Zen Stories: The blind men and an elephant

I have been relishing myself on some good content on Zen and Buddhism and so would be sharing some stories which i liked.. These stories are widely discussed and largely available in many sites including the internet, but wanted to share the ones i really liked here... 


The Blind Men and the Elephant

Several citizens ran into a hot argument about God and different religions, and each one could not agree to a common answer. So they came to the Lord Buddha to find out what exactly God looks like.

The Buddha asked his disciples to get a large magnificent elephant and four blind men. He then brought the four blind to the elephant and told them to find out what the elephant would "look" like.

The first blind men touched the elephant leg and reported that it "looked" like a pillar. The second blind man touched the elephant tummy and said that an elephant was a wall. The third blind man touched the elephant ear and said that it was a piece of cloth. The fourth blind man hold on to the tail and described the elephant as a piece of rope. And all of them ran into a hot argument about the "appearance" of an elephant.

The Buddha asked the citizens: "Each blind man had touched the elephant but each of them gives a different description of the animal. Which answer is right?"

While the Zen story ended there what i liked is the same concept being handled by Kambar in Kamba Ramayanam (கம்ப ராமாயணம்).

The scene is Lord Rama and Sita get married and they are on a trip around the city of Mythila where the people of the town are gathered to see them. People are so enamored by Rama's looks that those who are seeing Rama's shoulders are unable to take their eyes off and cant see any thing else and are saying  "Look at his shoulders, How beautiful they are?".

Same way ladies who saw Rama's feet, unable to take their eyes off the feet, have been saying that "Look how beautiful the feet are?" (Its more apt to say ladies instead of people!)

Kambar asks which of those "knife-sharp eyed" ladies have been able to see the entire Rama? But they are fighting amongst themselves that shoulders are most beautiful, feet are the most beautiful etc. But people who have seen the shoulders have not seen the feet and vice versa.

The comparison from Kambar actually comes in the last line where he says these ladies who fight that Rama's shoulders, feet are beautiful have not seen him in entirety but only a part of him. This resembles people who fight that their religion, their god and their messengers of god are the best, but they have seen only a part and not in entirety. The poem goes as follows:

தோள்கண்டார் தோளே கண்டார்  (Thol kandar Thole Kandar)

தொடுகழல் கமலம் அன்ன  (Thodu kazhala kamalam anna)

தாள்கண்டார் தாளே கண்டார்  (Thal kandar Thale Kandar)

தடக்கை கண்டாரும் அஃதே  (Thadakkai kandarum Akthe)

வாள்கொண்ட கண்ணார் யாரே  (Vaal konda kannar yaro)

வடிவினை முடியக் கண்டார்  (Vadivinai mudiya Kandar)

ஊழ்கொண்ட சமயத்து அன்னான்  (Oozh konda samayathu annan)

உருவுகண் டாரை ஒத்தார்.  (Uruvu Kandare Othhaar)

Of course this song inspired many poets including Kanndasan who wrote a movie song, தோள் கண்டேன் தோளே கண்டேன், தோளிலிரு கிளிகள் கண்டேன்.... 

I thought the linkage between a Buddhist Philosophy and Tamil literature is interesting!

Happy reading!