Once upon a time, there were few men who were tied to a stone on a cave.

These men were tied for so long

that they have forgotten everything about the world outside the cave. Everyday, someone gets them food to
eat & like this they we living their life inside the cave. Now, since they were confined to a small space they
had no way to look beyond it. Thus, their world view was limited.

Seeing the shadows on the walls of cave, they'd speculate about the nature of reality. Sometimes a King
would go near the cave & they'd see the shadows of horses, carts, spears & so on. Other days, some wild
animal would pass by the cave, thus giving them a different view. They soon started making predictions. They
realized that on every 10th day, they'd see the shadows of horse & carts. Similarly, during the summer season
they'd see the shadows of wild animals.

Shadows were their way to understand reality. As they became expert in deciphering the origin, occurrence &
nature of shadows; they started giving honorary titles to each other. Someone would be called the mystic,
someone the decoder. Thus, their world was filled with shadow-experts & they were passing their time.

One day, one of the cave man was freed at night. He was overjoyed by his freedom. He tried to wake up his
friends but they were in deep slumber. Thus, he decided to go out of the cave.

When he went out, he was astonished to see the night moon. The twinkling stars made him awe in
surprise. He thus wandered the whole night, trying to experience this new reality. The next morning was
particularly painful for him.

He was unable to open his eyes as the darkness of cave had blinded him. Slowly, he was able to adjust his
eyes to excess light. He was further astonished to see the world. The flowers, the trees, the animals,
everything astonished him. He saw the King & his guards. Now, he realised that what they used to see as
shadows was nothing but a reflection of the outside reality. He was happy as he has found the answers to
all the cave-philosphy. Hurriedly, he started finding his way back cave.

On reaching the cave, he told everything to his friends excitedly. However, to his surprise, his friends started
laughing. They said that he has gone mad & there is nothing like ball of light (Sun). There are no animals
or king or soldiers! Everything is within this cave. They totally denied the truth.
They further challenged his friend to analyse the shadows & tell something new. The friend, was now unable
to see the dull shadows. “Ah, it is your way to escape from reality!” they all exclaimed. Since you are no
longer competent to unravel the mysteries of the cave, you are making things up. Thus, the enlightened
friend was mocked, humiliated & abused by his own friends.

This is the Plato's cave allegory. It teaches us a very important lesson i.e. what we see as reality might just be
a limited illusion. It also explains why masses doubt the enlightened people many times. However, as an open
minded person, we should always be open to the ideas of enlightened beings. This way, we'd save
ourselves from being the metaphorical cave-man.