each following their Way, in a manner that isn’t any better for the world. Maybe because they just don’t care. Maybe because, despite having a great courage and strength of spirit, and knowledge of ancient mysteries, and mastery over their bodies, some of them would still be vengeful, and petty. And hear the end of a conversation implying their beloved has cheated on them, and dedicate themselves to a quest of revenge. Or, if they are less aggressive, to seclude themselves on the highest mountain for 10 years, to meditate on their grief, or something. Where it could have been just a misunderstanding.
Some people would reply “this wouldn’t happen, people who truly are far on The Way are above such mistakes or concerns”…but that is not certain. That is the problem with The Way being individual. Different people will have different goals and consider different things important, and so the result would not necessarily be good. Though of course, I do think it is better for people to follow Irori’s way than not any such Way at all. Both because it is good for people to be free and make choices, and because it is better for society, on average, to have stronger more skilled people.

I am not saying that everyone should be forced to do the same thing. That is of course also a mistake. A mistake I committed before in my life. And one I think Lawful societies are often prone to. People are different. They want different things, they need different things, and they have different capabilities. And yet, I think it is good to have one main goal everyone should aspire to (as long as the goal itself is good, of course), even if people would work towards it differently, and some would achieve  it less well, or achieve only some parts of it and not others.
As far as I know, in Vudra, the faiths of Irori and Gruhastha are in a state of what is called “Symbiosis”. They work together at the things they are good at.
In Avistan, where Gruhastha is unknown, I think many Good Irorans should just…switch to Gruhastha. Or add him to their worship, at least. Especially Iroran paladins, who I know exist. Some of them even have an explicit goal of “brining enlightenment to others”. And in the technical sense, there are Neutral Good people who can’t be chosen by Irori, but can be by Gruhastha, even if the fraction of clerics is very small among worshippers, and you can worship Gruhastha even if you are Chaotic Evil. Chaotic Evil people arguably need him the most!
Now, that ia of course not true of all Good Irorans. Gruhastha is, as I said, very narrow. People who want to spread Iroran teachings not connected to wisdom and enlightenment should keep doing so. Like the one paladin of Irori I met who taught villagers to better fight monsters. If you are listening, Calor, you are great, keep your work!
And I am not sure if some hypothetical world where Gruhastha was known in Avistan, but not Irori, would be better than the one we live in. Not possible in the first place, I assume. But more options, and more information, are always better. So consider it.
(I expect many would be surprised that my manner of explaining which things I consider good often comes in comparison to things I consider worse. I do not have a good way to do it differently; do not consider it a mistake; and will continue doing so.
The thing Gruhastha’s and Irori’s teachings fully agree on is the strive towards perfection, and to striving towards perfection means to be well aware of which things aren’t perfect, and in what way they are flawed. You shouldn’t hate them, or loathe, or blame, for their imperfection. Just recognize “this is not good enough, we should be able to do better”. You wouldn’t reach perfection, but at least by striving towards it you will find something better, instead of just striving toward repeating the flawed things that already exist.)

I do not think Irori and Gruhastha themselves disagree on this. They probably just focus on different equally important goals. But their teachings are still different. To quote Azvadeva Pujila – “all great teachers agree with each other, but all of their students disagree with each other”.
And if you have an equal choice between the two teachings, I think Gruhastha’s is just better, in most cases. Though most people do not have an equal choice. And of course, this is my opinion, and to be wise is to understand I can be wrong. Assuming people can even be right about what is and isn't better, which is a complicated question.

Irori and overcoming challenges brings me to another god I want to compare Gruhastha to – Nethys.
I interacted a lot with Nethysians, especially when I was younger. Nethys is a god of knowledge, his followers write books and maintain libraries. That is so great!
But as I learned more, I realized that Nethys’ approach to knowledge is wrong, in a way I couldn’t easily explain before I discovered Gruhastha.
Nethys is a god of knowledge, curiosity, and discovery. But he is not a god of doing good things with them.
It is explicitly known that in a sense, Nethys is a god who is both Good and Evil simultaneously. Nethys is the god of the power that knowledge gives you, and that power can be used equally to help or to harm.
(As far as I understand, Nethys isn’t uniquely a god of magic. He is a god of "knowledge learning which gives you power over the world". Magic is just the most common and most direct example of such knowledge.)
Now, curiosity and discovery are good things to have. But they are not enough in of themselves. Being curious doesn’t guarantee that you will find the truth, doesn’t guarantee that you will care about the truth rather than finding an easier false solution that satisfies you, doesn’t guarantee that the thing you were curious about is an important thing to understand in the first place. Curiosity is a selfish impulse. Not that I disapprove in principle. People should be curious, they shouldn’t be limited from it. But a god of curiosity is still not a good enough god.
Nethys is a god of discovery, and, as far I understand, wants and encourages people to discover things. But he doesn’t, as far as I understand, care about what they do with the discovery. It is pleasing to Nethys for some wizard living in seclusion to discover some great spell that could make life better for everyone, even if the wizard doesn’t tell about it to anybody, and then dies after 6 months in an experiment gone wrong.
Gruhastha is not a god of knowledge itself, like Nethys. But he is a god of learning. And a god of sharing, spreading around, and preserving the knowledge that already exists. Which is a manifestation of his focus on collective enlightenment, and some people call it “education”, though it is a term I don’t like in that context.

