Yes , he had followed the traces of the Blessed Feet throughout all India . -LRB- The Curator has still in his possession a most marvellous account of his wanderings and meditations . -RRB- There remained nothing more in life but to find the River of the Arrow . Yet it was shown to him in dreams that it was a matter not to be undertaken with any hope of success unless that seeker had with him the one chela appointed to bring the event to a happy issue , and versed in great wisdom -- such wisdom as white-haired Keepers of Images possess . For example -LRB- here came out the snuff-gourd , and the kindly Jain priests made haste to be silent -RRB- : ` Long and long ago , when Devadatta was King of Benares -- let all listen to the Tataka ! -- an elephant was captured for a time by the king 's hunters and ere he broke free , beringed with a grievous legiron . This he strove to remove with hate and frenzy in his heart , and hurrying up and down the forests , besought his brother-elephants to wrench it asunder . One by one , with their strong trunks , they tried and failed . At the last they gave it as their opinion that the ring was not to be broken by any bestial power . And in a thicket , new-born , wet with moisture of birth , lay a day-old calf of the herd whose mother had died . The fettered elephant , forgetting his own agony , said : `` If I do not help this suckling it will perish under our feet . '' So he stood above the young thing , making his legs buttresses against the uneasily moving herd ; and he begged milk of a virtuous cow , and the calf throve , and the ringed elephant was the calf 's guide and defence . Now the days of an elephant -- let all listen to the Tataka ! -- are thirty-five years to his full strength , and through thirty-five Rains the ringed elephant befriended the younger , and all the while the fetter ate into the flesh . ` Then one day the young elephant saw the half-buried iron , and turning to the elder said : `` What is this ? '' `` It is even my sorrow , '' said he who had befriended him . Then that other put out his trunk and in the twinkling of an eyelash abolished the ring , saying : `` The appointed time has come . '' So the virtuous elephant who had waited temperately and done kind acts was relieved , at the appointed time , by the very calf whom he had turned aside to cherish -- let all listen to the Tataka ! for the Elephant was Ananda , and the Calf that broke the ring was none other than The Lord Himself ... ' Then he would shake his head benignly , and over the ever-clicking rosary point out how free that elephant-calf was from the sin of pride . He was as humble as a chela who , seeing his master sitting in the dust outside the Gates of Learning , over-leapt the gates -LRB- though they were locked -RRB- and took his master to his heart in the presence of the proud-stomached city .
Rich would be the reward of such a master and such a XXXXX when the time came for them to seek freedom together !
Ananda Benares Blessed Calf Jain Tataka chela day eyelash throve