This reference was not made in relation to SRF but to the Indian spiritual scene in general.
"I have found among all strata of Hindu laity in pursuit of some religious problem that a persuasive analogy tends to have a greater effect than even a well reasoned argument when unsupported by a simile or an analogue."
Here's the source: The Ochre Robe by Agehananda Bharati. Bharati was born an Austrian, educated in Vienna. He determined to become a Hindu monk and went to India in 1949. He taught at Benares Hindu University and traveled through India teaching upon request and in this way learned what topics were most in request and which teaching methods audiences liked best.
Here's the full quotation.(Pages 212-2, The Ochre Robe) 1980 edition
"I have found among all strata of Hindu laity in pursuit of some religious problem that a persuasive analogy tends to have a greater effect than even a well reasoned argument when unsupported by a simile or an analogue."
Here's the source: The Ochre Robe by Agehananda Bharati. Bharati was born an Austrian, educated in Vienna. He determined to become a Hindu monk and went to India in 1949. He taught at Benares Hindu University and traveled through India teaching upon request and in this way learned what topics were most in request and which teaching methods audiences liked best.
Here's the full quotation.(Pages 212-2, The Ochre Robe) 1980 edition
Quote
"Thus, in explaining the absoluteness of the Brahman and the relativity of the world, the phenomenality of objects, the analogy of the snake and the rope plus two equally simple analogies, have been used without modification, from the Upanisads down to to the present day.
"A man sees what he thinks is a snake, and he acts accordingly--he hits it, or he gets afraid, he may even die with terror; but if a clever man directs a light toward the object and makes the man realize it was only a piece of rope, this particular illusion disappears, and questions like when and where did the snake originate? are no longer asked or are asked in a factitious manner. The snake is (in this analogy) the phenomenal world, the 'rope' the absolute, the Brahman.
"I cannot say whether the tedious repetitiveness of these analogies derives from naivete in the Indian scholastic, or whether it is deliberate--in which latter case, it may be well be a formidable instrument of indoctrination.
"I have found among all strata of Hindu laity in pursuit of some religious problem that a persuasive analogy tends to have a greater effect than even a well reasoned argument when unsupported by a simile or an analogue.
"'The 'snake' and the 'rope' seemed to convince the Police Inspector and his guests* just as they have been convincing learned (Indian) pundits for many centuries.
*(The Police Inspector sponsored a religious gathering to which Bharati was invited to speak.)