Once upon a time, an elephant was coming back to its herd after a bath in the nearby river. On her way, she saw a pig walking toward her. The Pig was coming from rolling around in the muddy water and was completely covered in mud. When the elephant and the pig were approaching each other, the pig saw that the elephant moved aside to allow the pig to pass. While walking past, the pig made fun of the elephant, saying that the elephant was afraid of him. The pig went to the other pigs that were nearby and told them about it. Listening to this, the other pigs began to laugh at the elephant. When the elephant had reached its herd, the other elephants, who were watching all this, also started to laugh at their elephant friend. One of the asked, “were you really afraid of that pig?” The elephant smiled and replied, “No my friend. I could have crushed him under my feet if I wanted to, but that pig was all muddy and if I had not let him pass, then that mud would have splashed all over me. That’s why I avoided him and stepped out of the way.”
Moral: The pig covered in mud represents people with negative energy. When we interact with such people, we allow our space to be infiltrated by that energy, too. The elephant represents our true self. Even though the elephant could have reacted angrily at this, she was wise and understood not to waste energy on such a petty thing and just let it go. In our life, we should not let such people disturb our peace. Rather than fighting and arguing with them, one should just ignore it. Once you learn that you do not need to be distracted by such petty things, you can focus all your energy on things that matter and simply ignore things that don’t matter much.