Flame of Hope
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Chapter 11
The balloons were big and colorful. Each student had
a balloon. Amy’s was a bright yellow and she was
squealing in delight. Richard’s was blue, Jim’s purple,
Andrew’s green, Marie’s red and Martha’s orange.
Dr. Singh looked at his students extremely amused.
“No,” he said. “We are not having a party. Henry, could
you provide each of them with a needle please?”
Amy’s eyes opened wide. “Ooooh! We’re going to burst
our balloons! What fun!” she thought.
Dr. Singh noticed the excitement on Amy’s face. “You
don’t need to burst your balloon, Amy. You can keep your
balloon and play with it. But the rest of you have a choice to
make. The balloons you are holding represent the bubbles
you have built around yourselves. If you want to see the
Truth, you are going to have to come out of your bubble.
I’d explained to you earlier that there are certain things you
are going to need in your quest for Truth. And one of them
was -open-mindedness. If you have a bubble around you,
you are not open-minded. You are close-minded. Closeminded
people are very selective about the type of information
they let through their bubble.”
“So........if you burst them, that would mean you are
willing to come out of your closed world. And if you don’t
that would mean that you prefer to remain in darkness. For
darkness it is. People who do not have Truth in their life,
live in utter darkness.”
A balloon instantly popped. Richard had pricked his
balloon. The next balloon to go was Andrew’s. The rest of
them did not hesitate much in bursting their balloons.
Martha was the last one to do it.
Dr. Singh nodded in appreciation and was all smiles. He
had a fountain pen in his hand. He walked over to Richard
and shook his pen a little. Several droplets of blue ink
stained Richard’s nice and white coat. It startled Richard a
little and he looked at his beautiful coat in dismay, all
ruined.
“Oh,” said Dr. Singh, “I’m not going to apologize for
that. Henry will get you a new coat in a minute. I just
wanted to bring your attention to these little spots here on
your uniform. How do they make your coat look?”
“It’s all spoilt!” cried Martha. “It looks awful.”
“Yes,” said Marie. ”These ink spots don’t look good.”
“White clothes get dirty easily, don’t they?” said Dr.
Singh. “We usually take extra care of our white clothes. And
if there are any stains on them, we try to remove them, am I
right?”
Martha nodded. “Yes, we use detergent, bleach, stain
remover and things like that to get the dirt off the clothes.”
“Truth is just like this white uniform you are wearing,”
said Dr. Singh. “Truth is spotless and one hundred percent
pure. It is free from impurities. It is unadulterated and
uncorrupted.
“As a seeker of Truth, you wear white because this color
best represents the Truth. Let me now ask you -would you
tolerate these stain marks on your white uniform? Richard,
tell me how you feel about these stains.”
“I wouldn’t like them on my uniform at all,” replied
Richard.
Dr. Singh took a piece of chalk and went to the blackboard.
“These ink marks on your white uniform can be called
impurities. If these impurities fall upon Truth, what would
they be known as?”
And he wrote down one word on the blackboard:
Falsehood.
“Just as you wouldn’t tolerate these ink marks on your
clean white uniform,” he went on, “you shouldn’t tolerate
any form of Falsehood in your quest for Truth. And what I
mean by no tolerance is......” He stopped and looked at his
students meaningfully. “Having hatred for lies and untruth.”
“We have learnt that ninety-nine point nine percent of all answers
are false. And only one percent is true, correct and right.
That means that we are going to have to deal with a lot of
falsehood. A lot of it! They are like all these stains on a pure
white uniform. However, Falsehood has some properties
that you should be aware of. It is unfortunate that many
people find it pleasing and attractive. The reality though, is
as you can see,” and he pointed to the stains on Richard’s
coat. “That Falsehood is very ugly.”
“Let us now recall some of the things that we have learnt
about Truth. Can you remember its most outstanding
property?”
Amy’s hand shot up. “Truth is one percent, and everything
else is ninety-nine percent!” she answered.
