SageTree

"Elephant in the Dark" Rumi
(trans. Coleman Barks)

Some Hindus have an elephant to show.
No one here has ever seen an elephant.
They bring it at night to a dark room.
One by one, we go in the dark and come out
saying how we experience the animal.
One of us happens to touch the trunk.
"A water-pipe kind of creature."
Another, the ear. "A very strong, always moving
back and forth, fan-animal."
Another, the leg. "I find it still,
like a column on a temple."
Another touches the curved back.
"A leathery throne."
Another, the cleverest, feels the tusk.
"A rounded sword made of porcelain."
He's proud of his description.
Each of us touches one place
and understands the whole in that way.
The palm and the fingers feeling in the dark are
how the senses explore the reality of the elephant.
If each of us held a candle there,
and if we went in together,
we could see it.

This is a really good way of illustrating the many avatars in Hinduism as well. Each Deity an attribute of Brahman, much like if all of Allah, from whom blessings flow, and the 99 names/attributes came to life in a human form that was worshiped ,part and parcel, as Allah as a whole. It's like picking off your favourite topping from the Deluxe pizza, but knowing it comes from a much larger pie, and knowing that you can just eat the topping alone, or you will still hunger for more.

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