Day 255- The Parable of the Elephant and the Pit 

Overcoming Ignorance

The Elephant as a Symbol for You

Cudala, disguised as a Brahmana, explained the deeper meaning of the second parable to King Sikhidhvaja. The elephant in the Vindhya hills symbolized the king himself, with his two powerful tusks representing viveka (wisdom) and vairagya (dispassion). However, the rider controlling the elephant represented ignorance, which had overpowered even the mighty elephant. In the same way, despite all the wisdom Sikhidhvaja possessed, he was still controlled by ignorance.

The cage that trapped the elephant was the cage of desires, a stronger force than any material imprisonment. While the elephant escaped its physical cage, the rider (ignorance) continued to control it, just as Sikhidhvaja had renounced his kingdom but remained mentally trapped by ignorance and desires.

The Trap of Asceticism

When the king abandoned worldly pleasures and retreated to the forest, he had wounded his ignorance but didn’t destroy it completely. Instead, ignorance came back stronger and trapped him in another pit—asceticism. Cudala explained that the king’s new life as an ascetic was still a form of bondage because he hadn’t fully abandoned the mind and its movements. This is why, despite all his efforts, he remained unfulfilled and still in the grip of ignorance.

True Renunciation: Letting Go of the Ego

Sikhidhvaja protested, saying he had renounced everything: his kingdom, palace, and even his wife. But Cudala clarified that true renunciation wasn’t about abandoning material things; those were never truly his to begin with. The real challenge was to renounce the egosense, the attachment to the self.

Upon hearing this, Sikhidhvaja tried to renounce more. He said, "I will abandon this forest and my hermitage as well," and mentally detached from everything around him. But Cudala pointed out that renouncing what wasn’t truly his did not bring true freedom. The king then decided to physically destroy everything, burning his cottage, possessions, and even his clothes, in an attempt to fully renounce his attachments.

The Final Step: Renouncing the Mind

Even after this, Cudala informed him that he hadn’t completed the final renunciation. Sikhidhvaja was frustrated, asking, "What more can I renounce? Should I abandon this body, the source of all pain and suffering?"

Cudala stopped him, explaining that the body wasn’t the problem. The body is innocent, and destroying it wouldn’t lead to liberation. Instead, the king needed to renounce the mind, which creates the illusion of pleasure, pain, and desires. The mind is the root of all suffering because it attaches itself to the world through the ego and senses.

Renunciation of the Mind: The Seed of All Attachments

Cudala explained that the mind (or citta) is neither inert nor fully active, yet it causes all the confusion and suffering in life. It is the seed that gives rise to the body, desires, and attachments. To achieve true freedom, the mind itself must be renounced, as it is the source of all mental and emotional disturbance.

By abandoning the mind, one uproots the very foundation of samsara (the cycle of birth and death). When the mind is gone, all concepts of "I" and "mine" disappear, and the individual experiences true peace. Cudala emphasized that renouncing the mind leads to immediate self-realization, where notions of unity, diversity, pleasure, and pain vanish.

contd,,,,,,