The Elephant and the Blind Men


The Elephant and the Blind Men


(Three Versions)



Blind Men and an Elephant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant



The Jainist Version

 

Elephant and the Blind Men

http://www.jainworld.com/literature/story25.htm

 

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 is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was. Every one of them touched the elephant.

 

"Hey, the elephant is 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 hand 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. It looked like they were getting agitated. A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, "What is the matter?" They said, "We cannot agree to 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 because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said."

 

"Oh!" everyone said. There was no more fight. They felt happy 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 not because they may have different perspective which we may not agree too. So, rather than arguing like the blind men, we should say, "Maybe you have your reasons." This way we don’t get in arguments. In Jainism, it is explained that truth can be stated in seven different ways. So, you can see how broad our religion is. It teaches us to be tolerant towards others for their viewpoints. This allows us to live in harmony with the people of different thinking. This is known as the Syadvada, Anekantvad, or the theory of Manifold Predictions.


 

The Buddhist Version

 

The Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant

http://www.kheper.net/topics/blind_men_and_elephant/Buddhist.html

 

A number of disciples went to the Buddha and said, "Sir, there are living here in Savatthi many wandering hermits and scholars who indulge in constant dispute, some saying that the world is infinite and eternal and others that it is finite and not eternal, some saying that the soul dies with the body and others that it lives on forever, and so forth. What, Sir, would you say concerning them?"

 

The Buddha answered, "Once upon a time there was a certain raja who called to his servant and said, 'Come, good fellow, go and gather together in one place all the men of Savatthi who were born blind... and show them an elephant.' 'Very good, sire,' replied the servant, and he did as he was told. He said to the blind men assembled there, 'Here is an elephant,' and to one man he presented the head of the elephant, to another its ears, to another a tusk, to another the trunk, the foot, back, tail, and tuft of the tail, saying to each one that that was the elephant.

 

"When the blind men had felt the elephant, the raja went to each of them and said to each, 'Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?'

 

"Thereupon the men who were presented with the head answered, 'Sire, an elephant is like a pot.' And the men who had observed the ear replied, 'An elephant is like a winnowing basket.' Those who had been presented with a tusk said it was a ploughshare. Those who knew only the trunk said it was a plough; others said the body was a grainery; the foot, a pillar; the back, a mortar; the tail, a pestle, the tuft of the tail, a brush.

 

"Then they began to quarrel, shouting, 'Yes it is!' 'No, it is not!' 'An elephant is not that!' 'Yes, it's like that!' and so on, till they came to blows over the matter."

 

"Brethren, the raja was delighted with the scene."

 

"Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and unseeing.... In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus."

 

Then the Exalted One rendered this meaning by uttering this verse of uplift

O 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.

 

Udana 68-69

 


John Godfrey Saxe's Version

 

The Blind Men and the Elephant, A Hindoo Fable 

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Blindmen_and_the_Elephant


I.

 

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.

 

II.

 

The First approached the Elephant,

   And happening to fall

Against his broad and sturdy side,

   At once began to bawl:

"God bless me!—but the Elephant

   Is very like a wall!"

 

III.

 

The Second, feeling of the tusk,

   Cried:"Ho!—what have we here

So very round and smooth and sharp?

   To me 't is mighty clear

This wonder of an Elephant

   Is very like a spear!"

 

IV.

 

The Third approached the animal,

   And happening to take

The squirming trunk within his hands,

   Thus boldly up and spake:

"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant

   Is very like a snake!"

 

V.

 

The Fourth reached out his eager hand,

   And felt about the knee.

"What most this wondrous beast is like

   Is mighty plain," quoth he;

"'T is clear enough the Elephant

   Is very like a tree!"

 

VI.

 

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,

   Said: "E'en the blindest man

Can tell what this resembles most;

   Deny the fact who can,

This marvel of an Elephant

   Is very like a fan!"

 

VII.

 

The Sixth no sooner had begun

   About the beast to grope,

Than, seizing on the swinging tail

   That fell within his scope,

"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant

   Is very like a rope!"

 

VIII.

 

And so these men of Indostan

   Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion

   Exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right,

   And all were in the wrong!

 

Moral.

 

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!