Worshipers of Nethys often talk about knowledge and discovery being deserved or undeserved. That magic is in some sense a reward from Nethys for those who prove their superiority by their dedication and intelligence. They often refuse ideas intended to make learning whatever it is they learn easier, consider challenges to make the knowledge acquired to make the result itself better. I heard, though cannot confirm, that there is a spell, granted by Nethys to his priests, that allow the priests to temporarily give some of their magical power to other people, but they consider it a blasphemy to use on those who do not already have some magical abilities and thus “deserve” the magic. (It exactly fits my thoughts on why the approach is wrong, but my source on that specific fact is very unreliable, and I consider believing a thing only because it proves my grudges right to be a failing.)
The faith of Irori has a similar phenomenon, as I mentioned before. Overcoming challenges is often seen as an inherently desirable action, regardless of the challenge’s reasons for existence, or consequences. And before being taught something, people often need to prove they are smart or brave, to show they deserve the lesson.
As a Gruhasthan, I dislike this. “Deserving” is not a useful concept. It is just better for things to be better rather than worse, it is better for everyone to be wiser, and know more. Learning wisdom is hard enough already, so why make it even harder? And knowledge and wisdom often, if not always, make you smarter and braver.
It is possible in some cases that a person wants to learn something, but teaching them this thing wouldn’t improve the world, or maybe even harm it. Because they would misunderstand in unproductive ways. Or they are Evil and would use it for Evil. Or this knowledge will somehow harm them and they would regret trying to learn.
But such cases are extremely rare. The right lesson from those cases is “be cautious, think about the consequences of your actions”, and not “some people do not deserve to learn or have their life improve”. Teaching everyone and improving all lives is Gruhastha’s mission.

Many worshipers of Nethys have a ritual of obedience. The ritual is to write on a parchment parts of an arcane formula, and descriptions of what it is supposed to do, but not a full formula. In such a way that It could, if a suitable person reads it, inspire them to research it and complete the formula.
The ritual obedience of Gruhastha is to spend an hour doing one of the following things: teach someone to be better at further learning and acquiring knowledge (often it takes the form of teaching people to read, but teaching them about the nature of truth also works); Learn yourself, from a teacher, something you don’t know, preferably something that makes you better at finding even more knowledge and understanding in the future;
Or – my favorite choice because I am not good at actually interacting with people – write something educational. Something that will make people better. Have some information or insight other people don’t have, and you do, and say “here, now I will teach you this”. And then donate what you wrote to a place where people will learn from it, like a school or library.
It has the same basic idea, create something that makes the world has more knowledge. But Gruhastha’s tradition is more, well, Lawful and Good. It is more direct, more predictable, and more concerned with helping people.
It is about the spread of information. Answers being easy to find when you seek them. Which is not itself enlightenment, but it’s much easier for people to achieve even a little of it, when information is lighter and is spread more easily.
Like, for example, with the radio! That I am talking through right now. An invention that makes it easier to spread information across the world, to make the words of one teacher heard by hundreds! I am sure Gruhastha is delighted. Even if it is not at all certain that he himself inspired it’s creation. I am quite sure though that the invention, or at least the spread of radio, happened with the blessing of Seramaydiel, the Neutral Good lesser deity of sound and communication. Sending your words to a distance is the one thing she would favor the most! Though it does pose the question, why don’t the radio stations send music to people? Seems like the first thing she would cause. And even without divine intentions, music sent from afar is more…obvious than information on the weather, as a thing as use for radio people come up with. You could send it in letters, and you can’t ever send music in them. Weird.
 
[The radio does play music. Emmet Sophian is just not the kind of person who would notice, despite valuing information and understanding.]
 
