Gajendra

Gajendra was the king of elephants. He was strong and splendid, and he led his herd through a great forest. The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells his story as the example of śaraṇāgati (full surrender). When every worldly means had failed, he turned to Bhagavān Śrī Hari with one simple prayer, a raised trunk and a lotus. He was rescued at once.

His story is among the best loved in all the Purāṇas. It shows that the grace of Bhagavān Śrī Hari answers the purity and fullness of surrender. It does not depend on learning or on the right to perform rituals.

Gajendra is seized

Gajendra ruled his herd and was supreme in the forest. One day he led his herd to a beautiful lake to bathe and drink. In the depths of the lake lived a crocodile, ancient, fierce and very strong.

Gajendra waded into the water. The crocodile seized his leg in its jaws and began to pull him down. On land nothing could match his strength, but in the water, the crocodile’s own place, he was helpless. He fought with all he had. He pulled against the grip, thrashed about and trumpeted to his herd. The herd gathered around him on the bank and tried every way to save him. They pushed and pulled with all their weight and strength.

Nothing worked. A very long time passed in this struggle. Gajendra’s strength failed little by little. His herd was worn out and could do no more, and in the end they went away to safety. The crocodile held on as firmly as on the first moment. This is told in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 2nd Skandha, Chapter 7.

The realisation and the prayer

His body grew weak, and he knew fully that he was helpless. He then saw clearly what long years of comfort had not shown him. No created being, no worldly power and no earthly help could save him. This was not despair but light. One refuge remained, and that was Bhagavān Śrī Hari himself.

With the last of his strength Gajendra raised his trunk above the water. In his raised trunk he held a lotus flower.

He cried out. He did not make a long philosophical request or recite a list of names and qualities. He spoke straight, as one who has lost everything:

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

The meaning is: “Ādipurusha! Master of all the worlds! Your glory purifies all beings. Merely by taking Your name, beings gain what is auspicious.”

The prayer calls Bhagavān Śrī Hari the Ādipurusha, the first person, who is before all creation. It calls him Jagannātha, the master of all worlds. It asks for nothing in particular. It makes no bargain and sets no condition. It is pure śaraṇāgati, giving up the result into the hands of Bhagavān Śrī Hari. This is told in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 2nd Skandha, Chapter 7.

Śrī Hari comes and sets him free

Bhagavān Śrī Hari is described as indriya-agocara (beyond the reach of the senses). Yet a heart in true surrender can reach him at once. He heard Gajendra’s call. He mounted Garuḍa, the king of birds, and came to the lake as swiftly as he answers every true śaraṇāgata (one who has surrendered).

He went to the crocodile. With his Sudarśana cakra he cut the creature’s mouth, and Gajendra’s leg was free.

Gajendra was brought to the bank, free. In being freed from the crocodile’s grip, he gained moksha, final freedom from saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death). This is told in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 2nd Skandha, Chapter 7.

Gajendra as an example of devotion

The Bhāgavatam stresses that Gajendra was an elephant. He was not a brāhmaṇa, not a jñānī (one of knowledge) and not a yogī. His prayer was simple. His trouble was bodily, not a deep spiritual crisis. His understanding of Bhagavān Śrī Hari was direct but not detailed.

Even so, Bhagavān Śrī Hari came in person, on Garuḍa, with his divine weapon. He gave Gajendra not only rescue from the body’s danger but final moksha.

Śuka, in the teaching of the 2nd Skandha, gives this as the clear statement on Bhagavān Śrī Hari’s anugraha (grace). It answers the purity and fullness of surrender. It does not answer the jīva‘s own qualities, stored puṇya (merit) or skill in ritual.

In Chapter 7 his story stands in the same list as Varāha, Narasiṃha and Vāmana. His rescue is thus placed beside the great cosmic acts of the avatāras. This is told in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 2nd Skandha, Chapter 7.

Previous birth as King Indradyumna

The 8th Skandha tells who Gajendra was before. He was Indradyumna, a king of the Pāṇḍya dynasty from the Draviḍa country. He was firmly set in Vishṇu-bhakti and well known for his arcana (worship with offerings) of Śrī Hari.

Once he was absorbed in the ārādhana of Śrī Hari and keeping a maunavrata (a vow of silence). The great ṛshi Agastya came to the palace. Because of his vow, the king could not rise to welcome him properly. Agastya cursed him with a śāpa: “This man whose mind is as dull as an elephant’s, let him become an elephant.” The king took the curse without complaint, as the will of Īśvara.

