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There are calls for National Unity People ask why we cannot Unite.

My mind goes back to a favorite story about TEN BLIND MEN AND AN ELEPHANT.

The story of Ten Blind Men illustrates how unity can be achieved in diversity.I give below the perspective of various religions on this story.

Please bear in mind that these different religions are referring to sincere people wanting to findsolutions and not thieves committed to filling their own pockets at the expense of people.

Please also note that these religions stress harmony and carry a message for all those who

divide people on the basis of their own brand of religion.

Story

In various versions of the tale, a group of blind men (or men in the dark) touch an elephant to

learn what it is like. Each one feels a different part, but only one part, such as the side or the

tusk. They then compare notes and learn that they are in complete disagreement.

The stories differ primarily in how the elephant's body parts are described, how violent theconflict becomes and how (or if) the conflict among the men and their perspectives is resolved.

Jain

A Jain version of the story says that six blind men were asked to determine what an elephant

looked like by feeling different parts of the elephant's body.

The blind man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar; the one who feels the tail saysthe elephant is like a rope; the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch;

the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan; the one who feels the belly says

the elephant is like a wall; and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe.

This resolves the conflict, and is used to illustrate the principle of living in harmony withpeople who have different belief systems, and that truth can be stated in different ways

Buddhist

The Buddha twice uses the simile of blind men led astray. In the Canki Sutta, much like in the

Christian Gospel (Matthew 15.14), saying about the blind leading the blind, using a row of

blind men holding on to each other as an example of those who follow an old text that hascome down generation after generation. In the Udana (6869), he uses the parable to describe

sectarian quarrels.

The Buddha ends the story by comparing the six blind men to preachers and scholars who are

blind and ignorant and hold to their own views: "Just so are these preachers and scholars

holding various views blind and unseeing.... In their ignorance they are by naturequarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udanahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udana

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Sufi Muslim

The Persian Sufi poet SanaiofGhazni in Afghanistan presented this teaching story in his The

Walled Garden of Truth.

Rumi, the 13th Century Persian poet and teacher of Sufism, included it in his Masnavi. In his

retelling, "The Elephant in the Dark", some Hindus bring an elephant to be exhibited in a dark

room. A number of men feel the elephant in the dark and, depending upon where they touch it,they believe the elephant to be like a water spout (trunk), a fan (ear), a pillar (leg) and a throne

(back). Rumi uses this story as an example of the limits of individual perception:

The eye of the Sea is one thing and the foam another. Let the foam go, and gaze with the eye of

the Sea. Day and night foam-flecks are flung from the sea: oh amazing! You behold the foambut not the Sea. We are like boats dashing together; our eyes are darkened, yet we are in clear

water.

Hindu

"A number of blind men came to an elephant. Somebody told them that it was an elephant. The

blind men asked, What is the elephant like? and they began to touch its body. One of them

said: 'It is like a pillar.' This blind man had only touched its leg. Another man said, Theelephant is like a husking basket. This person had only touched its ears. Similarly, he who

touched its trunk or its belly talked of it differently. In the same way, he who has seen the Lord

in a particular way limits the Lord to that alone and thinks that He is nothing else."

John Godfrey Saxe

One of the most famous versions of the 19th Century was the poem "The Blind Men and the

Elephant" by John Godfrey Saxe (18161887).

They conclude that the elephant is like a wall, snake, spear, tree, fan or rope, depending upon

where they touch. They have a heated debate that does not come to physical violence.Modern treatments

The story is seen as a metaphor in many disciplines, being pressed into service as an analogy in

fields well beyond the traditional. In physics, it has been seen as an analogy for the wave

particle duality. In biology, the way the blind men hold onto different parts of the elephant hasbeen seen as a good analogy for the Polyclonal B cell response.

People address themselves to this story in one or more interpretations. They then accept or

reject them. Now they can feel happy; they have arrived at an opinion about the matter.

According to their conditioning they produce the answer. Now look at their answers. Some willsay that this is a fascinating and touching allegory of the presence of God. Others will say that

it is showing people how stupid mankind can be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaznihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masnavihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masnavihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaznihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masnavi