The story of Gajendra Moksham explains the greatness of Sharanagati in Sri Vaishnavism. The episode has been recounted with relish in Srimad Bhagavata and Sri Vishnudharma, and sung with elation by Azhwars. It is a story, which we are supposed to recollect first thing every morning, immediately after waking-up. There is no disaster from which, the mighty and the compassionate Lord would not protect the devotees, that with faith and devotion remember His feet as their refuge.
The morals of the story are many and continue to inspire us millennia after its enactment. It is a simple enough tale-that of an elephant who stepped into a pond for slaking its thirst, to have a bath, and to gather flowers for the Lord's worship, when its leg was suddenly grasped underwater by a crocodile.Despite a thousand years of struggle, the elephant could not free itself from the croc's mighty teeth and appeals to the Lord, who arrives on the scene with His usual expedition and saves the pachyderm by killing the crocodile. Though the story is simple, it raises a few important questions, which our elders have thought fit to enlighten us about.
Gajendra was the king of elephants. However he was not a simple plain elephant. He was a divine elephant with Satvika kalyanagunas. He lived in the Trikuta Parvata mountains and ruled the ‘Ritumath Aranyam’ forest. It is really surprising to see an elephant being a king when it is usually the lion or a tiger being the king of a forest. This divine pachyderm was protecting hs herd and any other animal which sought his protection. As a king, he was sincere, just and loved by his subjects. Any major decission was taken always after his consultation. Gajendran was following the Kshatriya Dharmam of “Dushta Nigrahamam and Sishta paripalanam”, which translates to destroying the wicked and protecting the good folks. Gajenndran was a expect in Jyotish ( Astronomy ), Bhugol ( geography ) and Dharma Shastras. He was pious and lead a simple life. He was someone who lead his herd by walking the talk. Little elephant calfs aspired to be like him when they grew up.
But how come a elephant knew these things. Weren't elephants socially restricted to their species? How was Gajendran able to know things that even educated human kings were unaware of? Gajendra was born as a Surya Vamshi Pandya king Indradhyumna in his earlier birth. He was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu and belonged to the lineage of Manu. Rishi Agasthya was his Acharya / Guru.
Indradhyumma learnt the Sri Bhagavadh Aradhana Kramam from his Acharya Agastya and used to worship GoD Shriyapati Vishnu with sincere devotion. Once, when Agasthya Muni visited the king at his palace; The king was performing pooja to this deity. The King saw Agastya Rishi and then acted as if he was sincerely in deep devotion and continued his worship as if he did not see hi sAcharya. Instead of stopping whatever he was doing , and running to acharya,s feet and doing Namaskarams and get his blessings, the king did not acknowledge the Guru’s presence and continued with his pooja. He had various utensils made of silver and gold which were decorated with precious gems. He also had a lot of food which were waiting to be offered to the Lord. The ubhayams for th e God were splendid wanted Indrahyumna to show it off to his Guru. He wanted to exhibit his puja routines were more glamorous than that of his Acharya. Sage Agastya was known for his fairly simple puja. What The king was unaware of is that when Agastya Rishi did puja, the Gods came over personally and accpeted his offering.
Agastya was disappointed at this behaviour of the king. On one count, he was angry at being overlooked and neglected by the king. On second, he was more concerned about the kings well being. We very well know that Sadhus and Mahatmas are the personification of compassion. While doing a pooja, one should do Ashta Anga Namaskaram, The Eight Angam being 2 hands, 2 legs , forehead, Manas, Atama and Ahankaram. Indradhymna had not surrendered his Ahankaram to God while doing the Puja. This was because there was everything found in the pooja except Vinaya (humility). He thought that if the king continued performing pooja without being humble, then there will be no point in doing the pooja. Infact the Pooja would be counter-productive and would harm the king as well as his subjects. Keeping this in mind, Agastya cursed the king to be an elephant in his next birth. Ego is a quality of an elephant. The elephant things it can achive wahtever it wants by forcing its way using its huge body. An elephant is the only creature that would stay unaffected and unconcerned by whatever was happening around it.
It is said that whatever the Sadhus do are verily for our benefit. Immediately the Guru felt compassion for the king and said that the king would be relieved from his curse when the Lord’s divine hands touch him. Saying thus Agastya left Gajendran. Gajendran was born as a elephant in his next life on the Trikuta Parvata mountains.
