The Elephant of Truth

It was the prince’s birthday and the vizier threw a grand party in his honour. He arranged for some blind men to be brought down from a poor village in the mountains and set them to examine one of the raja’s elephants, a beast that none of them had encountered before. “Tell the prince what manner of creature this is.”

Much to the amusement of the young prince, the first villager took hold of a leg and proudly declaimed, “Why this is the trunk of a tree.”

The next villager grasped the elephant’s trunk, “A tree? You fool, it’s a snake.”

“No, you are both wrong,” said the third villager, stroking an ear, “Surely this is the wing of a great bat.”

The last villager stroked the elephant’s stomach and said, “No, without a doubt this is the belly of a bull.”

The prince laughed in delight at the antics of the villagers, especially when they started arguing about what they had discovered and even came to blows. But the vizier was a wise man and sought to teach the young prince, not just entertain him. “These blind men,” he said, “are like every man as he seeks the truth, represented here by the elephant.”

The prince loved the old vizier and pondered his words carefully before saying, “Each man found a part of the elephant and thought he understood the whole of it.”

Pleased that his student had seen to the heart of the demonstration, the vizier said, “So it is with the teachers of religion who think the small part of truth they know is the whole of it. And believing this they argue and make war on others who have discovered a different aspect of the truth.”

The young prince saw the wisdom of his teacher’s words, “Surely it would be wiser to listen to each other and study all beliefs, thereby we may discover the whole truth.”

The old vizier smiled at the young prince as he said, “Happy birthday, your Highness.”