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me your note. Tell me briefly about all the philosophies that you found to be untrue.” The disciple replied, “Gurudev, my hands are empty.”
“Did you not get paper?”
"I got paper, but it is still blank. I could not write on it.”
“Did you not get a pen?” “I got a pen, but it did not move." “Why did it not have a nib?” “It did have a nib, but it did not move.” “Did you not get ink?” “I did get ink, but there was nothing to write.” “Did no philosophy seem untrue?”
“No, nothing seemed untrue and so I could not make a list.”
“Disciple, now you may go. Your learning is complete. You have passed in brilliant colours.”
An exactly similar situation I see in the incident where Acharya Atreya of Takshila University told his disciple, “Go to the forest in the outskirts of Takshila and get me those plants that cannot be used as medicine.” The disciple went humbly to carry out the orders of the Acharya. He roamed around a lot. Finally he was totally fatigued. He came back empty
Anekanta: The Third Eye
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