Similarly there was a Gandharva by name Hu Hu. Gandharva are those whose job is to play music and entartain the Clelestial devatas. They have a name which would be a usually be a sound. This particular Gandharva was very naught and mischevious. he like to play pranks on everyone. The Ghandharvas used to play in the hills of Trikuta Parvata and its plays.
One day, Sage Devala was performing his daily ablutions(who was performing sandhyavandanam) in one of the lakes on Trikuta Parvata mountains. Hu HU was also present in the same premises with his wife and friends and was in a romantic mood. Hu Hu for the sake of fun, caught the feet of Devala from the bottom of the pond. On questioning him, Hu Hu replied that he mistook the legs of the Rishi to that of his wife. Unknown to Hu Hu , Sage Devala was known as a famous sage who possessed the power to look into the past for seven previous lifetimes. He was the son of Prathyusha,an authority on the Vedas. Sage Devala cursed him saying that this was a quality of the crocodile and that he will be born as a crocodile in his next birth in the same place and spend a lot of time in the same waters. Hu Hu relaised his mistake and begged for forgiveness. However, sage Devala told him that only Vishnu 's Chakra Sudarshana can save him.
Coming back to the story, Gajendran and his herd was enjoying in their peaceful life in the forests. However due to lack of rains, the lakes in the forest began to dry up. The climatic conditions started to get warmer and warmer everyday. Since elephants love water and consume huge amounts of water, the need for water made these animals look for alternatives. The elephants started to migrate from one part of the forest to other parts. Oppressed by the heat of summer, dripping ichor and swarmed by bees settled on it for its sheer taste, tormented by thirst, accompanied by the whole herd of bull and female elephants and the young ones, almost causing tremors in the mountain by their weight, Gajendran smelt from afar the lotus pollen-filled breeze on the lake. His eyes and with eyes tremulous in a state of rut, speedily approached the vicinity of the lake.
All of them were happy to see the water and started playing in the pond. They splashed water everywhere blaring their trumpets. This disturbed the crocodiles in the pond and they knew that it was the king of the elephants who was responsible for this. At that time, Gajendran saw a magnificent red lotus flower bloom in the middle of the lake. Gajendran surged deep into the waters of the lake and went for the blossoming flower. Just as he plucked the flower, a huge crocodile caught his leg. The crocodile had caught the feet of the king of the elephant herd. Gajendran tried his best to wrest out of the crocodiles hold and overcome the tough-guy.
However he failed. His friends and family members tried to pull him out of water. However they were not able to do so. The whole parade of elephants could not overpower a single crocodile. Gajendran struggled for hours with his leg stuck in the crocodile's mouth. Days passed by and his struggle was still on. The cow - elephant and other chicken hearted ones seeing their leader in distress, just pulled forcibly, trumpeted in sorrow, unable to extricate him by pulling him holding from the rear. Sadly they left their leader unaccompanied.
Days extended to weeks and weeks to months and months to years. The tug of war between the crocodile Makara and elephant Gajendran continued on for years.Infact as the noble elephant and the crocodile fought one pulling in and the other out, a thousand years elapsed, both yet alive and alert to the amazement of even the celestials. None of them had eaten or slept during the period, yet both were fit and fighting with no fatigue or tiredness. However, as the crocodile was in its natural element, slowly but inexorably Gajendra found himself being dragged into the water.Then by the long passage of time the strength of the elephant both mental and physical as well as his energy slowly ebbed; and as the strength of the one pulled into the water diminished, that of the aquatic animal increased. Thus when the elephant was in a sad situation and despaired of his life, unable ever so long to free himself, started thinking about his life and events in his life.
A thought struck him. How long can a crocodile or an elephant survive for so long without any food or water and neither of them winning over each other? What is that source of energy that kept him alive. What his that cause that kept the crocodile alive. Why was both unsuccessful in what they were doing?. Who was this who was supporting both of them. That person who was unaffected by time and space. That person who was treating the elephant and the crocodile in the same way ? Think on these lines, the elephant Gajendran started Bhrama-Jignyasa. Thus starting on a quest for knowledge about the Supreme and the understanding that it is that Supreme Omnipresent source of energy that will be able to assist him.
After accepting that all his physical might will not save him and that he needs to request help from that Supreme entity, Gajendra decides to call for help. Most of us cry out to the God in hopeless (nis-sahaya sthiti) situations and so did Gajendra. With his trunk raised and carrying the flower, looking that the brazen sky, Gajendran started to worship that Supreme entity. Gajendra begins with his beautiful stuthi on that Supreme Lord the way he perceieved the God. As some one who is invisible, is formless, nameless and had no properties associated with it and it is completely independent.
