Hare Krishna!
There lived a Gajendra in the mountain known as Trikuta. In a valley of Trikuta there is a nice garden named Rtumat, which was constructed by Varuna.
Once a lordly elephant, leader of a herd, inhabiting that mountainous forest, roamed with his retinue of female ones, breaking through trees, bamboo clusters and clumps of cane.
That Gajendra felt tired & thirsty and went to a lake with his female and young elephants. Gajendra quenched his thirst and started enjoying there with other elephants. Their enjoyment disturbed the inhabitants of the water. Because of this, a crocodile in that water caught the leg of elephant. Thus ensued a great fight between the crocodile and the elephant. Elephant tried to bring crocodile out of that water and crocodile was pulling elephant into the water. This fight continued for thousand years. As this fight took place in water, gradually elephant became weak. All other elephants were watching that helplessly standing out of the lake. Then that elephant knowing that there is no one to protect him in spite of having many female elephants, young ones, friends and relatives, it sought shelter at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Elephant called Bhagawan to protect him. But, while calling Gajendra didn’t address him as Vishnu/Lakshmipati or any other name! It just called with the qualities of Bhagawan.. We’ll see one shloka from Gajendra Stuti:
Kaalena Panchathwamitheshu Kruthsnaso,
Lokeshu Paleshu Cha Sarva Hethushu,
Tamas Tadha Aaseed Gahanam Gabheeram,
Yasthasya Parebhi Virajathe Vibhu:
Meaning:- Over time when all the worlds and their guardians, are reduced to the five elements and all their causes, only impenetrable and fathomless darkness , remains, coming out of that darkness, the divine Lord shines from within that.
Then, Lord Vishnu who protects the ones who surrendered to him, who loves his devotees a lot, hearing this, ran to Gajendra. Narayana decapitated the crocodile and protected Gajendra.
He touched Gajendra with his hand which gives abhaya to everyone!!!!!! There’s nothing more for anyone to achieve after that!! Isn’t it!! Finally, Gajendra attained moksha..
Gajendra, in his previous life, was Indradyumana, a great devotee of SriNarayana. One day Agastya maharshi came to visit the king but Indradryumna remained seated and didn’t welcome the rishi. So he was cursed to be born as elephant as he disrespected a rishi!
Crocodile, in his previous life, was a Gandharva named ‘Huhu’. He insulted Devala maharshi. Devala maharshi cursed him to be born as a crocodile. Then he begged for the rishi’s pardon. That rishi blessed him that he would be slayed by Jagatpati and liberated from that birth.
Puranas are not a set of stories but a set of knowledge. But this knowledge can be understood when we think about a lila in deep. Like, to tell an example for that, when was Amrit gained? After doing Samudra mathan a lot.. the same way we can get the nectar inside a story when we think about it. Of course, the lila itself is a nectar but we can experience lot more happiness when we think about it. So, what’s in Gajendra moksham that it became one of the Panchagita!!
The story of Gajendra reflects the story of our’s. We do feel proud when we have power, money, etc and don’t care anything. If we’re respected that never means there’s none in this world to defeat us!! The bad karma we do is enough to spoil our life. The same happened.. as all other animals got frightened, Gajendra thought himself as the most powerful! He enjoyed in the lake with other elephants in the way that all inhabitants of water got disturbed!! Crocodile caught his leg!
Why did crocodile caught the leg? Because of the disturbance done by Gajendra and other elephants. We get problems because of our own karma!
We should also learn something else from this.. Why did he go to the lake? To drink water.. But what he did? All unnecessary things. The same we do. We got this human life. We can happily serve him and attain him. But we do unnecessary things and because of that we can never ever come out of this cycle of birth and death. So, we should serve him and perform all our duties.
Gajendra fought with the crocodile for thousand years. But, as that happened in water, it’s an advantage for crocodile. We too don’t how many thousands of births we had in past! Thousand is not just a number but it symbolizes infinity!!
So when he thought no one can help him, he surrendered to Bhagawan. Till then, it didn’t even think of Bhagawan. But, the next minute Narayana himself went and protected. Such a lovely one he is!! Even we go to him when we want something and no one can help us in that situation. Here’s the main point.!! Though we don’t think of him before(when everything is good), he will not question us when we go to him. That’s his karuna.
He’s the one who can protect us from all difficulties and bestow moksha too!! So we must surrender to him who is Akhilandakoti Brahmanda nayaka and always attentive in protecting his devotees!!
Because of the Vishnu puja done by Indradyumna, in his next birth he got reminded of Narayana when he completely lost his strength! He surrendered to Narayana and was protected immediately!! So, puja we do will surely protect us!! Not only puja, any type of service done to him with pure heart…
Also insulting rishis and true devotees is never good. It’s for sure that people who insult them will face consequences for insulting. I just concluded the story and it’s inner meaning as it becomes a long post!!
Gajendra stuti is very powerful. Recite it whenever possible!
So, Gajaraja rakshaka also means that he’s the protector of all of us!!!!
Here’s our Ventadri Ibharaja rakshaka:
(Gajendra moskha alankaram)
Prayah svacharanau Pumsam Saranyathvena Panina.
Kripaya dhisathe Srimad-Venkatesaya Mangalam ||
Om Namo Venkatesaya!!!
