The Broad-Minded Behemoth

"To make an impression on an elephant, one must strike it on the head, for that is its most sensitive spot."

One of the important functions of the spiritual teacher is to open up the minds of people to universal views. It is not a matter of mere tolerance, which happens at a very rudimentary level of human understanding, but one of acceptance leading to empathy. Not only is there much unnecessary pain and suffering caused due to fundamentalism and sectarianism, but an entire spectrum of beneficial learning is overlooked due of this type of narrowness.

Indurate, belligerent, and bellicose people consider their religion true while others are deemed false. To understand the particular mental disease that these kinds of beings labor under, one has to see through their tough defensive exterior and perceive the mind-gripping fear and insecurity that possesses them. The guru is an expert in this penetration, and once having entered into the solicitous expanse of a bigoted person’s mind, plants a seed of positive doubt which eventually causes a rift in that curtain of fear. Later, congeniality dawns on the mind of that person and the positive human traits inherent within come shining forth. It is then that true universalism can gain a foothold in consciousness and open up a vision of harmony only dreamed of before. This strike to the head of ignorance is facilitated by Sri Guru: “Your grace evaporates the turbulent ocean of birth and death with its repetitious cycles of misery and suffering. Reverent salutations to the Ultimate Guru.”