on sectarian disputes

[theist]

We are all familar with this story. But how many of us *know* it?

 

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American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) based the following poem on a fable which was told in India many years ago.

 

 

It was six men of Indostan

To learning much inclined,

Who went to see the Elephant

(Though all of them were blind),

That each by observation

Might satisfy his mind

 

 

The First approached the Elephant,

And happening to fall

Against his broad and sturdy side,

At once began to bawl:

“God bless me! but the Elephant

Is very like a wall!”

 

 

The Second, feeling of the tusk,

Cried, “Ho! what have we here

So very round and smooth and sharp?

To me ’tis mighty clear

This wonder of an Elephant

Is very like a spear!”

 

 

The Third approached the animal,

And happening to take

The squirming trunk within his hands,

Thus boldly up and spake:

“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant

Is very like a snake!”

 

 

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,

And felt about the knee.

“What most this wondrous beast is like

Is mighty plain,” quoth he;

“ ‘Tis clear enough the Elephant

Is very like a tree!”

 

 

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,

Said: “E’en the blindest man

Can tell what this resembles most;

Deny the fact who can

This marvel of an Elephant

Is very like a fan!”

 

 

The Sixth no sooner had begun

About the beast to grope,

Than, seizing on the swinging tail

That fell within his scope,

“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant

Is very like a rope!”

 

 

And so these men of Indostan

Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion

Exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right,

And all were in the wrong!

 

Moral:

 

 

So oft in theologic wars,

The disputants, I ween,

Rail on in utter ignorance

Of what each other mean,

And prate about an Elephant

Not one of them has seen!

 

Krsna is Adhoksaja

[theist]

Where is that line that separates mental concoction from individual realization of the Absolute? Absolute Relativism.

[Kulapavana]

Thakura Bhaktivinoda writes in Krsna Samhita 8.22 (verse and purport):

 

 

sampradAya-virodho 'yam dAvAnalo vicintyate

 

 

The eleventh obstacle for the Vaisnavas is sectarianism,

which takes the shape of the forest fire.

Due to sectarianism a person cannot accept

anyone outside of his own group as a Vaisnava,

and as a result he faces many obstacles in finding

a guru and associating with sincere devotees.

Therefore extinguishing the forest fire is most important by giving up this mentality.