WHAT’s THIS?

One day five men lost their way and were forced to spend the night in the dark woods. One of them heard a twig snap, and went over to see what it was that was walking by. He walked right into the side of an elephant. He put out his arms to either side, but all he could feel was the big body of the elephant. He said, "I think I have walked into a wall.” A second man grabbed hold of the animal's trunk and shouted, "This isn't a wall. This is a snake!" The third man touched the animal's tail. "This is no wall, and this is no snake. You are both wrong. I know for sure that this is a rope."

The fourth man decided that someone should really get to the bottom of things. So he crouched down on all fours and felt around the elephant's legs. "My dear friends," explained the fourth man. "This is no wall and this is no snake. This is no rope either. What we have here… is four tree trunks. That's it." The fifth man was not so quick to jump to conclusions. He walked up to the front of the elephant and felt the animal's two long tusks. "It seems to me that this object is made up of two swords," said the fifth man. Suddenly, there was a stroke of lightning in the sky and the elephant trumpeted a fearful cry. Now, the five men could see and hear the strange object that they had difficulty in identifying.

Surely, we find ourselves in similar predicaments. It is pertinent to note that that our minds are so prejudiced that quite often we are cheated by our tendency to jump to conclusions. We need to open our eyes, ears and our mind… both literally and in spirit. We need to unlearn our prejudices and ensure an open approach to fresh learning. It is a human tendency to be “judgmental” rather than “developmental”… and it is this very tendency that obscures our vision, cloaks our listening and masks our learning. Before we speak or voice our “opinions” we need to ensure that we “understand” all the dimensions before we take a “stand”… a proactive examination of the situation will be prudent!

Plain voicing of opinion is being judgmental…
‘Develop new dimensions’ to be developmental…

Regards
Pravin