“Namo Bhagavathae thasmai yatha yeth thath chithathmakam
Purushaya adi bheejaya pareshayadi deemahi”
I surrender and bow down to bhagawan who is the ominpesent and is the creator for everything.
This Brahman is the chaitanya that is present in each one of us. As long as this chaitanya is present in ourselves, we are able to dance, sing move around. The moment chaitanya leaves our body, we fall dead. The sense organs of the dead man might be intact but he is not able to use them anymore. It is the key inside every human and it is this that makes the sense organs do what they are supposed to be doing.
Gajendra says, I surrender unto that bhagawan who is the chaitanyam inside each and every one.
“Yasmin idham yaenaetham yahitham swayam
Yosmath parasmath cha parastvam prapathyae swayambuvam”
“Yasmin nidham:” translates to ‘from whom the universe originated’, “ yathascha itham” from whom the universe
Gajendra thought about all the worldly people in his prayers.
He says –
‘Maadruk prapanna pashupaasha vimokshanaaya….’
People like me who have completely surrendered to unto You, you are the ‘pasupaksha vimokshana’. Now if a cow and its calf are separated by tethering them to two opposite poles, the calf desperately tries to unite with the cow and be with the cow. Since it is tied to the pole it is unable to do so. We are akin to this calf. The jeevas are taking every possible effort to reach the god, but are tied to this samsara by some ties. Now who will come to free one from these ties. It is of course mukthaya, one who is completely independent and has a freewill can only liberate the souls from the bondages. Only bhagawan or a guru can do this. Bhagawan says, “Well, it is true that I have a free will. But why should I free you?” Gajendra could have said that “Lord! I surrender unto you. So please set me free.” If he had done that then it means that Gajendra trusts his ‘ability’ to surrender. Complete surrender is defined as one who completely believes in God and does not believe in his sadhana including surrender.
Gajendra says “Buri karunaya” which means “infinite compassion”. Free me! O! Lord, not because I surrendered unto you, but out of your own limitless compassion. Gajendra requests the Lord to free him from the clutches of the crocodile because setting everybody free is his ‘svabhava’(very nature)!
WHile Gajendra was addressing the Supreme to come to his Rescue, the whole Heaven, Hell and th e prominent people were observing this. The Devas, Yaksha, Ghandharvas, Kinnars, Apsaras, Vasus, Prajapatis, Maruts, Pitrus, Tapasvi Rishis, Yogis, Siddars, all 11 Adityas, 11 Rudras, Kalan, Mrutyu, Ashwini Devas, Gruha Nakshatra Mandalama as well as Bhrama. Everyone Devas including Brahma are listening to this prayer and are awestruck. Immediately they al do a self analysis. They introspect whether they fit into Gajendra’s description. One by one they conclude that the description does not conform to them. They very well know that they don’t fit Gajendra’s description and hence cannot help Gajendra. But they are very curious and excited to see who is the personification of the qualities described by Gajendra.
A few of then realize that the call is form Sriman Narayanan residing in Sri Vaikuntam. They also feared that the Lord might give his darshan only to Gajendra and hence start reciting the Gajendra Stuti. If Gajendra had prayed to the Lord to free him from the clutches of the crocodile, then it does not necessitate the Devas to recite the Gajendra Stuti. But he requests the Lord to free him from the samsara!
The God is called by Swami Nammalvar as " Uranguvan pola Yogu Sayyaium Piran". That is because he is always in sleeping posture and mediating on those who are dear to Him. No sooner did the Lord realize that the Gajendra had surrendered itself to Him, relinquishing the ego and his over-self-confidence, asking for assistance to him, that He started on His Garuda Vahana and equipped with Sri Sudharsana Azhwar. Sitting on the garuda, who is verily the form of Vedas, Lord Vishnu appeared with his conch and disc on his hand, wearing a pitambaram, having a mark called srivatsam on this chest. The Brahman that Gajendra called for assistance had no form or possession. But the person who came to address his call had a form, adorned a ‘Pitambara’, he had a lotus, chakra and a place called Vaikunta. Then how come he came to address this call? The very fact that he came to address the call proves that his form, name and characters are way different from other deva’s including Lord Brahma and are no different from the formless Nameless Brahman. If we take Brahman and add qualities to it (kalyana gunas) like omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence etc, what we get finally is Bhagavan. What character does the bhagwan not have? He does not possess any qualities that belong to Maya like Satvika, Rajasa and Tamasa.
