I would like to tell you a little story that actually is from ancient the Jain ancient system of thought. It was adapted and adopted by a great Sufi who made it very popular, whose name was Maulana Jalal-ud-Din Rumi, who started the order of the whirling Dervishes. And then Ramakrishna Paramahamsa loved the story and so on.
The story is about blind men who went to examine an elephant.
One of them touched the limb of the elephant, and concluded that an elephant is by definition like a pillar, which sometimes shakes, which is true.
The other touched the tail of the elephant and decided that an elephant is like a broom. In those days they didn’t have bathroom brushes, so he said it is like a broom, which is rather rough and it keeps moving, and if you go too close you might be slapped by it.
The third blind man touched the trunk and said that the elephant is like a rubber hose and is very hard. It is like a tube and moves and sometimes it makes peculiar noises like phuss, phuss!
These were the conclusions drawn by the three blind men about the elephant.
A big fight started, which ended in fist-cuffs, each saying that his definition of the elephant was the right one. And when it became very serious and ended up in a big fight, there came a man who was not blind, who could see.
In religion, these who have come and who can see and who are not blind are those who have touched the Reality. Call it God or whatever you want to call it.
So he said, ‘what is this fight that is going about?’ They said, the elephant is this and that, and something else.
He said, ‘first stop fighting so that we can discuss this matter. What you are saying is right, and what you are saying is also right, but all of you in the absolute sense are totally wrong.’
They said, how?
He said, because I can see. Elephant is what you say also, but it is much more than what you can see.
So, what happens is, today, in the situation in which we are, I am not saying we are blind, unfortunately we have eyes, but sometimes I think we are blind.
The same thing is happening which is nicely illustrated by the story of the elephant. We look at different parts and think that it is the whole and start arguments and discussions about it based on our limited experience. However, the Reality or God or whatever you want to call it, is much more than our perceptions, our limited perceptions can understand. And whenever a great teacher came and taught about God or religion, (keeping the Indian system of thought a little away for the time being), any world religion came out of a mystical experience of one person and based on that he formulated something, based on the milieu, based on the geographical location of the people he was addressing, it was adopted in such a design, in such a pattern, that people could be linked to the mystical experience that he had in their own way. Now this has happened all over the world.
From my experience, I believe that a spark of the divine is in every human heart, every human being. You may call it ātmā, you may call it the breath of the Lord, or as in the Semitic religions when God creates Adam, when he breathes his breath into him and gives him life. Now among the yogis and the Sufis, there is a tradition that when you can master your breath and follow it and go deeper, you can reach that breath which was breathed into us.
In fact, some of the orders of the Sufis, like Abdul Qadir Jilani, typically use certain breathing exercises to take the mind deep inside, which are so similar to the pranayama which is practiced in the Hindu system of thought.
So if you look, there are many common links, there are many differences of course, but can’t we now in our present state of evolution as human beings, we say we are civilized, can’t we not drop the non-essentials and look at the essential? Can we stick to the Truth? Can we love our neighbors? Can we forgive our sins? There is this beautiful prayer in the Bible, Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name and so on. Forgive our debts as we do forgive our debtors. Lead us not unto temptation but deliver us. You don’t have to be born a Christian to say this prayer. It’s meant for everybody.
And in some of the suras of the Quran they talk about the Sirat al-Mustaqim, which means the narrow path which you take towards goodness and heaven. It is narrow because it is like a tightrope walk. So its my belief and understanding, that if we can let go of the non-essentials and go to the essential which is Truth.
Do you know, even long before the prophet of Islam, before Islam came and before the Quran was revealed, he was called by one name. He was known as the trust worthy – Al ameen, so that when later on he said something, people said, this man always speaks the truth, so he could not be a lie. Maybe he can be deranged, but he certainly cannot be a lie, said a Jewish person. When i say deranged, it means anything that is extraordinary and doesn’t fit into a narrow confines and narrow systems of thought, we are likely to dismiss as insanity.
I think religion is the outer manifestation of spirituality which is an inner experience. The moment religion stops contributing to the inner essence, which is spiritual, is floundering so that religion now has got to go back to it. What we are talking about in spirituality is that which naturally cannot be understood by the limited perceptions of our five senses. We have no other senses other than these five, which is sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Nobody has anything more than that.
And can we tie up and grasp and define something that is infinite, like the elephant, like the blind man defining an elephant, with these limited senses? And all our reasoning is based on the inputs that come from these five senses. And the inputs are at best imperfect and at the worst illusion.
I will give you a simple example. Every day we see the sunrise, every day we see the sunset. Even a high school boy knows that the sun neither rises nor sets. But I say I see it every day. My most important sensory organ is my eye and I see it every day. So is seeing believing? Some people say seeing is believing. Have you seen God?
