The Uselessness of Belief

The Story

In the early 1900s, an American professor goes to Papua New Guinea. While doing his research work, he comes across two boys with an exceptional ability to learn things. In just over a couple of months, they become fluent in English, improve on the many things taught to them by the professor and they did it quite effortlessly.

As the professor’s stay comes to an end, he persuades the parents of the two boys to allow him to take them back to the US. The professor’s intentions wer kind and he tells them that their talent is worth a lot there and they can do more justice to their ability. The parents reluctantly agree; permitting them to go would mean not being able to see them for a long time — maybe never again.

On reaching the US, the two boys run through college and start achieving great things in their respective fields.

One of the boys, meets with an accident and is killed. The other, raises a family, wins all kinds of recognition and lives a normal life.

About 2 years after the tragic accident with one of the boys, the professor goes back to Papua New Guinea. On reaching, the professor meets the parents of the 2 boys.

Perhaps it was the difficulty getting a good interpreter or it could have been the similar sounding names of the boys, the news about them gets mixed-up. The family of the dead boy end up believing that their son is doing well and the other family thinks that their son is dead.

The family of the boy who actually died lived happily with memories of their child. On the other hand, the family of the boy who was doing alive lived with the sorrow that accompanies a dead son.

Discussion

One would say that the mix-up was tragic and the wrong people sufferred. The point here is that we often don’t have access to the truth and are therefore at the mercy of what we believe. Belief feels real but has nothing to do with reality. Why believe in anything? Is it possible to experience well-being without believing in something?

(This is a version of the story I read when I was exploring the philosophy of non-duality as taught by Ramana Maharishi)