At first I pay my innumberable prostrated obeisances to the lotus feet of my most merciful and worshipable divine master, who is the redeemer of the fallen souls, the bestower of knowledge on the Absolute, the non-different manifestation of the Supreme Lord and the bestower of service of the Supreme Lord. I pray for his causeless mercy. I pay my prostrated obeisances to the lotus feet of the worshipable Vaishnava and pray for their causeless mercy. I pay my due respects to all the devotees who are inclined to hear discourses on the Supreme Lord and are observing Damodar-vrata. May they all become satisfied.

There is a special significance of hearing ‘Gajendra Moksha’ narration in the month of Kartik. Gajendra uttered the prayers to the Lord with earnestness from the core of his heart. When someone prays to the Lord from the core of his heart, he shall get fruits accordingly. Phalena phala karaṇam anumiyate—by the fruits of the action one can know with what motive the action was performed. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, an eternal associate of RadhaKrishna prays to Them as follows,

siddha-deha diyā, vṛndavana-majhe,
sevāmṛta karo' dāna

One cannot pray to the Lord by means of this material body. One has to reach the plane in which the Lord is situated and only then he shall be able to serve the Lord. The Lord resides in the transcendental realm. Here, siddha-deha means realized state. How I can speak about the glories of Sri Krishna? He is situated in the highest transcendental realm. He cannot be comprehended by us. How can one speak about Him? The glories of the Lord will come through self-revelation. Kindly give me realized transcendental form in Vrindavan Dham. Also kindly give me the ambrosia of service (sevamṛta). That ambrosia is transcendental ambrosia and not the one which emerges from the churning of the ocean.

piyāiya prema, matta kari' more,
suno nija guṇa-gāna

śrī-gajendra uvāca
oṁ namo bhagavate tasmai
yata etac cid-ātmakam
puruṣāyādi-bījāya
pareśāyābhidhīmahi

yasminn idaṁ yataś cedaṁ
yenedaṁ ya idaṁ svayam
yo ’smāt parasmāc ca paras
taṁ prapadye svayambhuvam

yaḥ svātmanīdaṁ nija-māyayārpitaṁ
kvacid vibhātaṁ kva ca tat tirohitam
aviddha-dṛk sākṣy ubhayaṁ tad īkṣate
sa ātma-mūlo ’vatu māṁ parāt-paraḥ

kālena paṣcatvam iteṣu kṛtsnaśo
lokeṣu pāleṣu ca sarva-hetuṣu
tamas tadāsīd gahanaṁ gabhīraṁ
yas tasya pāre ’bhivirājate vibhuḥ

na yasya devā ṛṣayaḥ padaṁ vidur
jantuḥ punaḥ ko ’rhati gantum īritum
yathā naṭasyākṛtibhir viceṣṭato
duratyayānukramaṇaḥ sa māvatu

didṛkṣavo yasya padaṁ sumaṅgalaṁ
vimukta-saṅgā munayaḥ susādhavaḥ
caranty aloka-vratam avraṇaṁ vane
bhūtātma-bhūtāḥ suhṛdaḥ sa me gatiḥ

na vidyate yasya ca janma karma vā
na nāma-rūpe guṇa-doṣa eva vā
tathāpi lokāpyaya-sambhavāya yaḥ
sva-māyayā tāny anukālam ṛcchati

tasmai namaḥ pareśāya
brahmaṇe ’nanta-śaktaye
arūpāyoru-rūpāya
nama āścarya-karmaṇe

nama ātma-pradīpāya
sākṣiṇe paramātmane
namo girāṁ vidūrāya
manasaś cetasām api

sattvena pratilabhyāya
naiṣkarmyeṇa vipaścitā
namaḥ kaivalya-nāthāya
nirvāṇa-sukha-saṁvide

namaḥ śāntāya ghorāya
ghūḍhāya guṇa-dharmiṇe
nirviśeṣāya sāmyāya
namo jñāna-ghanāya ca