Seeing the God coming to his rescue, now Gajendran calls him by his name and seeks for protection once again. Gajendra cries aloud “Narayana akila guro bhagavan Namaste”. He takes a lotus from the pond and offers it to the Lord. The Lord releases his chakra to kill the crocodile and Hu Hu is liberated and attains Moksham. He put forward His hands to take Gajendran to His abode. Gajendra asked the Lord to show him a way to attain liberation. The Lord himself gave a phala shruti that one who remembers this episode of Gajendra Moksha every morning will attain liberation
Here goes the Gajendra Moksha Stuthi:
AUM NAMO BHAGAWATE TASMAY YAT ETCCHIDATMAKAM
PURUSHAAYAA DIBIJAAY PARESHAAYAABHI DHEEMAHEE
YASMINNIDUM YETASCCHEDUM YENEDUM EEDUM SWAYAM
YOSMAAT PARASMAASCH PARAH TUMPRAPADYE SWAYAMBHOOWAM
Stories apart, the fact of the matter is that while the crocodile could have very well been destroyed by proxy, Gajendra's happiness at the Lord's appearance on the scene and his joy in feasting his eyes on the divine form, could not have been achieved without Emperuman's personal presence. One of the important purposes of the Lord's avataras is "ParithrANAya sAdhUnAm". While mere "thrANam" or protection can be afforded even without the Lord being present, "ParithrANam" or comprehensive protection includes affording the devotee the immeasurable bliss of seeing the Lord, and could not be carried out without Emperuman materializing in person.
The beautiful parable of Gajendra Moksham indicates to us that what the Lord is concerned about is the depth of love the devotees have for Him, and not their social, economic or other status.While exalted souls like Shiva and Brahma languish without a sight of the Supreme Lord despite unrelenting penance for ages, a mere elephant could make Him come running to its rescue, by the sheer strength of its devotion. The fact of the matter is that the Lord cannot bear the suffering of a true devotee for even a second more than necessary. The pain of the thousand years was necessary to make the elephant understand that one is totally incapable of saving oneself, and that others too of our race competent for the task. Once the pachyderm learnt the lesson and appealed to the Lord for succour, Emperuman could not bear even a second's delay in rushing to the aid of the Sharanagata.
The specific request to the Lord to save us, known as "Goptrutva VaraNam", is one of the important elements of Sharanagati, without which the Lord protects us not.
Well. This is not just a story. There is a tight linking of this story to mankind. Here goes the linkage.
- The human is Gajendra.
- The world is the lake, where human plays with his kith and kin.
- The crocodile symbolizes the Death and Difficulties that attack man.
- The lesson that is being learnt from here is that nobody can liberate a human from the clutches of death. Sriman Narayanan alone answers the prayers.
/* please note that I have written this with valuable inputs from different websites from internet */
To prove that the statement of His servant Prahalad was substantial -- in other words, to prove that the Supreme Lord is present everywhere, even within the pillar of an assembly hall SriHari, exhibited a wonderful form never before seen. It was in Vaishaka month, under Swathi Nakshatra, on a Pradosham day. The form was neither that of a man nor that of a lion. Thus the Lord appeared in His wonderful form in the assembly hall. While Hiranyakasipu looked all around to find the source of the sound, that wonderful form of the Lord, which could not be ascertained to be either a man or a lion, emerged from the pillar. In amazement, Hiranyakasipu wondered, "What is this creature that is half man and half lion?" Hiranyakasipu studied the form of the Lord, trying to decide who the form of Nrisimhadeva standing before him was. The Lord's form was extremely fearsome because of His angry eyes, which resembled molten gold; His shining mane, which expanded the dimensions of His fearful face; His deadly teeth; and His razor-sharp tongue, which moved about like a dueling sword. His ears were erect and motionless, and His nostrils and gaping mouth appeared like caves of a mountain. His jaws parted fearfully, and His entire body touched the sky. His neck was very short and thick, His chest broad, His waist thin, and the hairs on His body as white as the rays of the moon. His arms, which resembled flanks of soldiers, spread in all directions as He killed the demons, rogues and atheists with His conchshell, disc, club, lotus and other natural weapons. 
