Devala (Vāmana Purāṇa)
Devala
Devala has other meanings too: see all meanings of Devala.
Devala was a ṛshi. In the Vāmana Purāṇa he cursed the gandharva Hūhū to become a crocodile. This śāpa (a curse) began the chain of events that led to the ordeal of Gajendra and his final release by Bhagavān Vishṇu.
The śāpa on Hūhū
Devala was bathing at a sacred lake when the gandharva Hūhū behaved improperly in his presence. Devala pronounced a śāpa that turned Hūhū into a crocodile (makara).
This śāpa led to one of the best known events of Vaishṇava devotion. Hūhū, now a crocodile, seized the leg of Gajendra. Gajendra suffered for a thousand years and then made his last prayer to Bhagavān Vishṇu. This prayer became the model of surrender to Bhagavān Vishṇu at the moment of complete helplessness. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 58)
Pulastya Maharshi tells the account to Nārada Maharshi, as the first of the stotras that the great bhakta Prahlāda chanted with śraddhā. On the summit of Trikūṭa, the gem-filled mountain that is the son of Meru and rose out of the ocean of milk, lies a lovely lake full of golden lotuses. In that lake Hūhū lay as a fearsome makara, “like death to the elephants”, hidden in the water with half-closed eyes, lying in wait. When the lord of an elephant herd came down into the lake to drink and sport among the lotuses, the makara seized his leg with its fangs and dragged him into the water, while the she-elephants stood by crying out. Bound in that hold, losing strength, Gajendra remembered Hari with all his heart, for he had practised bhakti in former births, and holding a golden lotus at the tip of his trunk he praised Keśava and took refuge in him.
Bhagavān Vishṇu, holder of the śaṅkha, the cakra and the gadā, pleased with Gajendra’s bhakti, came on Garuḍa with great speed, pulled both the elephant and the makara out of the lake, and with the Sudarśana cakra cut the makara’s throat. So the gandharva Hūhū, who had become a makara by the śāpa of Devala, was slain by Kṛshṇa, freed from the śāpa, and went to svarga. By the touch of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s hand Gajendra took a divine body. Both were freed from their calamities, became muktas (freed ones), and worshipped Puṇḍarīkāksha, the lotus-eyed. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 58)
Devala’s part in the release of Gajendra
Devala’s śāpa came from the ṛshi’s anger at a wrong done to him. It became the means by which both the cursed Hūhū and Gajendra were brought to their moment of release, moksha, the Gajendra Moksha. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 58)
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 58