The Lizard

In a certain village of India there was a little park where people came to sit and chat. The path to it lay alongside the forest. On the edge of the path there was a large, well-known tree. One day a city-dweller came to the village, passed the tree, and saw a peculiar lizard climbing on the trunk. When he reached the park he told the others sitting there, "I just saw a cream-colored lizard on that old tree!"

"Oh," said one man, "I know that lizard. I've seen it there several times -- but it's not cream-colored, it's green."

"No, no, not green," said another, "it is yellow." Then others chimed in: "We have seen it -- it is lavender (gray, etc.). Everyone had a different picture of the lizard.

They decided to go to the tree to find the animal and settle the argument. What they found was a hermit from the forest, sitting in meditation under the tree. The people questioned him. "I know all about that creature, who lives on this tree," he answered. (Have you guessed it? Yes. It was a chameleon.) "It is sometimes lavender, sometimes gray, sometimes green, yellow, cream, and sometimes it has really no color at all."

God, said Sri Ramakrishna, is like that chameleon, taking on different qualities and appearances, and then again He has none.