A few days back an elephant was brought into a cinema theatre. Everyone was curious about the nature of the show. As a result the tickets were immediately sold out. The only problem was that all the people who came to the theatre were blind. So naturally, each person was asked to touch the elephant and form their opinion. Some touched his trunk and said it was a tree. Some touched his legs and said it was a pillar. Some touched his tail and said it was a rope. Some touched his stomach said it was a wall. And those that touched the tusk said it was a pipe. And when they finally compared their thoughts, they all disagreed. But naturally :-P There was a violent reaction from every person. Nobody was wrong you see, because each of their personal opinion was true. BUT since it was limited by their failure to actually ‘see’ the elephant as a whole, the totality of the truth was lost. Had all of them calmly analyzed each other’s theories, perhaps things would have been sorted out. But they continued to argue. And argue. And argue. Some in the crowd closed their ears to all this noise pollution and started to meditate. It was then that they heard the trumpet and they understood it was an elephant :-) But the others continued to argue. And argue. And argue. And the arguments rose to such a dangerous level that with all the noise pollution, the whole crowd also became deaf. By now, even though the scared elephant was desperately bellowing in his own beautiful language to tell them who it was, unfortunately no one was able to hear him now. Again had the people kept quiet and ‘listened’, then perhaps they could have all come to a final conclusion. From the story above, the Jains use the theory of manifold predication to illustrate the principle of living in harmony with people who have different belief systems. The Buddha says: Oh! how they cling and wrangle, some who claim For preacher and monk the honored name! For, quarreling, each to his view they cling. Such folk see only one side of a thing. Rumi the Sufi saint uses this story as an example of the limits of inidividual perception. He attributes the palm of every person feeling the elephant as ‘a sensual eye’, which sadly does not have the means of covering the whole of the beast. But the most interesting of them all is a modern poem which goes thus: ‘It was six men of Indostan To learning much inclined, Who went to see the Elephant (Though all of them were blind), That each by observation Might satisfy his mind So oft in theologic wars, The disputants, I ween, Rail on in utter ignorance Of what each other mean, And prate about an Elephant Not one of them has seen!’ If one does not show any respect for multiple beliefs; if one does not feel there is any need for communication, if one does not want to conquer the inexpressible nature of truth, if people who can actually see, use their eyes only to ‘behold the foam but not the Sea’, none on earth will be able to solve the missing ‘peace’ in the puzzle of Life!
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 02:29:04 +0000