Rajagopalachari. On God.

(via Sahana Singh)

My uncle was a budding engineer from the National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysore and waiting outside the room where Rajaji was meeting people. While he waited, he got into a debate with someone (whom I am not allowed to name - an eminent person) about the existence of a divine reality. "There is absolutely no proof that there is God," he declared. As he was arguing, he barely noticed that Rajaji had walked past him. 15 minutes later, when he and the other gentleman were called inside, Rajaji greeted them with a smile and after the initial introductions said: "Young man, I heard what you said in the corridor."
My uncle wished he could vanish into thin air.
"What branch of engineering are you studying?"
"Civil engineering, Sir."
"Have you studied Surveying?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Are you familiar with the principle of 'Whole to the Part' used in Surveying?"
"Yes, Sir."
"When you have to survey a piece of land, do you not proceed from the 'Whole to the Part'? First, you establish the control points covering the whole area with the highest possible degree of precision and only then from those control points you proceed to establish the minor points inside the area, don't you?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Suppose you first try to establish the minor points inside the area to be surveyed and then from there you try to establish the outer points, that is if you go from "Part To the Whole" what will happen?"
"There will be more errors, Sir. The errors are magnified if we go from "Part to the Whole""
"Exactly. So when it comes to trying to locate God from the level of knowledge you have now, you are trying to go from "Part to the Whole" which means you are making huge errors, don't you think so?"
My uncle had no answer. But he had a story for posterity.