Otis Escaps, parts 4143 - 4146

4143. Through one of his interpreters Alexander started a philosophical discussion with the Holy Man during which he explained that he was the ruler of all of the countries from India back to Macedonia.

4144. The Holy Man replied, “The question is whether you can consider that you even rule the land on which you are standing.” If he didn’t say that, then I think he said, “Please move over as you are blocking out my sunlight.”

4145. To me then, tic-tac-toe game represents the conversation between the Holy Man and Alexander the Great, in which the Holy Man won because he said the wittiest remark.

 

4146. But the Holy Man also wins because he got to go first, and the first one to move in a tic-tac-toe game usually wins. The fact that the Holy Man goes first clearly signifies that Indian religious and philosophical thought is much older than Greco-Roman thinking and therefore could be said to have “gone first.”