Beyond Ghor there was a city. All
its inhabitants were blind. A king with his entourage arrived near by:
he brought his army and camped in the desert. He had a mighty elephant,
which he used in attack and to increase the people's awe.
The populace
became anxious to see the elephant, and some of them from among this blind
community ran like fools to find it.
As they
did not even know the form or shape of the elephant the groped sightlessly,
gathering information by touching some part of it.
Each thought
that he knew something, because he could feel a part.
When they
returned to their fellow-citizens eager groups clustered around them. Each
of these where anxious, misguidedly, to learne the truth from those who
where themselves astray.
They asked
about the form, the shape of the elephant: and listened to all that they
were told.
The man
whose hand had reached an ear was asked about the elephant's nature. He
said: "It is a large, rough thing, wide and broad, like a rug."
And the
one who had felt the trunk said: "I have the real facts about it. It is
like a straight and holllow pipe, awful and destructive."
The one
who had felt its feet and legs said: "It is mighty and firm, like a pillar."
Each one
had felt one part out of many. Each had perceived it wrongly. No mind knew
all: knowledge is not the companion of the blind. All imagined something,
something incorrect.
The created
is not informed about divinity. There is no Way in the this science by
means of the ordinary intellect.
From "Tales of the dervishes" by I. Shah