The Elephant Rope Story

Elephants were trapped and trained for tasks in the logging camps

Here is a story I want to share with my followers and friends. This is a story about childhood memories and past negative experiences that we carry and how it robs us of our self-confidence and happiness. This is a story about how our emotional luggage is one of our biggest stumbling blocks in our pursuit of happiness. There is a great learning from this story and the lesson we learn should be at the top of our Minds at all times.  Happy Reading and do share your experiences or this story with others. Love to hear from you.

The Elephant Rope Story

In the humid jungles of Myanmar and Thailand, in days gone by and even to some extent today, elephants are used in logging camps to drag timber logs to the rivers, from where they float downstream to sawmill facilities. Nowadays, heavy machines might be used, but in the past, this task depended solely on the huge elephants trained for the work.

Initially, these elephants were trapped and trained for the task. Soon, elephants were bred, and baby elephants were born in the logging camps. When a baby elephant is born, it is immediately taken away from its mother, and a handler called a mahout is assigned to it. This mahout becomes, for all intents and purposes, the parent and point of reference for the infant elephant. When it is time to be fed, the mahout takes the baby elephant to its mother and then brings it back to be tied with a simple rope. Tethered from its feet to a sturdy pole or tree, the baby elephant's movement is limited, preventing it from roaming aimlessly and getting lost. The mahout is responsible for taking the elephant to the river to bathe and care for it and also acts as its teacher, training it to move logs from small baby-sized ones to incrementally larger ones. At the end of each day, the baby elephant is tied up with the rope to the pole.

If the baby elephant refuses to learn its lessons, challenges the mahout, or throws a tantrum, it is punished with a fierce, painful prod behind its big, flappy ears, which are tender in both infancy and adulthood.

The baby elephant soon learns its limitations when tied up

The baby elephant soon learns its limitations when tied up and sees the very visible metal prong parked at the exit of its shed. In 2-3 years, the elephants grow to a size close to that of an adult, their muscles strong enough to start working alongside adult elephants. And at the end of the day, they are still tied up with the same rope to the same tree.

Like human babies, baby elephants are prone to naughtiness and restlessness, eager to roam and explore the jungle's mysteries. Yet, they are limited by the stronger rope, which they tug at in attempts to break away. As the years pass, the maturing elephants turn into magnificent giants but remain tethered to the same withering rope and tree. Despite their yearning to break free and roam the jungle, they have lost all hope and no longer attempt to break the rope or uproot the tree with their full might. Years of pulling at the rope when they were weak and being subdued by the mahout have led the elephants to believe that the rope and the punishing metal prong are not worth challenging.

Over time, their resolve wanes and eventually disappears as the constant failure convinces them that breaking free is impossible. As time passes, the same rope, as withered as it is, continues to restrain them. Not by physical force, but by a belief in helplessness ingrained in their subconscious. The mahouts understand this dynamic well – the real victory is not against the physical strength of these magnificent giants but against the beliefs held in their minds.

The Metaphor for Human Limitations:

This story is not just about elephants. It's a mirror reflecting our own self-imposed limitations. How often have we, like those majestic beasts, held ourselves back not by the reality of our capabilities but by the beliefs seeded in our past?

Teachers and Parents: They play roles akin to the mahouts, setting boundaries intended to guide but sometimes instilling limiting beliefs.

 Abusive Relationships: Here, the mahout's role is mirrored in how such relationships imprint negative beliefs in the subconscious.

Relationships

Rejected Love and Formative Experiences: Our early failures and pains, much like the elephant's early attempts to break the string, can lead to beliefs about our own limitations and capabilities.

Academic Performance and Career Choices: Like the elephant conditioned by the string, our early academic performance and labelling of student days defines our belief in career choices can be influenced by external expectations, leading to a path not truly