THE CHAMELEON

ONCE a man entered a wood and saw a small
animal on a tree. He came back and told another
man that he had seen a creature of a beautiful red
colour on a certain tree. The second man replied:
"When f went into the wood, I also saw that
animal. But why do you call it red? It is green."
Another man who was present contradicted them
both and insisted that it was yellow. Presently
others arrived and contended that it was grey,
violet, blue, and so forth and so on. At last they
started quarrelling among themselves. To settle the
dispute they all went to the tree. They saw a man
sitting under it. On being asked, he replied: *'Yes, I
live under this tree and I know the animal very
well. All your descriptions are true. Sometimes it
appears red, sometimes yellow, and at other times
blue, violet, grey and so forth- It is a chameleon.
And sometimes it has no colour at all. Now it has
a colour, and now it has none."
In like manner, one who constantly thinks of God
can know His real nature; he alone knows that
God reveals Himself to seekers in various forms
and aspects. God has attributes; then again He has
none. Only the man who lives under the tree
knows that the chameleon can appear in various
colours, and he knows further that the animal at
times has no colour at all. It is the others who
suffer from the agony of futile argument.