INTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE OF THE ELEPHANT.
Argument:--Ignorance which is the cause of worldly desire, flies with
loss of wishes.
Chúdálá continued:--Hear me, O great prince! now explain to you the
meaning of the story of the Vindhyan elephant, which will be as useful
as it will appear wonderful to you.
2. That elephant of the vindhyan range, is thy very self in this
forest; and his two strong tusks are no other than the two virtues of
reasoning and resignation, on which you lay your strength. (_Viveka_
and _vairágya_ _i.e._ reason and resignation are the most potent arms
of men).
3. The hunter that was the enemy of the elephant and waylaid him in his
free rambles, is the personification of that great ignorance, which
hath laid hold of thee for thy misery only.
4. Even the strong is foiled by weak, and lead from one danger to
another and from woe to woe; as the strong elephant was led to by the
weak huntsman, and as you O mighty prince! are exposed by your imbecile
ignorance in this forest.
5. As the mighty elephant was caught in the strong iron chain, so are
you held fast in the snare of your desire (of a future reward); which
has brought all this calamity on you.
6. The expectation of man is the iron chain, that is stronger and
harder and more durable than the other; the iron rusts and wastes away
in time, but our expectations rise high and hold us faster.
7. As it was in the hostility of the huntsman, that he marked the
elephant by his remaining unseen in his hiding place, so thy ignorance
which lurks after thee, marks thee for his prey from a distance.
8. As the elephant broke the bonds of the iron chains of his enemy, so
have you broken asunder the ties of your peaceful reign and the bonds
of your royalty and enjoyments.
9. It is sometimes possible, O pious prince! to break down the bonds of
iron fetters; but is impossible, O holy prince, to put a stop to our
growing desires and fond expectations.
10. As the huntsman that had caught the elephant in the trap, fell
down himself from on high to the ground; so was thy ignorance also
levelled to the ground, seeing thee deprived of thy royalty and all thy
former dignity. (The pride and ignorance of a man sinks down with his
misfortune).
11. When the man who is disgusted with the world, wants to relinquish
his desire of enjoyment, he makes his ignorance tremble in himself,
as the demon that dwells on a tree, quakes with fear when the tree is
felled.
12. When the self-resigned man, remains devoid of his desire for
temporal enjoyments; he bids farewell to his ignorance, which quits him
as the demon departs from the fallen tree.
13. A man getting rid of his animal gratifications, demolishes the
abode of his ignorance from the mind; as a woodcutter destroys the
bird-nests of the tree, which he has sawn or cut down on the ground.
14. You have no doubt put down your ignorance, by your resignation of
royalty and resorting to this forest; your mind is of course cast down
by it, but it is not yet destroyed by the sword of your resignation. (A
cast down or sunken spirit or mind is not really killed, but revives
and lives again in time).
15. It rises again and gains renewed strength and minding its former
defeat, it has at last over powered on you by confining you in this
wilderness; and restraining you in the painful dungeon of your false
asceticism.
16. If you can but now kill your fallen ignorance in any way, it will
not be able to destroy you at once in your rigorous penance; though it
has reduced you to this plight by your abdication of royalty.
17. The ditch that the huntsman had dug to circumvent the elephant, is
verily this painful pit of austerity, which thy ignorance has scooped
to enthral you in.
18. The many provisions and supplies with which the huntsman had
filled the hollow, in order to entice the elephant; are the very many
expectations of future reward, which your ignorance presents before
you, as the recompense of your penitence.
19. O prince, though you are not the witless elephant (gaja-murkha);
yet you are not unlike the same, by your being cast in this forest by
your incorrigible ignorance.
20. The ditch of the elephant, was verily filled with the tender plants
and leaves for the fodder of the elephant; but your cave is full of
rigorous austerities, which no humanity can bear or tolerate.
21. You are still encaged in this prison house of the ascetic's cell,
and doomed to undergo all the imaginative torments of your penance and
martyrdom. You verily resemble the fallen Bali, that is confined in his
subterranean cell.
22. You are no doubt the empty headed elephant, that art fast bound
in the chain of false rigours, and incarcerated in this cave of your
ignorance; thus I have given the full exposition of the parable of
the elephant of Vindhyan mountain, and now glean the best lesson for
thyself from this.