Stories are very powerful way for expressing ideas. Almost all of the holy books contain stories to explain verses or ideas spoken by prophets or holy men. Understanding of any idea or verse depends upon the beliefs or experiences of a listener which can be interpreted differently. This is the reason why story is important to explain the context. This also brings clarity in a consistent way for everybody.
In the absence of any story, ideas can be misrepresented based on the understanding of any individual. A person might twist an idea for personal benefits. Now somebody can very well said that Buddha has told lies in his lifetime many times. But if we can frame a story we can figure out in what circumstances Buddha has told a lie. Let’s make up a story as an example regarding Buddha falsehood. Once upon a time a guy knocked on a door of Buddha while he was sleeping. Buddha opened the door. The guy requested Buddha to save his life as some goons are looking for him to kill. Buddha told him to come inside the house. After some time, few people came following that man and knocked on the door. They asked Buddha whether they have seen a man. Buddha thought for a moment and told a lie that he was sleeping and nobody came. Based on the Buddha reputation of truth, all men left and the life of man was saved. Now without a story anybody can be misguided about the Buddha falsehood but if story is narrated everybody can understand the motive. The Lie can be treated as truth if it saves somebody’s life.
Same is true with Bhagwat Geeta, holy book of Hindus. If somebody only reads Bhagwat Geet, he or she might get confused – Why krishna is preaching Arjuna to kill his own cousins? There is also an example in one of the Hindi movie “aks” where manoj bajpai is reciting the verses of Geeta and killing people. So people can use verses of Geeta and feel right in killing somebody. But most of the Indian people understand the meaning of Geeta as they know the story behind Bhagwat Geeta which is Mahabharata. So Mahabharata is story behind The bhagwat Geeta which explains the context and meaning about the verses of Geeta. So It is important to read Mahabharta before reading Geeta.
In Qur’an, one of the verses 24:4 goes like this “and those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witness – lash them with eighty lashes and do not accept from them testimony ever after”. This can easily confuse a person – How a women can bring four witness of her molestation or rape to prove her point ? But the story behind the verse is something like this. Some people were talking about Muhammad’s most loved wife Aisha and accusing her of adultery. Muhammad knew the truth about her innocence. So this verse might be designed to actually save women from a false allegation by men without any proof. But in some cases, men use this verse to get away with crime. So actually a verse which is meant to protect a women can very well used against women without understanding the context or story behind that verse.
In Science, any equation can be treated as a verse and science does define the story behind that equation with assumptions and derivations. Hence the confusion is less. But in real life without a story any verse or idea can be interpreted in infinite ways. This could be for good or for worse. It is not important that all the stories mentioned in the holy books are true. These may be reference stories trying to explain any verse or ideas consistently to people. So next time if anybody tell you any idea or verse ask him …. and the story is …. ?
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