Once there was a group of Men travelling from India to China through English Channel and on the way they stopped at the Island of Sumatra for fresh water.
As they sat a blind man approached them. Later they found he has gone blind from gazing for long and too persistently at Sun,trying to find what it is in order to seize its light.
He strove long to accomplish this, staring the sun for long, but final result was that he lost his both eyes and became blind.
Blind man asked Light cannot be liquid, if so it could be poured from one vessel to vessel, it could be flown like water, like the wind. It is not fire, for if it were fire water would extinguish it. It can not be spirit as it is visible. So what is light?? It is not liquid, nor solid, neither fire nor spirit. It is nothing!!
Then a slave came along this blind man, placed his master in the shade and picked up a coconut shell from the ground and started making it into the night light. He twisted a fiber from the coconut, squeezed oil from the nut shell and soaked the wick in it.
As the slave start doing it, blind man sighed and said to him…
Was I not right when I told you there is no Sun..Don’t you see how dark is it, yet people don’t believe it, If so what it is??
Slave says I don’t know what the sun is. That is no business of mine. But I know what light is. Here I have made night light which helps me serve you and find anything I want in the hut.
Slave picked up the coconut and said this is my sun.
A lame man with crutches sitting nearby heard these words and laughed.
He went near the blind man and said, you evidently being blind all life not to know what the sun is. I will tell what it is!! Sun is a fire ball which rises every morning out of sea and which goes down among the mountains of our Island every evening. We all have seen this; if you had your eyesight, you too would have seen it.
A fisherman who had been listening to the conversation, said- It is plain enough that you were never out of your Island,if you were not lame, if you had been out as I have been in fishing boat, you too might have seen it. Sun does not set among mountains of our Island, as it rises out of ocean so it sets down in the sea every night. What I am telling is all true, for I see it every day with my own eyes.
Then an Indian priest of our party interrupted and said,
I am astonished that a reasonable man talks such nonsense. How can a ball of fire descends into the water and not extinguished.The Sun is not at all a ball of fire. It is the diety named Suryadeva who rides in a chariot round the golden mountain Meru. Sometimes the evil serpents Rahu and Ketu attacks Deva and swallows him. Then the earth goes dark. And our priest pray for him, may be he is released and then he is set free. Only such ignorant man like you who have never been beyond your island can imagine that sun shines in their country alone.
The master of Egyptian vessel said in return, No you are also wrong, Sun does not only raises in India and rounds only Golden Mountain. I have sailed much on the black sea and every coast of Arabia. Sun is seen everywhere, Sun raises far in the east beyond the isles of Japan, and sets far, far away in the west beyond the islands of England. That is why the Japanese call their country Nippon, the birth place of Sun. I know this well, for I have seen myself much and heard more from my grandfather who has sailed every corner of sea.
Then another man stopped and said “There is no country where the Sun raises or Sun sets, but in England people believe sun rotates around the earth. English are sure of this as they have been around the world and they have seen sun everywhere rises in the morning and sets at night.
I’ll explain you in detail that how suns moves on heaven and goes around the world. And found unable to explain, pointing at the ships pilot he said..
This man knows more about it than I. He can explain it properly...
Pilot who was an intelligent had listened to the talk silently till he was asked to speak. Now everyone turned to him and he said:
"You are all misleading one another and are deceived yourself. Sun does not go around the earth, but earth revolves around the sun. Revolving as it goes turning towards the sun in the course of each 24 hours, not only Japan, and the Philippines,Sumatra where we are now, but Africa, America and many lands besides. Sun doesn't shine for someone mountain or for someone island or for someone sea or for even just earth but other planets as well as our earth. If you look up at only heavens and not the ground beneath your feet you would understand sun shines not only your country." Thus concludes.
This story gives us many messages for our life. When you are to know, make sure you are guided correctly. Critical thinking gives right knowledge. Justify your thoughts and even that of others with your own common sense before you consider it right.
Give up the ego, form your superego. It is pride that causes error in your analysis and discords among men. As with the Sun it is with every concept.
In the sky there is no distinction of east and west,people create distinction out of their own minds and believe them to be true –Lord Buddha.
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