If you see the sun rise, do you believe it? No, because it is not rising. That’s what we see. So there is a possibility that all the sense organs and the data we gather from it is too limited so that our theories can become imperfect. So the question is, is there some other instrument of perception?
We say yes.
There are other instruments of perception which are usually not activated in most people, and which can be activated through religious and spiritual practices. So therefore the experiences that one derives, all the process, all the ways of worship, all the meditation practices are all meant to activate these hidden instruments of perception which are normally not activated in most of us. So it is a course of study, it is an exploration, it is a going into these facts. I believe that all great teachers and saints who have touched that, have come out with this understanding, which 3000 years ago was reflected in the Rig Veda which said, ekam sat vipra bahuda vadanti, there is one truth, the wise may call it by different names. Because there has to be one from which the many have to come, and we believe that the many will go back and merge in the one. There is an arabic word for One Earth – unity.
Now this is what we should be thinking of. We have evolved enough to understand that as Jesus said, The law was made for man, not man for the law. All laws were made for men to become better. When I say men, I mean human beings to become better. The moment the law ceases to make a person better, there is no harm in finding out what is wrong. How do we improve upon it? I personally believe that the spiritual evolution is a constant movement, an experiment, an exploration. And because it is into the infinite, there is no end to it. The moment I put a stop to it and say, this is all, I know everything, you are dead.
This is my experience and I have read so many textbooks on religion and mysticism and philosophy, and I find that in some way what I said are substantiated by them. There are two simple statements which you can apply to any religion and any mysticism and any spirituality and they happen to be from the Bible. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Can you make this and put it into a small compartment and say blessed are such and such a group, that they shall be pure in heart?
No. Blessed anybody, whoever, whatever be the name, wherever they live – Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Going a step further, I agree with St. Paul who said in the Epistles, Know you not that you are the children of the living God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you.
So this is the universal teaching of all religions. They may differ according to situations, according to people, according to language. When something is said in Arabic, it doesn’t mean that it belongs to a section of people. There is wisdom. That’s all you need to grasp. When something is said in Sanskrit, it doesn’t mean it belongs to some sect or Hinduism. You cannot actually make Hinduism into a sect or into a conditioned trap to which you sit and cannot come out, because it is so wide.
So when you say something in Sanskrit, don’t say, oh, this is Hindu, this is Arabic, so it is Islamic!
These are different languages that existed at different times and different locations. So whatever people experience, they use those languages to express them.
According to me, religion is an outward manifestation of spiritual experience. And from the outer, because first we know only the outer, so through religion we enter the inner, which is the spiritual. And those who have entered the spiritual, I believe, will have no problem or no fight with anyone who has entered the same Truth through another side. There are many doors. When you are hungry, there are many doors to enter the kitchen, and we are all going to look towards the food.
If this much we can think of, I think a lot of strife can be avoided.
Now we have to also speak of those who don’t believe in God. You can’t leave them out. If you don’t believe in God, yet I would say that peace is of the essence. You cannot bring about change through violence and force. Forget God for the time being.
There is an ancient sloka in Sanskrit which is chanted before anything starts, anything auspicious starts.
Saha Na Vavatu
Saha Nau Bhunaktu |
Saha Viiryam Karavaavahai |
Tejasvi Naav Adhiitam-Astu Maa Vidvissaavahai |
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||
The first sentence means, may we, you and I, be protected. So what is this protection? It is protection from being violated, it is a protection from being persecuted for your beliefs. It is also protection for being persecuted for your non-beliefs. It simply means without a protective, peaceful environment, one cannot pursue a dialogue.
You can have a monologue, but you can’t have a dialogue.
And lastly I would say that the problem I think is because after a while the organization which is outside, which originally came from the inner source, the structure of the outer becomes more important than the essence from which it came. Then there is danger.
So, I will finish with a nice little story which was told by a good friend, much older than me, who is no more, who was a well-known teacher, he didn’t call himself a philosopher.
The story is about the devil and his good friend who went for a walk. While they were walking, the devil bent down and picked up something from the grass and put it into his pocket. So his friend asked him, what did you pick up just now? He said, I just picked up the Truth. His friend said, if you have picked up the Truth, your days are numbered, because Truth is exactly opposite of what you are. You are untruth, you are darkness, you are ignorance. So if you have picked up the truth and put it, your days are finished, you are done.
The devil smiled smugly, patted his friend on the back and said, ‘don’t worry friend, I’ll organize it.’
You know what it means? Too much of organizing. And then that structure becomes more important than the essence. Then we are done. And then the fight is between the structures. Essence is completely lost sight of.
So we hope that some sense and some sense of proportion and peace will once again come on this Earth and the idea of living together, sharing together, being at peace and living peacefully in a multi-religious society becomes a reality.
– Sri M
Extract from a Satsang in Delhi during the Walk of Hope 2015-16 : watch here
