Daily Theosophy

Adi went on and on, as a witness and observer to higher and higher worlds, to the Sun and beyond; and then he returned, via the planets, back to the earth body he had left, in his dream, on Earth. It had not died. It had waited for his return. All this had, in human terms, taken at most two weeks, but in terms of experience it could be called eons. Adi woke up from his dream, and with flames rising from the top of his head, stood before his parents. “Your time has nearly come,” they said.

(50)

[The Third Dream of praja]

The Boy with the Elephant’s Head

Chapter7

The Third Dream of Praja

The Boy with the Elephant’s Head

You remember that Praja’s last dream ended in a nightmare, when her beloved son was beheaded, and then given the head of an elephant in stead. That of course is only a story. It is biologically impossible to cut off someone’s head and still he survives. It is just as impossible to put an elephant head on a human body. In the first place the head is far too big. But also because the cells of an elephant contain different genes from what humans carry in their cells, and a lot of different chemicals and different blood; and the difference are too great to ever accomplish such a thing by genetic manipulation. It would be impossible to connect the nervous system of an elephant with that of a boy. I don’t think there is any doctor in whatever hospital in this whole world and in the future who will ever be able to accomplish such a task – and if he would, then still it would not make any sense to have such a creature walking around among us. In dreams and fantasies such things can happen though, and therefore in a special way exist. So in Praja’s dream. But the meaning of this dream, of the story in this dream is symbolic: it symbolizes or signifies something that is real. Something that really happens or happened. The story has a secret meaning. What this story wants to make clear, I think, is that the boy who was made from Praja herself, from her own body, was so spiritual that no human being would be able to understand him. Also he would never be able to communicate anything to humans, who are not so spiritual, but only have the reflection of spirituality which is called ‘mind.’ Therefore the boy was given a mind, symbolized by an elephant head. The elephant is useful for this dream symbolism, because elephants belong to the most intelligent animals, and are the most powerful physically. They can solve many problems with their very power: they can crack trees or destroy everything that comes on their path, even houses, and when they are angry almost nothing can stop them. They can, with their trunk (which is actually their nose, with which they can smell exceedingly good also) remove trees and break off branches for someone who is riding on their back so that that person will not be hurt. They can lift entire tree stems with that trunk, and walk around with them, and with the same trunk, which is also a refined instrument for feeling, they can take a needle form the floor. They can use their trunk for many purposes, like, sucking water from a lake and showering themselves, or others, or tenderly touch their babies. Elephants have very good memories, and they can protect friends, but when they see somebody who has pestered them many years ago, they still can take revenge by showering that person with the contents of their nose. But mostly they are very kind and nice. I have seen many tame elephants in temples in India who carefully touch the tops of the heads of babies and small children – and the parents of these children allow them to do that.

For all these reasons an elephant is a very good symbol for intelligence, power, tenderness and inventiveness, and for removing obstacles and problems, as well as creating them if they are in the mood. So the boy with the elephant head symbolizes spirituality (the real Heart) combined with a very powerful and clever mind. He lives in every human being including you to train and guide your mind and guard from defilement the still higher worlds of the spirit where we can not go yet. So he creates problems for everyone who does not think right. He just outwits them and thus throws up a problem for anyone who really wants to understand things for which the human mind does not have the purity and clarity and power yet. He creates unsurpassable obstacles for those who wish to become spiritual and at the same time apply their mind and their knowledge for evil plans and actions. Somebody who thinks wrong or is mistaken in his theories, or uses his mind for thinking out bad things, or to create suffering for others will never become really spiritual – even though such a person can become awfully powerful, he will always lose at the very end: he will never recognize and understand Adi’s Heart. The elephant boy, that is one’s own heart-mind, will stop him or her – and as long as someone does not think and act right, he or she will be lonely, lonely, lonely, even if they have dozens of friends and girlfriends. The elephant boy, or your own heart-mind is one of the greatest helpers of all human beings, because he is the very example of a great heart-mind, and stimulates everyone to choose the right way in life, and solves all problems for those who listen to him and follow him.

That boy exists nowhere in reality in the whole universe as far as I know, but as a symbol lives everywhere as the heart-mind in every human being, or the intelligence used for good things inside you. And me. That is why Praja had that dream, because it would become her task to live among the beings who Adi would give a mind, and these beings would be called men and women – thinkers, also called people. Praja’s task would be to practice what she was: compassion: to help wherever there is pain and suffering in the world as consequence of having a mind. So that in the end all mistakes would be corrected and all questions answered. And before her was a task that would take millions of years of hard work, in many different ways, in many different bodies.

This was only an introduction to Praja’s third dream. Now follows the story of the actual third dream.

(51)

(Inspiring People)

Again she was standing in the large table with the tiny watch, and became so small that she could enter the watch. Very briefly she saw all that she had seen in her former dreams.