Dr. Singh smiled and nodded. “Correct! Truth is one,” he
said with great emphasis on the word one. “We’ll understand
this better after we do a little exercise.”
“I’m going to give you five minutes. I want you to write
down three things that you know are true.”
He looked at his watch and then said, “Start now!”
When the time was up, Dr. Singh asked Amy what she
had written.
She stood up and read her answers:
1. I am a girl.
2. My mother’s name is Samantha.
3. I am 10 years old.
Dr. Singh considered her first statement. “I am a girl,” he
repeated. “Yes, that is certainly a true statement. That is the
only answer that is one percent correct. 99.9 percent
of all answers would be wrong.”
“But,” said Marie, “the only other answer besides I am a
girl would be I am a boy. So that means only fifty percent of
the answers would be wrong.”
“Hmmm,” said Dr. Singh. “I see that you have missed the
whole point. There are indeed 99.9 percent answers
that are going to be wrong. For Amy is a girl. And that is
the only Truth. She is not a boy, yes. But she is also not a
woman, or a tree, or a dog, or a cat, or a hen or a stone.
She is not a chair or a book or a flower or a house. I can go
on endlessly.”
“And then consider Amy’s second statement,” he continued.
“Her mother’s name is Samantha. It is not Patricia or
Diana or Sara or Betty or Laila. There are countless women
in this world. So you are going to have 99.9 percent
wrong answers. And only one answer that is correct. Only a
woman named Samantha is Amy’s mother.”
“And the last statement that Amy made. She is ten years
old. Not one or two or twenty or eighty or hundred or two
thousand. Only one answer is correct. 99.9 percent
of the answers are incorrect. There is only one Truth.”
Marie’s eyes regarded Dr. Singh with the greatest amazement.
“This man is incredible!” she thought. “I wonder if he’s
married.”
--------------End of Chapter 11----------------
Read more: here
The balloons were big and colorful. Each student had
a balloon. Amy’s was a bright yellow and she was
squealing in delight. Richard’s was blue, Jim’s purple,
Andrew’s green, Marie’s red and Martha’s orange.
Dr. Singh looked at his students extremely amused.
“No,” he said. “We are not having a party. Henry, could
you provide each of them with a needle please?”
Amy’s eyes opened wide. “Ooooh! We’re going to burst
our balloons! What fun!” she thought.
Dr. Singh noticed the excitement on Amy’s face. “You
don’t need to burst your balloon, Amy. You can keep your
balloon and play with it. But the rest of you have a choice to
make. The balloons you are holding represent the bubbles
you have built around yourselves. If you want to see the
Truth, you are going to have to come out of your bubble.
I’d explained to you earlier that there are certain things you
are going to need in your quest for Truth. And one of them
was -open-mindedness. If you have a bubble around you,
you are not open-minded. You are close-minded. Closeminded
people are very selective about the type of information
they let through their bubble.”
“So........if you burst them, that would mean you are
willing to come out of your closed world. And if you don’t
that would mean that you prefer to remain in darkness. For
darkness it is. People who do not have Truth in their life,
live in utter darkness.”
A balloon instantly popped. Richard had pricked his
balloon. The next balloon to go was Andrew’s. The rest of
them did not hesitate much in bursting their balloons.
Martha was the last one to do it.
Dr. Singh nodded in appreciation and was all smiles. He
had a fountain pen in his hand. He walked over to Richard
and shook his pen a little. Several droplets of blue ink
stained Richard’s nice and white coat. It startled Richard a
little and he looked at his beautiful coat in dismay, all
ruined.
“Oh,” said Dr. Singh, “I’m not going to apologize for
that. Henry will get you a new coat in a minute. I just
wanted to bring your attention to these little spots here on
your uniform. How do they make your coat look?”
“It’s all spoilt!” cried Martha. “It looks awful.”
“Yes,” said Marie. ”These ink spots don’t look good.”
