OHM: Gajendra Moksham From Srmad bhagavatam:

(MPR NAIR)

Now we can see Chapter 3. In this chapter, Gajendra Moksham is the subject and the most important Gajendra
Stuti is here. Out of the total 33 verses in this chapter, 28 verses are set apart for Bhagavt stuti alone. It is highly Vedantic
and Adwaidic in nature, that it is a role model of a high-end Niguna Brahma Stuti. The personal form of God is Lord Sri
Hari and the impersonal form is Brahmam. There is not a single name of a demigod in his Stuti. Since Gajendra did this
impersonal stuti (nirgunaradhana), none of the demigods came to see him, not even Brahm or iva. It seems to me that
Gajendra believed in the Supreme Power only. In his poorva janma, Gajendra, the King of elephant, was the Pandya King,
Indradyumna, who followed Bhagavata Dharma in its true perspective. He was also well known as a very important
personality in Dravida Desha. He used to pray to Lord Sri Hari with a beautiful Parama Mantra. In this janma as
elephant, at the fag end of his terrific fight with the Crocodile for thousand years and as he faced utter failure in the fight,
by Bhagvat Krpa he remembered his old Parama Mantra to the Supreme Lord and he recited it by himself beautifully well
with full concentration on the Lord, though with excruciating pain all over the body and tears running down from his red
eyes. First he offered his respectful obeisance to the Supreme Power. (Here we must note that it is because of the
Janmanthara vasana that Gajendra remembered Bhagavan, though at the fag end of his life. Hence the Canto 8, besides
the name of Manwanthara Varnanam, has another name, Saddharma Niroopanam).It is not easy to understand Bhagavt
Tatwa or the Principle of God.

The quintessence of the prayer is as follows:

Lord Sri Hari is the Supreme Power. HE is the cause of all causes, the original person from whom, everything
has emanated. He is the root cause of this cosmic manifestation, and the entire cosmos rests in Him, yet He is
transcendental, (Transcends = reveals) for He does everything in relation to the material world through His external
energy. He is working as Antharyami with in us, and Prakrthi, outside. He is eternally situated in the spiritual worldin
Vaikun t ha or Goloka Vr ndvanawhere He engages in His eternal pastimes. The material world is a product of His
external energy, or material nature, which works under His direction. It is thus that creation, sustenance and dissolution
take place. The Lord exists at all times. He was there, He is there and He will be there. This is extremely difficult for a
non-devotee to understand. Although the transcendental Supreme Power is felt by everyone, only the pure devotees
perceive His presence and activities. The Supreme Power is completely free from material birth, death, old age and
disease. Indeed, if anyone in this material world takes shelter of Him, he also becomes situated in that transcendental
position. For the protection of His devotee (paritrn ya sdhnm), the Lord appears and exhibits His activities. His
appearance, disappearance and other pastimes are not at all material. One who knows this secret, can enter the kingdom of
God. In the Lord, all opposing elements jointly work in harmony and for the welfare of all. The Lord is situated in
everyones heart. He is the controller of everything, He is the witness of all activities, and He is the original source of all
living entities. Indeed, all living entities are parts of Him, for He is the origin of Mah-Vis hn u, who is the source of the
living entities within this material world. The Lord can observe the activities of our senses, which can work and achieve
material results because of His mercy. Although He is the original source of everything, He is untouched by any of His
by-products. In this way He is like a gold mine, which is the source of gold in ornaments and yet is different from the
ornaments themselves. The Lord is worshiped by the method prescribed in the Pacartras and Vedas. He is the source of
our knowledge, and He can give us liberation. Therefore it is our duty to understand Him according to the instructions of
devotees, in particular by the spiritual masters, seers and saints, rishees and munees and our learned preceptors. Only by
that way, we can be freed from material clutches.

The self-effulgent material form of the Supreme Power is worshipped by the common devotees, His impersonal
form is adored by those advanced in spiritual knowledge, and His feature as the localized Super soul is appreciated by
yogees. But His original form as a person is understood only by His intimate devotees. That Supreme Power is competent
to dissipate the darkness of the conditioned soul through His instructions in Bhagavad-gt. He is the ocean of
transcendental qualities and can be understood only by liberated persons freed from the bodily concept of life. For those
who think Dehoham, -I am the Body- He is never visible. Gajendra supplicates to the Lord that he no more likes to be in
the body of an elephant and that an animal body is of no use to him, because it carries only Ajnana. He appeals to the Lord
to liberate from the Aavarana of Ajnana or Maya.
 By His causeless mercy, the Lord can rescue the conditioned soul from the material clutches and enable him to
return home, back to God, the Creator, after regaining the individuals spiritual identity, to become Lord Sri Haris
personal associate. Nonetheless, a pure devotee does not aspire to go back to God; he is simply satisfied with executing
His service (kainkaryam) in this material world. A pure devotee does not ask anything from the Supreme God. His only
prayer is to be freed from the material conception of life and to be engaged in the Lords transcendental loving service.
Almost in every sloka, in his salutation, Gajendra bows before the Lord in humility, as if he is totally surrendering
unconditionally (sampoorna sharanagathy) at the Lotus Feet Lord Sri Hari in utter consecration. Almost in every word he
utters, we can explicitly see, his unalloyed Bhakti towards the Supreme Lord. He has the bhakti bhava of a dasa dasan,
before the Lord. He expresses in lucid terms that he is quite ignorant of anything about the Lord and he knows only to
bow before the Lord with total humility.

In this way the great King of the elephants, Gajendra, with obeisance offered prayers directly to the formless
Lord of Supreme Power. Immediately Lord Sri Hari, appeared in person, in all His full effulgence as Sakshad
NARAYANA, seated on His Garuda Vahana, in front of His loving Bhaktha, without mistaking Him for one of the
demigods. Beholding Sree Narayana, mounted on the back of Garuda Azhvar, in the air, with the Sudarsana Chakra in His
arm, Gajendra plucked a Lotus Flower and holding up in his trunk, offered it to Bhagavan humbly, in the bhaktibhava of a
dasa dasan, uttering with great difficulty , on account of his excruciating pain and fatigue, Narayanaaa , Akhila Guro,
Bhagvan Namasthe. Perceiving his emaciated and painful Bhakta, the most merciful Lord, out of extreme compassion
immediately jumped down from His Garuda Vahana, with lightning speed, and pulled out Gajendra, out of the lake, by his
trunk, like a Bhakta dasan, along with the Crocodile, holding the leg of Gajendra in his mouth, and extricated him form
the grip of the Crocodile by speedily cutting open its mouth with the Sudarsana Chakra. If we go to Guruvayoor, even
today we can see the same Lotus, given by Gajendra, in the hand of Sri Ponnu Guruvayoorappan, holding it in memory of
his Bhakta dasa and his unforgetful Stuti.

Subham