Eknath Easwaran
The mind and the elephant trunk
On festival days in India you will often see a huge elephant, caparisoned in gold and gorgeous cloth, carrying an image of the Lord on its back through the village streets. Stalls of fruits, vegetables, and sweets line the narrow, crooked streets, and the trunk of an elephant, as you may know, rarely stays still. It seizes a coconut, a bunch of bananas, whatever the stalls offer, because a trunk that is empty will take. To prevent this the mahout asks the elephant to grasp a firm bamboo shaft. Out of love the elephant does as he is told. He steps right along with his stick held upright in a steady trunk, not tempted to feast on mangoes or melons, because he has something to hold on to. The human mind is rather like the trunk of an elephant. It never rests. It goes here, there, ceaselessly moving through sensations, images, thoughts, hopes, regrets, impulses. What should we give it to hold on to? The systematic repetition of the mantram, which can steady the mind at any time and in any place.