BABY-ELEPHANT SYNDROME

“A rag-picker’s son will always remain a rag-picker

As long as he has the vision of a rag-picker.”

  

‘Rag-picking’, here, is just a metaphor. 

In life, anybody, with any condition, will remain ‘so’ – the ‘anybody’ – unless he breaks himself free from his condition.

Yes, break free from his past conditioning.

My father was a mechanic. He would come home, each night, with his greasy clothes and hands. I remember, as a young boy, admiring my dad for the hard work he would put to raise us up… to break free his sons from being mechanics in life. Yes, I adored my dad for the hard work. But, I also did not like to see him with his clothes and body soaked in grease… I wanted to free myself from that bondage. My dad also had a huge weakness: he drank like a fish! He would lose hold on himself… and, I remember growing up with lots of humiliation and embarrassment. Yes, it contributed to my shyness and inferiority complex. I detested my dad’s drinking habit… but, I never hated him. I remember resolving in my heart, even as a very young boy, that I would not drink.

I haven’t. 

Well, that is not to tell you how ‘holy’ I have been!

Hello, I have my huge flaws… as my dad had his.

Maybe that, I ‘chose’ not to drink. But, I find nothing wrong in drinking with dignity, pleasure and respect.


We had many neighbors, who got into drinking because they saw their parents drinking. Some of them would turn abusive and violent after their heavy drinking… Later, some of their children would exactly replicate the story… They would turn abusive and violent… because, that’s what they saw and attracted in their lives. 

"What you love, you attract; what you fear, you attract too." True, the Law of Attraction has been in operation for thousands of years. “If I do not want to be a mechanic or an alcoholic like my dad, I must love and hold in my mind the vision of not being a mechanic or an alcoholic.”

Likewise, I have to free myself from any other condition… any other conditioning.

Past is past… and, when things happened in our past, most of us could not do anything… we were helpless. But, now that we are aware of what had happened to us in our pasts, we realize how it feels when we remain enchained in our pasts… what it does to our self-confidence and our well-being. Yes, the question now is: need we remain enchained? Need we remain helpless, now? Can we break free from our enchainment, our past conditionings?

Luckily, yes, we can break free. 

Yes, a mechanic’s son 

need not remain a mechanic. 

An alcoholic’s son need not drink. 

An abused child 

need not be an abusive parent. 

 

A rag-picker’s son has all the right to be business tycoon… or, the President of the United States of America. And, a Black man – who till a few decades ago was condemned as a ‘Nigger’- now heads this mighty nation!

The limitations are only in our minds. The chains are only in our minds. Our wings, too. Our freedom, too!

There is this beautiful analogy, rather the syndrome, known as ‘Baby-elephant syndrome’.

When a baby elephant is just born, its leg is tied to a strong tree with a rope. In the start, the baby elephant struggles hard to break free… it pulls harder and even harder…but it fails to break free. Finally, it give up trying, it gives up the struggle. Slowly, it starts believing that, no matter how hard it tries, it can not succeed… that, the struggle to break free is futile… and, it never tries again. Never questions its conditioning… its belief. 

So, later, when this baby elephant grows big – into a mighty elephant – its leg would be tied to a tree with a simple rope or a string. The mighty elephant still believes that it cannot do anything about it… that it is supposed to be so… its fate. And, though it has the powers of pulling down a hundred mighty trees at one time… it remains there, all chained to a tree... with just a silly string! It operates from its past conditioning… Alas! It remains, forever, enchained.

Yes, the mighty elephant!

Now, who will tell this elephant, that it is no more a small baby?

Who will tell the rag-picker’s son, that he can break free?

Who will tell the ‘Victim’, remained stuck in a grave called PAST, to walk out of that hole?

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pics.: Vivek D'Cunha