THE ELEPHANT EXPERIENCE

“Everything that is right – is wrong!”

EVERYTHING THAT IS RIGHT –

IS WRONG!

I do not know from where did the above line pop up in my heart, even before I opened my eyes, this morning… and, why I keep humming it, even now, in my mind:

“Everything that is right – is wrong!”

I really feel I need someone like Joseph of Old Testament to decode my dream – this mystery. To tell me: What does this line mean? Why do I feel so strong for it? And, why am I, now, so compelled to write about it?

So, like the King of Egypt, who surrendered before this interpreter of dreams, I now allowed myself to be.

The Joseph in me asked, “Why do you want to be right? Why are you so compelled to argue and prove the other person wrong?”

Well, honestly, I had never thought about it… All that I knew was I had this obsessive need in me to be right… and prove that the other person is wrong! So, I mumbled, “Because, I know I am right… and, he doesn’t agree with that.”

“How do you know you are right?” the Joseph questioned, “Why is it so important to you that he should agree with your truth?”

Again, no one had asked me this before, and, hence, I had never though about it. I mumbled, again: “But, don’t we all know when we are right?”

“Yes, exactly… We all do,” the interpreter said, “That’s why I am asking you to see the truth, that what you see as right is wrong for the other person… and, what is right for the other person is wrong for you… Tell me, if so, who is right and who is wrong?”

I was stumped. “Was the other person right and I was just obsessed with proving him wrong? Or, was it that I was right and I just wanted him to agree with me… Maybe with the hope that if he agreed with my truth, I would buy his… and be happy?”

“Touch your heart and tell me, what is important to you?” the Joseph in me insisted, “To be right or to be peaceful?”

“To be peaceful!” The stress and strain of ‘To be right’ had prompted me to answer the question without even waiting for my next heartbeat!

The Joseph of my heart 

smiled like a little baby… and said, 

"My friend, there are seven great truths, 

if you want to be peaceful in your life.”

“Seven truths?” Before I could ask, the Joseph had already gone. But, he had left behind this baby-days story of mine.

There lived six blind men in a village. They hadn’t seen an elephant in their life. So, one day, when someone said there was an elephant in the village, the six blind men wanted to have an experience of it.

“Hey, the elephant is like a huge pillar,” said the first blind man. He had touched the leg of the elephant.

“No, it is like the branch of a tree,” said the second one. He had touched the trunk.

“No, No,” shouted the third blind man, “Elephant is like a big hand-fan.” Obviously, this blind man was on elephant’s large ear!

“You fools, listen to me, I am right,” yelled the fourth blind man, “Elephant is like a hard pipe.” Well, this man was feeling the tusk of the mighty animal.

“Here is the truth, my friends, you better agree,” declared the fifth ‘wise-man’, confidently holding the tail, “The elephant is exactly like a rope.”

“None of you are right… But, I am,” announced the final soul, “The elephant is just like a hard wall.” He was merrily leaning against the big belly of our ‘Haathi’!

So, when the heated argument – who amongst the six blind men was right – was reaching its boiling point, just in time, arrived a passerby, a wise soul. 

“What are you arguing about, my friends?” the wise-man asked, “Why are you so stressed out?”

Each of the six began to explain to the wise-man about his position.

“Friends, all of you are right… and all of you are wrong,” the wise man said. He continued, “Right because, each one of you had touched only a part of the elephant and your experience was only part of the whole truth. To experience the whole truth, you have to experience the whole elephant. Touch every part of it. You have to open your eyes, and fully!”

Well, the eyes of these six blind men had opened that day from inside! They had realized, when they went home, that everything that was right – was wrong, if being right happened at the cost of peace. The argument on their elephant experience was robbing them of their friendship, the simple joy of existence. So, thanking the wise man for opening their eyes for the ‘seventh truth’… they went home, in peace!

The Joseph had already gone home…

I, too, had to!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pics.: Yogita Tipnis