The Blind Men and the Elephant is a famous Indian fable that tells the story of six blind sojourners that come across different parts of an elephant in their life journeys. In turn, each blind man creates his own version of reality from that limited experience and perspective.
The fable is useful as a warning against people or groups that promote absolute truth or exclusive religious claims. Our sensory perceptions and life experiences lead to a limited access to truth because of errors in understanding and interpretation.
How can a person with a limited exposure to truth turn his experiences or understanding into the one and only version of reality?
The fable also points to something more philosophical—the elephant. Even though each blind man has a limited perspective on the objective truth, that doesn’t mean objective truth isn’t there. In fact, truth isn’t relative at all, and is available for discovery in all its totality. Just because we have limited access to truth, doesn’t mean that truth doesn’t exist and it certainly that doesn’t mean any of the many elements of it are equally valid.
So where does this lead us? It leads us to understand that, if we are ‘blind’ while in this existence we cannot fully discover/understand the Kingdom of God or all of the truth that Christ teaches.
Even though the disciples of Christ were in his immediate presence every day, heard him teach daily, and knew him better than any other men on earth, we find that Thomas gives us this in the 13th Secret Sayings of Jesus.
Jesus said to his disciples, “Compare me to someone and tell me whom I am like.”
Simon Peter said to him, “You are like a righteous angel.”
Matthew said to him, “You are like a wise philosopher.”
Thomas said to him, “Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you are like.”
Jesus said, “I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out.”
And he took him and withdrew and told him three things. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, “What did Jesus say to you?”
Thomas said to them, “If I tell you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me; a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up.”