Indian tradition has warned us since the ancient times of the ‘Shadripu’ or six enemies within us that every human being has to fight in order to become our better selves. They are kama (desire), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), mada (ego), moha (attachment), and matsarya (partiality). These are the negative qualities which prevent us from attaining ‘moksha’ or liberation from the endless cycle of birth and death.
The elephant is highly regarded in Indian tradition and some jatakas take up the theme of the Shadripu, using an elephant as the protagonist.
One story goes that the Bodhisattva or Buddha in a previous birth was born as the king of the ‘Chaddanta’ or six-tusked elephants. The elephant king had a pure white body with his feet and face flushed an attractive rosy red. He lived in a golden cave on the banks of a beautiful lake with his two queens, Mahasubhadda and Chullasubhadda, and ruled his herd with patience and wisdom.
One day, after bathing in the lake with his wives, the king elephant playfully hit a sal tree in full bloom. By chance, the dry leaves and red ants from the tree fell on Chullasubhadda whereas the flowers and the pollen fell on Mahasubhadda. This offended Chullasubhadda deeply and she disappeared into the jungle, burning with anger. Nobody could find her although they searched far and wide.
Soon after, Chullasubhadda died and was reborn as a princess of the Madda kingdom. When she grew up, she was married to the king of Varanasi and became his chief queen. But she could not forget her anger in her previous birth. She persuaded her husband to obtain the king elephant’s tusks for her. The king summoned all the hunters of the kingdom and finally picked an experienced man called Sonuttara.
However, it took seven years, seven months and seven days for Sonuttara to find the Chaddantas. When he did, he dug a pit and covered it with dry leaves and branches. When the king elephant was about to pass over it, Sonuttara took aim at him with a poisoned arrow.
The elephant in turn was about to charge at him, but when he saw Sonuttara’s disguise—an ochre robe of a monk—he recoiled and held back. Touched by the elephant king’s piety, the hunter’s heart underwent a change and he confessed the whole story to the elephant. They parted ways in goodwill and Chullasubhaddha neither got her wish nor could she ever live in peace because of her anger.
Another jataka says that there was once an elephant called Mahilamukha who belonged to a king’s stables. He was docile, sweet-tempered and very obedient to his mahout.
One evening, a gang of thieves sneaked into the royal stables unnoticed. Finding themselves safe, they began to talk and compare notes. They retold their evil and cruel deeds with great relish. Mahilamukha overheard every word in his stall.
The thieves took to coming regularly at night to the elephant stables as it proved to be a safe place for their meetings. All their conversations were about evil and they praised those among them who killed innocent, helpless people. This daily dose of wickedness began to influence the gentle Mahilamukha. He began to think that violence was a desirable virtue.
One morning, when his mahout approached his stall, Mahilamukha suddenly swung him up and dashed him to the ground. He trampled his mahout to death, believing it was a fine thing to do.This terrible act shocked everybody at the stables because it was so out of character and completely unprovoked. But Mahilamukha killed a total of five mahouts that day when they tried to approach him one by one.
The Bodhisattva was the king’s minister in that birth, and the king sent him to investigate the matter. After making a close inquiry, the Bodhisattva came to know that the elephant was otherwise sane and fit. He had no apparent reason to behave murderously.
Further inquiry brought to light that the elephant stall had become a den of thieves at night. This gave the Bodhisattva an insight into Mahilamukha’s altered mind. He set up a series of talks by respected holy men as course correction. Listening every night to their words on right conduct, Mahilamukha’s mind gradually changed for the better. He reverted to his gentle, obedient self and never gave trouble again. If we substitute Mahilamukha with ourselves, we realise the jataka’s message is about the powers of good and bad influence. We must also marvel at how the Bodhisattva reclaimed Mahilamukha’s mind instead of having him killed.
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In another jataka, the Bodhisattva was born in a Himalayan forest as an elephant called Silava. His beauty was unparalleled. When he grew up, he became the leader of 80,000 elephants. But he went away one day to a faraway forest to live a spiritual life.
One day, Silava saw a man crying helplessly in the forest. The elephant advanced compassionately to help him. The man was afraid and ran away. So Silava halted to reassure him. This happened three times. The man grew unafraid and stopped running. Silava then offered to lead him out of the forest and set him on the path to Varanasi. He carried him on his back to the highway which led to the nearest kingdom.
But when he got to Varanasi, the ungrateful man went straight to the ivory dealers and told them to keep a good sum ready. Armed with a saw, he went back to the forest and piteously begged the elephant to let him cut his tusks off so that he could earn money. The gentle elephant agreed and knelt down. The greedy man cut off his tusks from the very root, leaving Silava wounded and in great pain.
But the man did not go unpunished. On his way back, the earth split wide open. A wave of fire burst forth and plunged him into hell. The tree fairies then attended to Silava’s wounds with medicinal leaves and he was healed.
Renuka Narayanan