Four Blind Men See An Elephant

A mahout came to a village with his elephant. The villagers gathered to see the elephant. Four blind men lived in the village. They also gathered with the rest of the village. The people patted the elephant. It was tame and so didn't cause any problems.

One blind man grasped the elephant's neck and said, "The elephant is like pestle." The second blind man caught the elephant's tail. He said, "No, the elephant is like a piece of rope." The third blind man found the elephant's ears. He said, "Why! The elephant is like a dustpan." The fourth blind man was holding a leg, so he said, "No, no, the elephant is like a pillar."

In this way the four blind men described the elephant. But because they didn't have eyes they couldn't see the whole elephant. One who has gained just a tiny amount of knowledge and thinks that he have consumed the humongous finite knowledge can't improve anything but can destroy everything. Having half knowledge of something very powerful can be very harmful. And it is impossible to have full knowledge of existence without a bona fide master. Else it can be compared to the four blind men who 'saw' the elephant and yet didn't.

A tale from 101 Tales of Wisdom