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ANEKÄNTAVÄDA - AN ELEPHANT AND THE BLIND MEN
Chapter 29 - Anekäntaväda - An Elephant and The Blind Men
Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today."
They had no idea what an elephant was. They decided, "Even though we cannot see the elephant, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was. Each of them touched the elephant.
"Hey, the elephant is like a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg.
"Oh, no! It is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail.
"Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant
"It is like a big manual fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.
"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.
"It is like a solid pipe," said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.
They began to argue about the elephant and every one of them insisted that he was right. They were getting agitated. A wise man was passing by saw this. He stopped and asked them, "What is the matter?” They said, "We cannot agree on what the elephant is like." Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, "All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently is because each one of you touched a different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features that you all said."
"Oh!" everyone said. There was no more fighting. They felt happy and content that they were all right.
The moral of the story is that there may be some truth to what someone says. Sometimes we can see that truth and sometimes we cannot because they may have a different perspective that we may not agree to. So, rather than arguing like the blind men, we should say, "Maybe you have your reasons." In Jainism, it is explained that truth can be stated in seven different ways. One should know the complete truth, and then analyze the truth from all different angles. So, you can see how broad our religion is. It teaches us to be tolerant towards others to
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JAIN PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE I
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