I am not sure this broadcast I am doing would count as Obedience for Gruhastha. It is good, sharing wisdom and understanding, just like a normal lesson.
But the information is not preserved, cannot be gained by those who come later. Those who listen to the lesson can forget. And maybe nobody is listening to my broadcast right now! I wouldn’t know, you don’t have any way to respond to me.
If you do listen, I ask you, and hope deeply you will listen, to write down what I am saying, if it it will not take too much effort for you. And then put it in a place where many people can see it. This is the way to preserve the lesson, even if it is not the best lesson it can be. And is an example of how improving the world through sharing understanding is a collective pursuit, so the hope-
Ahhh! I am such an idiot! I should have asked people to write down my words, the “sermon”, at the beginning, I wasted so much of it that people didn’t write down, making that request almost useless.
Well, that’s life. As I said previously, I am not good at choosing what words should I say, and at what order, to express the truth inside my mind, even if the truth is valuable. I can only say anything I think of, and hope the result will be better than not doing it.

Where was i? Yes, sharing and preserving information.
There is a thought here, that resulted from trying to conceptualize what Gruhastha’s domains mean to me.
And I came up with a metaphor, or a fable, rather.
Came up with it several years ago, now the radio is a thing I can point to easily, which demonstrates better some parts of the metaphor. But I still believe the metaphor is useful.

There are many things I am not horrified by at all, unlike most people. Like rape. Or the idea that my (or anyone else's) soul will be destroyed.
And there are things like Hell that horrify me as they do most people.
And there are many very small, insignificant things that horrify me more than anyone else, though I learned with time to overcome it (because how I feel about a concept or event is not at all related to how trully good or bad that event or concept is).
For example, I am horrified that people are able to be hurt not only physically, but by words and the opinions of others.
Another thing that horrifies me, the one relevant to the sermon, is…
Imagine you want to know something important. And you have no idea how to find it. you don’t know if anyone has the answer. But there is an answer. Someone knows it. or, even better for the metaphor, it’s written in a book.
The book is not hidden, or secret. There are no traps or monster protecting it. It is just laying there, somewhere. And even if you know it exists, you will never find it. Because you have no idea where to look. Maybe it is on the other side of the world. Maybe it’s in the same city where you live! (Let’s suppose that you do live in a city, if you don’t). Some guy has it. And it’s not the book is useless, he needs it to, it helps him. But you also need it. You can find the answer and return it to him, no problem, everyone wins here. If you could only find the book. You can’t. Because you don’t know that you need to find the guy. And he doesn’t know that you are looking for him. Even if actually meeting him would be very easy. If only you knew you had to meet at all.
Now, suppose a miracle happened. You discovered, by sheer accident, how to find the guy. You met him. He gave you the book to read. You found your answer. You are not disappointed. This was exactly the answer you wanted, it will make your entire life better from now on. You close the book…and realize. Oh no. There are other people, who, just like you, need the answer. Without it, their lives wouldn’t be complete. And they have no idea that they need to find you. And you don’t have idea who they are. And so they will never find the answer. Not because the information is hidden. Not because some evil is spreading ignorance and lies. Not because there is a mountain or sea in the way. There is just no way to know, and no way to know what you need to know.
And a similar thing happens if it’s not pure knowledge but, say, a cure for your disease. Or two people who would love each other, complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses, if they ever met, but they never will because they do not have a reason to.
Now, compared to war, famine, plagues, unjust rule, this is nothing. Let alone fiends tormenting souls. This is not a real problem. And yet, thinking about this scenario…it is just opposed to my very being. Not the only thing in the world that is opposed to my being, but one of the few.
I do not know if that is something Gruhastha himself feels. And it is certainly not something you have to feel to understand Gruhastha. But I think it is one of the things that makes me close to Gruhastha in spirit, and made him choose me.


Some say Gruhastha is the god of books. He isn’t a god of books. But books are his main tool, and are sacred to him. Because books preserve information, to be shared later.
They are not unique in this. Monuments, and paintings, preserve information, though less well. Minds could be said to be “tools that preserve information”.
And minds are better than books, in that a mind can contain wisdom, and not just knowledge that wisdom can be learned from. A mind can be asked a question, and think about how to respond to it, and a book can’t.
But books are always available and inexhaustibly patient. Books can’t be tired, or drunk, or forget things. Though books could be burnt, or wet, or otherwise made impossible to read. And books can’t choose to lie. But the things written in them can be lies. Though even then the lie is consistent, and a book wouldn’t tell different lies to different people.
I heard legends of magical gemstones in which you can record a thought you had. And then other people who have the gemstone can feel your thoughts in their mind. I have no idea if those legends are true. And if they aren’t, whether it’s possible for someone, somewhere, to use great magic and create such an object. But if it is possible, than those gemstones would be a sacred tool in Gruhastha’s work as much as books are. Maybe even more! Because they would transmit insight, if not wisdom, more directly between person to person, better than words can.
And, well, radio is a good thing, a step in the right direction. It is easy to imagine that someone could create a device that, instead of allowing you to speak at great distance, and anyone to hear your words, to write at great distance, and anyone to read your words. That would be amazing. That would be a tool of Gruhastha better than all the world’s books ever written. That would be…the best thing I can imagine.
That is a failure of imagination, though. Things could always be better, in hundreds of ways.

