The Coffee House of Surat

      The Coffee House of Surat is a short story written in the 19th century by the acclaimed Russian thinker Leo Tolstoy. It deals with the idea of religious assurity. This is done both directly and through an elaborate metaphor involving the sun that makes an appearance in the second half of the story. I'll explain this in more detail below.

      An angry banished Persian theologian strikes up a heated debate in a local coffee house in Surat (hence the name) as to whether or not there is a god. Everyone presents opposing and vehemently clashing ideas. For example, the African slave worships a small idol made of wood from the fetish tree (that's actually a tree, I googled it ) whereas the Brahmin, the Catholic, and the Jew all have their distinctly conflicting theories on God and the religion through which to communicate with him. They argue.

      Everyone is shouting and arguing intensely in this heated argument, everyone except for a Chinaman, a student of Confucius who sat silently in the bar drinking his opium. When people asked him for his opinion, he delivered a long and convoluted metaphor involving the sun through which he shows all of them to be wrong. The metaphor is a story in itself and takes up the second half of the story. It goes something like this:

      There's a blind guy on an island called Sumatra. He's become blind from incessantly looking at the sun in a foolish attempt to discover what it is. Eventually, he's come to the conclusion that as the sun s neither solid, liquid or gas, it must not exist at all! As he's blind and cannot see its light he becomes further convinced of his own theory.

      His slave lights a small coconut lamp in the darkness of the hut and begins to move about. This sparks a conversation on the sun, which the blind man vehemently protests does not exist. A fisherman, an Indian, an Egyptian, and an Englishman all joined in the argument, providing their own theories behind the sun. You can already see the similarity between this metaphor and the real-ife instance in the coffee house.

     Eventually the pilot of a ship begins to speak, dropping enlightenment bombs on everyone. He's like, "You're all wrong! The sun shines everywhere, it's nothing to do with where you're from. The sun doesn't shine for you!".  With this the Chinaman snaps out of his metaphor and concludes his argument.

     The Chinaman believes that, when it comes to faith, it is pride which causes emnities between people. Every nation or religion attempts to confine God to the walls of their temples. They all want a 'special' God for themselves.

     The Chinaman then puts forward the idea that the world is a temple, an undying tribute to the diversity and complexity of our creator. He says that, "The higher a man's conception of God ,the better he will know him and will emulate or imitate his goodness. Thus, don't judge anyone, don't criticize anyone's beliefs. If you're a true man of God you won't try to convert people, you'll accept them the way they are"

      There is not much symbolism or material for deconstruction in the piece ; the message is quite simple and straightforward. The predominant themes are unity through diversity, and a sadly unusual open-mindedness when it comes to religion. The metaphor can be seen as Tolstoy's attempt to analyse the problem by stepping back and looking at the larger picture, one free from sentiments and other personal bias.