Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

ELEPHANT, SACRED WHITE 

Symbolic of the Self as the potential personality of the Soul,-perfect in all qualities, mental, astral and physical, in the cycle of involution.

"Assuming the form of a huge elephant, white like Himalaya, armed with six tusks, with his face perfumed with flowing ichor, the most excellent of Bodhisattvas (Buddha) entered the womb of the queen of king Suddhodana, to destroy the evils of the world." - The Buddha-Karita, Bk. I. 20.

The Self manifesting as the germ of the personality in the nascent Soul whose nature is pre-arranged harmony in the cycle of involution, was received into the ideal lower nature, or the "womb of Māyā." The Soul is born out of the matrix of matter,-mental, astral, and physical,-with the object of over-coming the things of the world, that is, of dispelling the falsities which are mind-created, and which are to be destroyed through the attainment of knowledge of the Real.

The "huge elephant" is a symbol of the archetypal personality :—the four legs signify the quaternary, and the trunk, the sutratma. The "whiteness indicates the state of perfect purity in which the Soul is conceived. The "six tusks" signify the modes of the Self in three dual aspects functioning upon the three lower planes. The "face perfumed with flowing ichor" symbolises the attractiveness of Love, which is the Divine aim and purpose underlying the birth and growth of the Son of the Eternal. The "king Suddhodana is the supreme Spirit behind manifestation.  

See Also

BIRTH OF BUDDHA
Bodhisatva
INVOLUTION
MĀYĀ
PERSONALITY
QUATERNARY
SOUL
SUDDHODANA
SUTRATMA
TOOTH
TUSHITA
TUSK
WOMB