“White clothes get dirty easily, don’t they?” said Dr.
Singh. “We usually take extra care of our white clothes. And
if there are any stains on them, we try to remove them, am I
right?”
Martha nodded. “Yes, we use detergent, bleach, stain
remover and things like that to get the dirt off the clothes.”
“Truth is just like this white uniform you are wearing,”
said Dr. Singh. “Truth is spotless and one hundred percent
pure. It is free from impurities. It is unadulterated and
uncorrupted.
“As a seeker of Truth, you wear white because this color
best represents the Truth. Let me now ask you -would you
tolerate these stain marks on your white uniform? Richard,
tell me how you feel about these stains.”
“I wouldn’t like them on my uniform at all,” replied
Richard.
Dr. Singh took a piece of chalk and went to the blackboard.
“These ink marks on your white uniform can be called
impurities. If these impurities fall upon Truth, what would
they be known as?”
And he wrote down one word on the blackboard:
Falsehood.
“Just as you wouldn’t tolerate these ink marks on your
clean white uniform,” he went on, “you shouldn’t tolerate
any form of Falsehood in your quest for Truth. And what I
mean by no tolerance is......” He stopped and looked at his
students meaningfully. “Having hatred for lies and untruth.”
“We have learnt that ninety-nine point nine percent of all answers
are false. And only one percent is true, correct and right.
That means that we are going to have to deal with a lot of
falsehood. A lot of it! They are like all these stains on a pure
white uniform. However, Falsehood has some properties
that you should be aware of. It is unfortunate that many
people find it pleasing and attractive. The reality though, is
as you can see,” and he pointed to the stains on Richard’s
coat. “That Falsehood is very ugly.”
“Let us now recall some of the things that we have learnt
about Truth. Can you remember its most outstanding
property?”
Amy’s hand shot up. “Truth is one percent, and everything
else is ninety-nine percent!” she answered.
Dr. Singh smiled and nodded. “Correct! Truth is one,” he
said with great emphasis on the word one. “We’ll understand
this better after we do a little exercise.”
“I’m going to give you five minutes. I want you to write
down three things that you know are true.”
He looked at his watch and then said, “Start now!”
When the time was up, Dr. Singh asked Amy what she
had written.
She stood up and read her answers:
1. I am a girl.
2. My mother’s name is Samantha.
3. I am 10 years old.
Dr. Singh considered her first statement. “I am a girl,” he
repeated. “Yes, that is certainly a true statement. That is the
only answer that is one percent correct. 99.9 percent
of all answers would be wrong.”
“But,” said Marie, “the only other answer besides I am a
girl would be I am a boy. So that means only fifty percent of
the answers would be wrong.”
“Hmmm,” said Dr. Singh. “I see that you have missed the
whole point. There are indeed 99.9 percent answers
that are going to be wrong. For Amy is a girl. And that is
the only Truth. She is not a boy, yes. But she is also not a
woman, or a tree, or a dog, or a cat, or a hen or a stone.
She is not a chair or a book or a flower or a house. I can go
on endlessly.”
“And then consider Amy’s second statement,” he continued.
“Her mother’s name is Samantha. It is not Patricia or
Diana or Sara or Betty or Laila. There are countless women
in this world. So you are going to have 99.9 percent
wrong answers. And only one answer that is correct. Only a
woman named Samantha is Amy’s mother.”
“And the last statement that Amy made. She is ten years
old. Not one or two or twenty or eighty or hundred or two
thousand. Only one answer is correct. 99.9 percent
of the answers are incorrect. There is only one Truth.”
Marie’s eyes regarded Dr. Singh with the greatest amazement.
“This man is incredible!” she thought. “I wonder if he’s
married.”
--------------End of Chapter 11----------------
Read more: here
Therefore... the significance of chapter 7.
Will have to type in again.You'll have to wait,just because I am not answering,doesn't mean I am not reading.I'll answer as soon as I get time.Its an interesting book.