kṣetra-jñāya namas tubhyaṁ
sarvādhyakṣāya sākṣiṇe
puruṣāyātma-mūlāya
mūla-prakṛtaye namaḥ

sarvendriya-guṇa-draṣṭre
sarva-pratyaya-hetave
asatā cchāyayoktāya
sad-ābhāsāya te namaḥ

namo namas te ’khila-kāraṇāya
niṣkāraṇāyādbhuta-kāraṇāya
sarvāgamāmnāya-mahārṇavāya
namo ’pavargāya parāyaṇāya

guṇāraṇi-cchanna-cid-uṣmapāya
tat-kṣobha-visphūrjita-mānasāya
naiṣkarmya-bhāvena vivarjitāgama-
svayaṁ-prakāśāya namas karomi

mādṛk prapanna-paśu-pāśa-vimokṣaṇāya
muktāya bhūri-karuṇāya namo ’layāya
svāṁśena sarva-tanu-bhṛn-manasi pratīta-
pratyag-dṛśe bhagavate bṛhate namas te
(Srimad Bhagavatam 8.3.2-17)

The elephant Gajendra fought with the crocodile for thousands of years. Now he saw his impending death right in front of him. Seeing death approaching him, feelings of surrendering to the Lord developed inside his heart. Such feelings will not come in the heart of a person like me. For us also, the death may approach any time but still we spend our time for worldly enjoyments only. I shall now narrate you all an incident which is related to me. I was staying in Kooch Bihar at Kooch Bihar Victoria College Hostel. So during that time, one astrologer predicted the future and gave a warning message to all. He said that at a so and so date and time in the evening there shall be annihilation (Pralaya) and the world shall be destroyed. We were there in that hostel for two months. Students of first year and third year used to stay downstairs and that of second and fourth year used to stay upstairs. On the day for which the prediction was done, all the inmates of the hostel gathered together and were pondering, “What can be done! His prediction is going to be surely true. We will stay only till evening. What should we do?” There was a restaurant situated in the hostel complex where all sorts of eatables were available. So all the inmates decided, “Let us eat to the fullest before we die.” Nobody spoke about performing devotion to the Lord. I also was there along with them. As majority of them were of the same opinion, what could I do alone? I just agreed to their opinion. So all of us gathered in the restaurant. There they ordered various eatables like ‘Samosa’, ‘Rasagulla’ etc. The owner of the restaurant was thinking, “This warning is very nice since it is enriching my business.” The inmates were thinking, “We are so intelligent. We shall not let our father’s and our brother’s money to go wasted. We shall utilize this money properly by spending it by eating nicely. After death nothing shall remain.” They ordered plenty much of food and ate everything. After that they could not even eat any more. All of us came to our rooms. Time passed by and the predicted time for annihilation also arrived but nothing happened. We got disappointed and thought to us, “The man who forecasted the event must have cheated us! Now what shall we tell our parents! How can we tell them that we have spent all their money!”

That night one student amongst us, in his sleep saw that everything was getting destroyed and started shouting ‘Pralaya Pralaya’! All the other boys ran towards him and held him and woke him up. They said, “Where is ‘Pralaya? Nothing has happened.” So when the boys heard that there shall be ‘Pralaya’ and everything will get destroyed they only thought about fulfilling their last wish of eating sumptuously. Nobody spoke that we should perform ‘Hari-bhajan’ (devotion to Lord Hari). But all the boys said that they should eat in the restaurant before they die. For this reason there should be the desire to perform Hari-bhajan. Maharaj Pariksit performed Hari-Bhajan so vigorously that we cannot even imagine that. What did he eat in those last seven days? He only ate the glories of the Lord through his ears for those seven days of his life. Nothing else he ate. We do not have such kind of power within us. Maharaj Pariksit knew that he shall live only for seven days and after that he shall have to leave his body. Sukadeva Goswami said to him, “Maharaj, please eat something and drink some water. Please take some rest. Otherwise you shall become weak and worn out.” Pariksit Maharaj replied, “Please do not stop the nectar of the glories of the Lord that you are speaking. I shall not survive after seven days. But I am not at all saddened by my impending death.” Once he fell thirsty and due to circumstances he insulted a Muni (saint) and was cursed by his son. But where has all his thirst gone now? He told Sukadeva Goswami, “By hearing the nectar of the glories of the Lord from your lotus lips I lost all my taste for eating or drinking.” For seven days he neither ate nor drank but was continuously hearing Harikatha (discourses on the Lord) from the lotus lips of Sukadeva Goswami. This was the food for his own self (the soul). What is the food for one’s soul? When we sit for hearing discourses on the Lord we see the time repeatedly. If we skip our sleep for one day and night we shall have to go to the hospital. We cannot do like him. We should not try to imitate him. For this reason we have been given the easiest way which is to chant the Holy Names of the Lord in any state while eating, sleeping etc.

