In order to see it, many people were going, everyone, into that darkness and as seeing it with the eyes was impossible, each one was feeling it in the dark with the palm of his hand.
The hand of one fell on the trunk: He said, “This creature is like a waterpipe.”
The hand of another touched its ear: to him it appeared to be like a fan.
Another handled its leg and said, “I found the elephant shape to be like a pillar.”
Another laid his hand on the back – he said, “Truly this elephant is like a throne.”
Similarly, when anyone heard a description of the elephant, he understood it only in respect of the part that he had touched.
On account of the diverse place of view, their statements differed: one called it “Dal”, another “Alif”.
If there had been a candle in each one’s hand, the difference would have gone out of their words.
The eye of sense perception is only like the palm of the hand: the palm hath no power to reach the whole of the elephant.
Rumi – 12th century Persian scholar, mathematician, poet and philosopher.
_____
With a simple short story, the genius of Rumi penetrated the center of the problem of knowledge.
That is, due to each one’s limited ability of understanding each one can only perceive a tiny portion of reality, or the truth.
This is most important in an era like ours where people are inundated by a daily deluge of data and information, mostly learnt from the media or other doubtful sources that often are distorted, fake, inaccurate, partial, one sided and led by propaganda and hidden interests in order to influence the minds to think in a particular way.
The result of so much wrong, ambiguous or incorrect information makes people believe that their knowledge or ideologies being the right and only ones, are the sources of intolerance, prejudices, discriminations and hatred for those who are different, or think or act differently.
In my view the best answer to this problem is in the phrase of the 4th century B.C. Greek philosopher Socrates who always maintained that all that he knew was that he knew nothing.
______
From the Book: ‘Women’s Rights and Other Issues’ by Pierrot Armanno.
