We measure progress simply: savings grow, the career climbs — so all is well. One image overturns that yardstick. Sometimes an elephant slips into a swamp and sinks — and no one will lift him out by magic. He gets out himself: push by push, by his determination, up from the mire onto dry land. It is a real struggle — but that very struggle, he says, is the true progress. Not a growing bank balance, but the soul rising from the bottom, out of illusion, toward its bright prospect. The spiritual path is not an instant enlightenment that descends on its own — it is the daily effort to climb out. And there is no room for despair: God has manifested us, and a glorious future lies ahead of everyone.