Gajendra is offering prayers from the core of his heart. His eternal nature which is to perform causeless devotion to the Lord was manifested. When devotion was manifested inside his heart he started uttering prayers to the Lord which reached His ears. The Lord immediately appeared before him. The words spoken by an unsurrendered soul never reaches the Lord. The topic of Gajendra Moksha teaches us that one cannot attain the Lord without surrendering to Him first. Bhagavat Dharma demands full surrender to the Lord at the very beginning. One shall have to surrender himself at the lotus feet of Parameshwara (Supreme Personality of Godhead) and not to anybody else. So this topic fully instructs on surrendering to the Lord completely. Though Gajendra did not take the Name of the Lord but the glories which he sang were addressed to the Lord only. For this reason on hearing his prayers the Supreme Lord Vishnu appeared before him. This does not imply that Gajendra was demeaning the other demigods but he simply did not take shelter to any of them but only to the Supreme Lord.

namo namas te ’khila-kāraṇāya

Who is the cause behind everything? The Supreme Lord (Parameshwara) is the cause of everything. We find in Brahma Samhita it is written –

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
(Brahma-Samhita 5.1)

So in his prayers Gajendra is addressing the Lord as ’khila-kāraṇāya niṣkāraṇāya—the one Who is the cause of everything but He Himself has no cause. He is the most primeval amongst all. He is ‘svayambhu’ and doesn’t have a cause. How He is the cause of everything? He has created infinite universes, living entities, etc. and has also destroyed them many times. But despite conducting all these creations and destructions the Lord Himself is not involved in all these. Nothing can touch Him. So He is ‘adbhuta-kāraṇa’. The Lord remains unperturbed in all circumstances. Though He engages His potencies in different manners but still He remains unmoved. In spite of being the cause of everything including all actions and reactions that take place in this world He has got no connection with all these things. He is the ocean (mahārṇavāya) of all the Vedās, Āgamas, Pancarātras, and the divine knowledge (āmnāya) that descends through a bonafide preceptorial channel (Guru Parampara). Gauranga Mahaprabhu is the ocean of Divine Love and Sri Ray Ramananda is like the cloud emerged from that ocean. The Lord only imparted energy to him to speak and He Himself heard those topics from him. So everything comes from Him and culminates in Him only. Various scriptures like Vedās etc all originated from the Supreme Lord and got culminated in Him only. Water gets evaporated from water bodies like oceans and forms clouds in the sky. The clouds then pours down on the earth as rains which merges with the rivers which again flows towards the ocean. In this manner the water goes back to the ocean itself. The living entities get enchanted by the illusory energy of Lord and get entangled in it. Those living entities who are averse to the Supreme Lord are enveloped by Mahamaya (illusory energy of the Lord). When the living beings surrenders themselves unto the Lotus Feet of the Lord He lifts up the veil of the illusory energy from them.

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te
(Bhagavad Gita 7.14)

Who shall rescue the living beings from the grip of this illusory energy? Apavargāya—the Supreme Lord Who can only rescue the living entities. Parāyaṇāya—He is the shelter of everybody including the exalted demigods like Brahma, Rudra, etc. and also the exalted saints. So Gajendra says, “I take shelter to the lotus feet of that Supreme Lord Who is the shelter of everybody.” He made it clear that he is taking shelter of the Supreme Lord only.