In his birth as an animal Gajendra lost human understanding. But the saṃskāras (deep impressions) of his Vishṇu-upāsanā stayed hidden within him. The Bhāgavatam says plainly:

That he remembered the Hari-stotra while an elephant was entirely the effect of the Hari-arcana he had performed in his previous birth.

When freedom came, Gajendra left the elephant body. He took a four-armed form, clothed in gold, like the attendants of Bhagavān Śrī Hari himself. This is told in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 8th Skandha, Chapter 4.

The setting: Trikūṭa and Ṛtumat

The 8th Skandha tells the full setting of Gajendra’s story. Trikūṭa was a huge mountain, ten thousand yojanas high, rising from the Kshīrasāgara. It had three peaks, of silver, iron and gold. On its slopes lay Varuṇa’s garden Ṛtumat, “full of seasons”, where all flowers bloomed together. In the middle of Ṛtumat was a holy lake. It was sweet with lotus pollen, and its scent travelled far. This scent drew the thirsty Gajendra through the forest into the lake.

The struggle lasted a full thousand years. Through all that time Gajendra’s body and the strength of his senses grew less, while the crocodile’s strength grew in the water. At last Gajendra knew that no created being could free him. He gathered his mind into his heart and spoke the Gajendra-stotra. It is a long meditation on Parameśvara as the ground of all that is, without cause, without qualities and without beginning.

The Bhāgavatam adds that Brahmā and the other devas each had deha-abhimāna (pride in their own body and identity), and so could not go to help him. But Śrī Hari is nirviśesha-svarūpa (of a nature without distinctions) and is the ātmā of all the devas. He appeared at once.

The event took place in the 4th (Tāmasa) Manvantara. In that age the avatāra called Hari was born to Harimedhā and Hariṇī. It was this same Hari who came down to free Gajendra. This is told in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 8th Skandha, Chapters 2 to 4.

The crocodile was Hūhū the gandharva

The 8th Skandha says the crocodile was no ordinary creature. It was Hūhū, a gandharva of the first rank. The divine ṛshi Devala had cursed him for an old fault, and he had to be born as a crocodile. When Bhagavān Śrī Hari’s Sudarśana cakra cut the crocodile’s jaw, Hūhū was freed from his curse at the same moment. He bowed to Bhagavān Śrī Hari and went back to his own loka. This is told in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 8th Skandha, Chapter 4.

The account in the Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa

The Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 58, tells the story of Gajendra as the fourth of four stotras that Prahlāda recites on his tīrtha yātrā (pilgrimage) at the mountain Trikūṭa.

Trikūṭa is the son of Meru and rises from the Kshīrasāgara. It has three peaks. One is golden and is the home of Sūrya. One is silver and is the home of Candra. One is set with jewels and is the home of Brahmā, and only the virtuous can see it. On the mountain was a beautiful lake. It was full of golden and blue lotuses, kāñcana-padmas, nilotpalas and kalhāras, and was ringed by thick bamboo groves. A fierce crocodile lay hidden under the water.

A great elephant came to the lake, thirsty, and plunged in. He was dark as a moving mountain. Mada flowed from his temples, his white tusks shone, and he frightened the other animals. The crocodile seized his leg. The herd of female elephants watched, helpless. The elephant struggled but could not break free of the grip, which was like the noose of Varuṇa. His strength failed little by little. He turned his whole mind to Keśava, as the saṃskāras of his Vishṇu-bhakti from a former birth rose up in his trouble. Holding a golden lotus in his raised trunk, he sang a stotra to Vishṇu, the bearer of the śaṅkha, cakra and gadā.

Bhagavān Vishṇu was pleased by the elephant’s bhakti and came to the lake on Garuḍa. He pulled the elephant and the crocodile out of the water together. Then he cut the crocodile’s throat with his cakra. The crocodile was the gandharva Hūhū. The divine ṛshi Devala had cursed him into this birth for an old fault. Freed by Bhagavān Vishṇu’s cakra, he was released from the curse and returned to his own loka. The elephant was touched by the hand of Bhagavān Vishṇu and gained a divine body. Both the elephant and the gandharva were freed in the same act.

Bhagavān Vishṇu then declared the phalaśruti (the promised fruit of hearing this story). Those who hear and recite this episode at dawn with a pure heart will be freed from duḥsvapnas (bad dreams) and their pāpa will be destroyed. They will gain paramā-siddhi (the highest attainment). Brahmā praised the event and added more to the phalaśruti. This is told in the Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 58.

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 2nd Skandha, Chapter 7
• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 8th Skandha, Chapters 2–4
• Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 58