Bondage and Freedom

Author(s): Chitrabhanu
Publisher: Divine Knowledge Society

Page 78

Why have we all met here today from the four corners of the earth? Not to argue dogmatically over differences but to break the barriers of racialism and sectarianism–to learn something from one another, to see the same object from one another's point of view so that we can understand one another the better and help one another the better in solving our problems. The goal for each of us is the same, though the approach may be different. Argument will not take us any nearer the goal. I am here reminded of an incident which will bear out my point.
At an eye clinic where many patients were waiting for treatment, there were four who were blind. One of them inadvertently touched a window pane and importantly announced to the others, “This is a window pane—it is red, my son told me so.”
Another cut him short, with the assertion that it was 'green' and cited with equal emphasis the authority of a brother. The other two contradicted them, each with a different colour and different authority, but with the same querulousness and the same conviction. The storm in the tea cup was quelled by another patient who explained to them that the panes were multi-coloured, much to the amusement of everybody. I
A trivial quarrel, no doubt, and perhaps a trivial incident to be related here. But I ask you, have not men of different religions argued with the same
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