Gajendra is addressing the Lord as, ‘guṇāraṇi-cchanna-cid-uṣmapāya’. Araṇi is the wood which when rubbed against each other produces fire. Nowadays we use match-sticks for producing fire for meeting our purposes. But it is not proper as it contains gunpowder (barood) which is not sacred material. Araṇi wood is not available everywhere. For this reason, it is very difficult to perform fire sacrifices nowadays. Fire is present inside the araṇi but externally we cannot see it externally. We see only the external gross form of that wood. Even scientists confirm that every gross object has subtle elements behind it. For example, atoms (aṇu) are made of molecules (paramaṇu). The subtle elements behind paramaṇu are electrons and protons. But then they could not say anything beyond electron and proton. More subtle than electrons and protons is the particle of consciousness (cetan) which is beyond our comprehension. The world of consciousness (cetan-jagat) is all-pervasive and beyond the reach of the mind and intellect. An atom is composed of electrons and protons which revolve inside the atom continuously like planets and satellites which revolve around the sun and earth respectively. But nobody knows why electrons and protons revolve inside an atom. Even scientists couldn’t ascertain the cause behind their rotations and revolutions. So we cannot call something science if it cannot ascertain the cause behind some event. The Anti-Darwin’s theory says that the entire creation has come to existence accidentally and all actions and reactions are carried out mechanically. The theory goes on to say that growth and development occur by accidental interaction of material elements and environment. But another philosopher named Bergson said this is not possible. He said that the development of living beings cannot be a mechanical process. So it cannot be explained by Darwin or Anti-Darwin theories which consider the development to be mechanical. There is some purpose behind such development. There is life-impetus (cetan-śhakti) in living beings which leads them to grow and develop. For example, as a cow grows, it develops horns on its head. The horns didn’t come out automatically. There is one force behind the development—spiritual force, life-impetus which he named 'Elan Vital'. The development of living beings cannot be accidental or mechanical.

Gajendra further says, ‘tat-kṣobha-visphūrjita-mānasāya’. When the Lord thinks, 'sah ikśat eko aham bahusyami'—I am one, I shall become many. Then He imparts the living energy by glancing over the material nature and the creation starts. So the Lord is the prime cause behind the creations. Even being the prime cause, He remains aloof from it. Gajendra also said this thing before when he talked about dissolution after one day of Brahma (khanda-pralaya). The Lord sees all such creations and destructions in an unperturbed manner. The living entities (cetan-vastu) and the living energy (cetan-śhakti) have real existence. There is no actual existence of matter. It is consciousness that imparts materialism to matter. If there is no consciousness no reality can exist. Matter does not come to say, “I am matter.” It is the conscious being who calls the matter as ‘matter’. There are two types of consciousness, aṇu-cetan (infinitesimal spark of consciousness) and vibhu-cetan (All-Pervasive consciousness). Though the individual living entities are aṇu-cetan, it is been said in Bhagavad Gita,

na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 2.20)

“The individual soul is not slain even when the body is slain.”

Though this is said by Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita but still we do not have faith in His words. We do not realize the words of Gita but we still speak them from the mouth. The soul does not take birth nor does he die. We see birth and death because we are enveloped by the illusory energy of the Lord. The individual living conscious soul can get enveloped by the illusory energy of the Lord. The Supreme Lord is the master of all potencies. The illusory energy cannot envelop the Supreme Lord. This is the difference between the Lord and the individual living being. Being enchanted by the illusory energy of the Lord, the individual living being performs activities that are averse to the Lord. In reality, neither does anybody take birth nor does anybody die and neither there is the existence of any three-fold afflictions. But we see the existence of three-fold afflictions all around. The Lord says, "What can I do in this regard! They are feeling all these things since they are not surrendered to Me. They see only false things."

