The Total Solution to the Total Problem -2. Swami Krishnananda

Swami Krishnananda South Bharatam Visit

(Spoken on September 26, 1983)
2.

Hence, these common analogies of philosophic instructors, theologians or teachers have to be taken in their spirit, in what we may call the philosophic spirit rather than the common man’s spirit. Analogies cannot be stretched beyond a limit, to the breaking point.

Analogies are very necessary to make people understand what an unknown thing can be or is, but a meaningless extension of the analogy would lose the very spirit of the analogy or the comparison made.

There is a humorous story which will illustrate how analogies can completely miss the point and would convey no meaning at all, or at least not the intended meaning.

There was a person who was blind from birth. He had never seen colour, and did not know the colour of any object in this world. He had a small child. One day the child started crying. He asked his wife, “Why is the child crying?”

Swami Krishnananda
To be continued  ...