V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai

“An ancient parable makes this point. A group of disciples approached the Buddha with some serious questions about whether the world is finite or infinite, and whether the human soul dies or lives on forever. The Buddha replied, “Once there was an important raja (a king) who assembled all the blind men in his kingdom in a courtyard.  In the center of the courtyard was an elephant. One at a time, each of the blind men was led forward to put their hands on the elephant’s body. One man touched the head, another the tusks, another the ears.  And so it went, with each man feeling a different part of the elephant. After they were done, the raja asked of each of them, “What is this thing we call an elephant?” The man who touched the head said, “An elephant is like a pot.” The man who touched the tail said, “An elephant is a brush.” The man who touched the tusks said, “An elephant is a spear.”  They each described the elephant according to what they touched. The Buddha used this story to teach the impossibility of absolutes. We all view the world differently, because we are all different.”
― V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai, The System and Revolution