Means To Unravel Truth

This incident took place about two thousand five hundred years ago. One day, a few friends of Vardhaman, the prince of Vaishali, came to see him. They saw Vardhaman's mother, Queen Trishala, on the ground floor, who was busy with her chores. Vardhaman was not there. So they asked his mother, "Where is Vardhaman?"

Trishala replied, "He is upstairs."

The palace had seven floors. The children rushed up to the top floor. There they met Vardhaman's father, King Siddharth, busy with his work. Not seeing Vardhaman there, they asked the king, "Where is Vardhaman?"

King Siddharth replied, "Downstairs."

The children were puzzled. They searched all the floors of the palace. Finally, they found Vardhaman on the fourth floor. The children were very happy to see their friend. They gathered around Prince Vardhaman and related the incident to him. They said, "Vardhaman, we are bewildered about one thing. On the ground floor, when we asked your mother where you were, she said that you were upstairs. On the top floor, your father said that you were downstairs. How can both statements be correct?"

Prince Vardhaman thought for a moment. Then pointing to a crow sitting on a tree branch, he asked, "What color is the crow?"

All replied in one voice, "Black."

Vardhaman said, "Yes, but the crow is red as well as white."

"No, no, it is black," shouted the children.

Vardhaman said, "You are all right. The body of the crow is black. But the crow is also red because of the color of its blood and it is also white because its bones are white. My mother was on the ground floor, so she told you that I was upstairs. My father was on the top floor, so he said that I was downstairs. Both gave the correct statements from their respective standpoints. Every thing has a number of different aspects and to explore the truth, we should look at it from different viewpoints. This is the means to unravel the truth."

Later, Prince Vardhaman became 24^th and the last Tirthankara.He reformed and refined previous teachings of Parshwanath, the 23 rd Jain Tirthankar (Prophet).