Now, I must note that Gruhastha himself is not a god of invention. Which is somewhat disappointing. Invention, as I just said, and we all see know, is an extremely important thing. If I decided how the world worked, I would decide that Gruhastha is a god of invention too, in addition to everything else.
But he isn’t. in some sense, it is for the same reason he is not a god of knowledge or magic. He focuses on other things.
Gruhastha is not a god of the knowledge that gives you power to change the world. He is only the god of learning the wisdom to understand in which ways the world needs to be changed, and how the power should be applied.
And wisdom is learned. It is sometimes discovered in a sense of finding the book in your town that has the answers you need. But I think it is almost never invented. There isn’t new wisdom that didn’t exist before. The realizations you have about the world are ones thousands of others already had before you. Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have realizations! You should, because you do not have the wisdom of those who lived thousands of years ago.
Theoretically, if all wisdom that ever existed was preserved…well, there is a sense in which it is probably preserved in Abadar’s First Vault, if the legends are true. But only actual works, what people wrote. A lot of wisdom is only said out loud instead of written down, in even more of it existed only as a thought that was never spoken. And even if all of it was written down, having all those books (and the time and ability to read them) doesn’t mean you have all the wisdom of those who wrote them. Just as hearing a person speak is not enough to have the same thoughts they had that lead to saying the words.
But, let’s leave all that. Suppose that it is possible. To collect all the shards of truth that anyone ever had in history.
No one person, mortal or otherwise, had perfect wisdom. Not even Gruhastha (though it is very possible saying that counts as heresy. But I don’t care, and see that as one of the reasons to be Neutral Good instead of Lawful). Now, I think that taking the 100 wisest, most enlightened people and combining all their wisdom together is enough. But it may not be. So everyone who ever lived, all the insights and knowledge they had, combined together. Only mortals, even, that would be enough. I still think the resulting wisdom would be perfect and complete. A person with that wisdom will still need to think of new ways to apply that wisdom in new circumstances. May need to learn specific knowledge about elements of reality, knowledge in the Nethysian sense. But they would not – I believe, and may be wrong – need to invent or discover any new wisdom, because their wisdom is already perfect. And Gruhastha guides us towards wisdom, and that is the reason he is not a god of invention.
Which means that it is still very good that Nethys exists. Though I would have preferred that the relative importance and power of the two were switched, it would be better for the world. Or, you know, if Aroden survived, as Aroden was a god of invention, one that benefits society more than the Nethysian kind. Not even counting all the other obvious implications and consequences of Aroden not dying.
But, well, “so many things would be better if Aroden didn’t die” is…not a new or clever insight, as everyone knows.

And the last interest of Gruhastha, peace. What “peace” means here?
Not just “not being at war”.
It’s tranquility and serenity as a desirable state of the world we need to strive for, or at least create a limited amount of in our lives.

It is the inner peace a person should have. Not be in turmoil, understand your emotions enough to avoid them harming you.
Now, I, personally, believe that the right and natural thing to strive for is to feel as few negative emotions as possible. And I view the ability to experience suffering as a failing (one I am guilty of myself! Though certainly less than I did before).
But I do not know if that approach is right, or even possible, for everyone else. And they still can and should find enlightenment anyway. So that is probably not a necessary part of enlightenment, just an option.
And a state of inner peace probably means less extreme things, even in the same direction.
(I also conceptualize overcoming both reasoning errors and uncontrolled negative emotions as “overcoming the weaknesses of mortal nature”. Which some tell me sounds suspiciously similar to some Asmodean theology. “It sounds similar to something Evil” is not a reasonable argument that a thing is bad or wrong. But the term might also be technically inaccurate, in that creatures that aren’t mortal have many of the same weaknesses and failings. Demons, for example. Demons often have even more of them than mortals.)

