Na vidyate yasya cha janma karma va na nama-rupe guna-dosha eva va Wandering in the forests and performing incessant penances, search for. Let that Lord be my refuge, whom the sages, giving up all attachments for worldly attractions, चरन्त्यलोकव्रतमव्रणं वने भूतात्मभूताः सुहृदः स मे गतिः ||ĭidrikshavo yasya padam sumangalam vimukta-sanga munayah susadhavahaĬharanty aloka-vratam avranam vane bhutatma-bhutah suhridah sa me gatihi.
May that Lord, whom none knows, in truth and in reality, protect me! How then an ordinary person, much less an animal like me, can understand or describe anything about His inscrutable ways? So too, the Gods and the Sages do not comprehend Him, The Lord, who is disguised in His own Yoga Maya. The spectators in a drama do not understand the identity of an actor because of his make up and diverse actions on the stage. Yatha natasyakritibhir vicheshtato duratyayanukramanah sa mavatu – 6 Na yasya deva rishayah padam vidur jantuh punah ko ‘rhati gantum iritum
When all the worlds and their illuminaries and protectors like Brahma had been dissolved or reduced to their primeval state by the power of Time and only the fathomless darkness or ignorance in the shape of the Unmanifest prevailed, at that time He, the Supreme Light of Consciousness shone undimmed over such darkness. Tamas tadasid gahanam gabhiram yas tasya pare ‘bhivirajate vibhuhu – 5 Kalena pancatvam iteshu kritsnasho lokeshu paleshu cha sarva-hetushu I seek refuge in that Being, transcending all the highest human conceptions of Him. He is the Self-conscious awareness, from whom all other centers of self-conscious awareness (Jivas) arise. Which is seen in its manifested condition and not-seen in its causal state by others,īut is witnessed by Himself in both these conditions. He is the unimpeded Awareness and the Witness of all, who by his own Maya (power) has established in Himself this universe, Yah svatmanidam nija-mayayarpitam kvachid vibhatam kva cha tat tirohitamĪviddha-drik sakshy ubhayam tad ikshate sa atma-mula ‘vatu mam parat-paraha – 4 Who is verily the universe itself, yet beyond it as its unmanifest cause. The Self-efficient Lord, from whom this universe emanates, and in whom it lives, Who forms the bodies as prakriti, and dwells in them as purusha, I salute the Supreme, Omnipotent Lord, who is denoted by the mystical syllable OM, Yo ‘smat parasmach cha paras tam prapadye svayambhuvam -3 Yasminn idam yatash chedam yenedam ya idam svayam Purushayadi-bijaya pareshayabhidhimahi -2 Om namo bhagavate tasmai yata etac chid-atmakam GAJENDRA’S PRAYERS OF SURRENDER TO LORD VISHNU He recalled that hymn now with great feeling, praising the Lord for his many mercies and ended with a prayer to Him to listen to his cry of distress and save him. When all hope of rescue faded away and death was staring at his face, Gajendra turned his thoughts to the Lord and recalled to his mind a hymn which he had learnt in his previous life as virtuous Pandya King which he had forgotten in his present animal body. The long fierce tug-of-war left the unfortunate victim exhausted in body and spirit. The cow-elephant and other fellow elephants seeing their leader in distress pulled Gajendra forcibly but they were unable to extricate him. As soon as Gajendra dipped his feet in the lake, a crocodile clutched at one of his feet and started dragging him into the water. Once a family of elephants, which inhabited the forest on the mountain, entered the garden led by their mammoth chief, Gajendra, and made it to a big lake in it to drink water and cool themselves. In one of the secluded valleys of Mount Trikota, which was surrounded by the Ocean of Milk and intersected by lakes and rivers of various sizes and shapes, there was a beautiful garden which belonged to Varuna, the Lord of the oceans. It is a legend from the 8th Skandha of Srimad Bhagavatam where Lord Vishnu comes down to earth to protect Gajendra (King Elephant) from the clutches of death of a Crocodile. “Gajendra Moksha” a prayer, addressed to Lord Vishnu by Gajendra, the King Elephant, is one of the most magnificent hymns of bhakti from the Bhagavat Mahapuran, embellished with the jnana and vairagya of the Upanishads.