Let a God-Realized Teacher Lead You There

Swami Vishwananda:Once five friends would sit under a tree all day long and talk, and talk, and talk. One hot day, a huge elephant came and stood under the shade of the tree. Although the five men were blind they could hear, and so they heard that something had come. All five men got up and started walking around. They could feel there was something in front of them.

The first blind man said: “What is this? This is a huge wall made of mud. I don’t understand how this wall has moved here.”

The second one was holding the tusk. Feeling it, he said: “Oh, these are two spears made of ivory!”

The third man was holding the tail and said: “No, no, no, you are wrong. This is a rope, a big huge rope!”

The fourth one said as he was holding the trunk of the elephant: “No, no, no, this is nothing of what you have said. This is a snake hanging from the tree!”

Finally the fifth blind man said: “No, you are all wrong! This is the trunk of a tree!”

So among the five blind men there was a big discussion. All were fighting with each other and were proclaiming: “I am right, I am right, I am right!” At that moment a small boy was passing by. Looking at the five blind men and seeing how they were fighting, he said: “What are you quarrelling about? Why are you hanging on this elephant like that?” When the blind men heard the boy say, “an elephant,” they all got shocked, thinking, “an elephant!?'”

The boy went on his way and the first blind man said: “We are not just blind, I think we also are stupid!”

The second one said: “No, no, no, I was confused a bit when I said what I said!”

And the third one said: “I thought it was something like that, but I didn’t say it.”

Then the fourth man said: “Well, we were just talking loudly whatever was passing through our mind!”

Finally the fifth blind man said, “You know, I feel so foolish! We could have just asked someone and it would have been much faster!”

The same thing is true that humanity is blind to God-realization. Only someone who has realized the Divine can actually guide an unrealized person! Only someone who knows the path can actually lead you. Otherwise, you will be like the blind men. You will be touching everything, left and right, and it will not lead you anywhere. So just surrender to a God-realized teacher!