And Peace is also about your relation to other people.
To be peaceful means not to intend to harm others, not hate them or seek hollow revenge. But it is also much deeper than that.
In this context, a comparison that feels natural to me is the teaching of the church of Sarenrae.
Sarenrae is a goddess of healing and redemption. The things her teachings are focused on are caring for people and forgiving them. Because everyone can be good, if given the chance. And because…I’ll frame it in my more Gruhasthan way because I can’t do it otherwise: you only have your perspective on life, and so you perceive and feel things differently, but if you could see life through the eyes of the other person, feel what they felt, then even if they harmed you, you would still care about them and maybe forgive them.
This is not exactly how the teachings of Gruhastha approach things. Or at least, I specifically am not a person who can personally care about people and forgive them, or feel their pain, and so I focus on the parts of Gruhasthan teachings that don’t require this.
This part, that is similar to Sarenrae’s but is different, and in my opinion better, is thus: people are imperfect. They don’t always do the right thing. That includes you. Most people who you would encounter in your life, who caused harm, didn’t do it for incomprehensible or monstrous reasons. They did everything for reasons that seemed right to them, just like you do. Maybe they were selfish. But you are probably selfish too, sometimes. They may have been careless and didn’t think about the consequences of their actions. But do you think in great detail about every step you make? Or they were limited by circumstances, and thought they had no other choice. Are you sure you wouldn’t think the same, in their place? Or they believed, and still believe, they were doing the obviously right thing. How often do you doubt the things you believe to be obviously true? Maybe they fought for their country, not thinking “but what if my country is the bad, and I shouldn’t fight for it?”, because almost no one does.
Their bad actions were probably still bad. They could have done better if they were wiser, kinder, and more thoughtful. As everyone should try to become.
They made mistakes. But those mistakes were not unique. They viewed those mistakes the same way you view yours. Even if there was a difference of scale, the nature of their mistakes was almost certainly the same as the nature of the mistakes you commit, in your life. Or, if it wasn’t, you certainly both committed mistakes from the same list, let’s say.
Because all mistakes committed by everyone, even on other continents and maybe on other planes, come from the same list. And so if you want to be better, you should study that list of mistakes and how to avoid them. Regardless of who you are and what you want. Because, while the path is different for everyone, the general shape of the path, I believe, is exactly the same, or leads to the same destination, if you go far enough. Whether you are Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil, the truth you need to discover would be the same, the things that will make you more enlightened will be enlightening in the same general way.
When you look at, for example, a murderer, If you are enlightened, you do need compassion or love to, when looking, to not think “oh gods, a murderer, how could he do that?!” or “despicable, I hate him!”, but Understand. Understand the reasons for his actions, understand what mistakes lead him to those actions, and how to avoid those mistakes, for you and for everyone else. To recognize and comprehend the mistakes of others and the harm they have done, exactly by the same standards you evaluate your own actions. As long as you are imperfect, do not expect perfection from others(that is just pointless), and do not judge them for being imperfect themselves (while still clearly knowing that being more perfect is better, and it is what they should strive towards), as that would be hypocritical, don’t you think? And not judging others for imperfection even when you are perfect is one of traits required to become perfect in the first place. According to the Gruhasthan rather than Iroran conception of perfection, at least.

Now, is “peace” of that kind inherently connected to truth? Is being peaceful more “true” than being passionate, scared, or angry? Is not being peaceful a mistake?
Yes and no.
Many things are mistakes. In the sense that they are actions caused by not knowing all relevant facts, not being familiar with relevant phenomena, having direct and obvious errors of reasoning, not having enough self-control to do the action you want to do. At least obvious to people like me who studied reasoning and its possible errors.
I think a person who did not do those things would be more peaceful, and take less actions that are Evil or unwise. Not all of them, but some.
Because…selfishness isn’t a mistake. Just a choice. Anger and fear are not mistakes. But hatred and hostility are. Envy, paranoia. They are mistakes. Something that a wise person doesn’t do, because it harms them and doesn’t help anything. Not all wise people are Good, not all unwise people are Evil, but people who are more wise are less Evil.

This framing itself is not absolute truth, though. It focuses on my previous point about negative emotions being bad, even if only some. It is also, In a sense, part of the problem.
I made mistakes in my life, I saw through them, became wiser, found Gruhstha, and started helping others overcome those problems.
But then I realized it was still a mistake. I wasn’t wise enough to realize that those kinds of problems are just a small part of all problems. And thinking that what you know, and are good at, is the most important, not thinking about anything else, is also one of the problems. Thinking you achieved true Understanding is one of the things preventing true Understanding. There are many ways to be wise, not one true way. There are many shards of truth you can see without seeing the others.
And there are countess mistakes. Countless barriers In the way of true understanding of even one person, let alone the whole world.