Gajendra Moksha (Bhāgavata Purāṇa)

Gajendra Moksha is the account of a great elephant king who was seized by a mighty crocodile as he entered a lake. He was held fast for a very long time. His own strength and the efforts of his herd could not free him. He then turned to Bhagavān Hari with complete śaraṇāgati (surrender). He raised a lotus in his trunk and called to Bhagavān Hari as the Ādipurusha, the first being. Bhagavān Hari came at once on Garuḍa. He cut the crocodile’s mouth with his Sudarśana cakra and set Gajendra free.

The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa mentions the episode in the 2nd Skanda, Chapter 7, where Brahmā tells Nārada of the avatāra deeds of Bhagavān Vishṇu. It is one of the clearest examples of how Bhagavān Vishṇu answers a devotee who has surrendered. The Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 58, tells it too.

The situation

Gajendra, the king of elephants, was a splendid and powerful animal. He led his herd in a great forest. One day he went into a beautiful lake to bathe and drink. He did not know that a mighty crocodile of great strength lived in the depths of that lake. As Gajendra waded in, the crocodile seized his leg in its jaws and began to drag him down.

On land Gajendra’s strength had no equal. In the water he was helpless. He fought with all his strength, pulling, thrashing and trumpeting. His herd rushed to help. They pushed and pulled and tried every means they had. But the crocodile’s grip did not loosen. A very long time passed.

Gajendra’s strength slowly failed, and the herd’s efforts were useless. Then the elephant saw that nothing in the world could help him, neither his own strength, nor his companions, nor the power of any being on earth. Only one refuge was left.

The prayer

With the last of his awareness, Gajendra lifted his trunk above the water. In his trunk he held a lotus flower. He cried out to Bhagavān Śrī Hari. He did not make a long, learned request. He made the simplest and most direct call:

Ādipurusha! Sarvajagannātha! Tava kīrtiḥ jīvān punāti. Tava nāma-grahaṇa-mātrāt maṅgalāni labhante.

“First being, Master of the whole world! Your glory purifies all beings. Merely by taking Your name, beings gain what is auspicious.”

This prayer is complete śaraṇāgati. There is no bargaining, no condition and no promise of future pūjā (worship). There is only the knowing of Bhagavān Hari as the one refuge (āśraya), the admission of helplessness, and the giving up of the self.

Bhagavān Hari’s response

Bhagavān Śrī Hari is described here as indriya-agocara (beyond the reach of the senses), and he carries the Sudarśana cakra as his weapon. He heard the prayer of his surrendered devotee. The senses cannot reach him, yet he is at once near to a heart that has surrendered.

He mounted Garuḍa, the king of birds, and came to the lake swiftly, as he comes whenever a devotee in true distress calls. He went to the crocodile and cut its mouth with his Sudarśana cakra, freeing Gajendra’s leg.

Gajendra was brought to the bank, free. In that freeing he reached moksha (liberation).

What the account shows

In the 2nd Skanda the account of Gajendra stands in Brahmā’s words to Nārada beside the Varāha, Narasiṃha and Vāmana episodes. So Bhagavān Vishṇu’s rescue of Gajendra is counted as an act of the same size and worth as his great cosmic avatāras. The setting is the only difference. There is no great battle with an asura. Here a single elephant is saved by a single prayer.

Bhagavān Hari’s answer to surrender does not depend on how learned the devotee is, how pure in ritual, or how far along in philosophy. Gajendra was an elephant. His prayer was simple. His distress was in the body. Yet Bhagavān Hari came in person, on Garuḍa, with his divine weapon. He gave not only rescue from the body’s danger but final liberation. This shows that Bhagavān Hari’s grace (anugraha) answers the purity of surrender and not the jīva‘s own qualifications.

The Vāmana Purāṇa account

The Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa tells Gajendra Moksha as one of four stotras (hymns of praise) that the ṛshi Nārada asks Prahlāda about. The recitation of these stotras destroys duḥsvapnas (bad dreams). Prahlāda recited this stotra at Trikūṭa mountain during his own tīrtha yātrā (pilgrimage).

The Vāmana Purāṇa describes the setting of Trikūṭa. The mountain rises out of the Kshīrasāgara (the milk ocean) as the son of Meru. It has three peaks that match the three great devas: gold for Sūrya, silver for Candra, and one set with jewels for Brahmā. The lake on the mountain’s slopes holds golden lotuses (kāñchana-padmas), blue lotuses (nīlotpalas) and kalhāras. The crocodile lay hidden under the surface.

The elephant king was dark like a moving mountain, with shining white tusks, and drunk with mada (the juice of rut). Thirst brought him to the lake. The crocodile seized him, and the herd could do nothing. As his strength failed, the saṃskāras (deep impressions) of devotion to Vishṇu from his earlier birth rose in him. He called on Vishṇu, who holds the conch, the cakra and the gadā, with a lotus in his trunk.

Vishṇu came on Garuḍa. He pulled both the elephant and the crocodile out of the water. He cut the crocodile’s throat with the Sudarśana cakra and freed both of them. The crocodile was the gandharva Hūhū, who had been cursed by the ṛshi Devala. He was freed from the śāpa (curse) and went back to the world of the devas. The elephant, touched by Vishṇu’s hand, received a divine body.

Vishṇu then spoke the phalaśruti (the promise of the fruit of hearing). Those who hear and recite this account at dawn are freed from bad dreams and from all pāpa (sin).

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 2nd Skanda, Chapter 7
• Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 58