24. He then covered the great pit, with green branches and soft leaves of trees; as the season of autumn covers the face of the empty sky with fleecy and flimsy clouds. 25. The elephant roaming at large in the forest, happened to fall down into the pit one day; as the fragment of a rock on the coast, falls headlong on the dried bed of the sea. 26. The big elephant was thus caught in the circular pit, which was as deep as the dreadful depth of the sea; and lay confined in it, as some treasure is shut up in the hollow womb of a chest. 27. Being thus confined at the bottom of that far extending pit, still passes his time in endless trouble and anxiety; like the demon Bali in his dark cave under the grounds. 28. This is the effect of the silly elephant, letting unhurt his cruel hunter who had fallen ere long before him; or else he would not be thus pent up in the pit, if he made an end of him in time. 29. Hence all foolish people that had not foresight to prevent their future mishaps, and provide against their coming mischances by their precautions at present, are surely to be exposed like the calamity as the vindhyan elephant. (Hence all unforeseeing men are designated as _gaja murkha_ or elephantine fools). 30. The elephant was glad with the thought of his freedom from the hunter's chains, and thought no more of any future mishap; which was the sole cause of his being by another mischance, which lay at a long distance from him. 31. Know, O great soul! that there is no bondage of man except his own ignorance; and the jail prisoners are not under such thraldom, as the intellectual servitude of freemen under their errors and prejudice. The enlightenment of the soul and the knowledge of the cosmos as one universal soul, is the greatest freedom of man; while the ignorance of this truth, is the root of the slavery of mankind to the errors of this world. CHAPTER LXXXX. WAY TO OBTAIN THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. Argument:--Chúdálá's Interpretation of the Parable of the Precious stone and the Glassy Gewgaw. Sikhidhwaja said:--Please explain unto me, O Divine boy! the purport of the parables of the true and false gems; and the unfettered and pent up elephant, which you have spoken before to me. 2. Chúdálá replied:--Hear me now expound to you the meaning of my stories, and the purport of the words and their senses; which I have stored in your heart and mind, for the enlightenment of your understanding. 3. That searcher after the philosopher's stone, was undoubtedly acquainted with science, but had no knowledge of the truth (tatwajnána); he searched the gem but knew not what it was, and the same man is thyself. 4. You are versed in the sciences as he, and shinest above others as the shining sun on the mountain tops; but you have not that rest and quiet, which is derived from the knowledge of truth; and are immerged in your errors, as a block of stone in the water.