tasmād idaṁ jagad aśeṣam
asat-svarūpaṁ
svapnābham asta-dhiṣaṇaṁ
puru-duḥkha-duḥkham
tvayy eva nitya-sukha-bodha-tanāv anante
māyāta udyad api yat sad ivāvabhāti
(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.14.22)

Not only this world but infinite universes are prone to get perished in due course of time. There are no values of these infinite material universes. Asat-svarūpaṁ svapnābham—it is exactly like a dream. When we sleep and dream we feel it is real but when we wake up we realize that it was all false. Once a devotee from Bengal came to stay in Dehradun Math. That time Deva Prasad Prabhu was the in-charge of Dehradun Math. He stayed there in a room. When it was nearly 12 AM at night he started shouting in his sleep, “I am drowning, I am drowning please save me, please save me!” All started wondering where he was drowning, how he can drown here!! All came to him and pushed him to wake him up. They said, “What happened? What happened?” The man kept on saying, “I have drowned!” They said, “Where have you drowned?” The man then realized that he was dreaming. He said to them, “I was seeing in a dream that I am crossing a water body on a boat. I do not know swimming and the boat suddenly turned upside down in the water and I fell into the water and started drowning. But in reality, neither there was a boat nor any water. This is what is called a dream. In this manner we the living souls are also seeing a dream in this material world. All our laughter and tears, etc. are carried out as if in a theatre. In reality, all these things do not exist—asat-svarūpaṁ svapnābham. The one who engages all his intelligence in such illusory and temporary things and thinks that he is very intelligent, his intelligence is lost completely. A person thinks that by increasing his worldly comforts and money he is utilizing his intelligence properly but Brahma ji says that the intelligence of such a person is lost completely. Such a person might think, “By having wealth and worldly comforts I may get some pleasure at least.” But the fact is that his miseries multiply many folds. Does anybody endeavor to get miseries? Everybody wants happiness. Gajendra says-“Hey Krishna you are the cause of this illusory energy (māya). For this reason, this māya looks like you. You are pūrṇa sad (Absolute-Existance), pūrṇa cid (Absolute-Knowledge) and pūrṇa ānanda (Absolute-Bliss). For this reason, to the living beings who are averse to the Lord, this māya which resembles You also appears to have eternal existence, knowledge, and bliss.” The living beings originate from the marginal potency (taṭasthā-śakti) of the Lord and hence are superior to the external energy (māya) of the Lord and can dominate over it and can enjoy it. By seeing this external energy the living beings develop the desire to enjoy it. The mindset of the living beings is such that on seeing his son a father thinks, “I am his father”. On seeing his father a son thinks, “I am his son.” On seeing his wife a husband thinks, “I am her husband.” On seeing her husband a wife thinks, “I am his wife” and so on and so forth. On seeing māya the living entity thinks, “I am the enjoyer”. With this ego of being an enjoyer, the living being jumps into the trap of māya which immediately captures him and entangles him in its network. He then suffers tremendous miseries. So Gajendra says, “The living beings being averse to You get entrapped by Your material energy. Only you can rescue them and nobody else.” There is a phrase, “Back to home Back to Godhead.” One should make a right about turn towards Krishna and worship Him. Being averse to Sri Krishna the living entity is seeing māya which is devoid of bliss, devoid of eternity, and devoid of knowledge. This is what is called māya which seems like everything is eternally existing there. But the reality is that there is nothing here that eternally exists. Everything is non-eternal here. It is devoid of knowledge and bliss. Everything is devoid there. But it seems like everything is present there because it is a shadow of Krishna.

Gajendra further says, svayaṁ-prakāśāya—the Supreme Lord manifests Himself by His own Will. It has already been stated before that He is self-effulgent. When one becomes knowledgeable about God, all other sorts of knowledge come to such a person automatically. Our revered Swami Maharaj used to speak very nicely. Anybody who comes to him with a question would get his answer immediately. Some people are very argumentative by nature. One such person once came to him and said, “You are preaching all these things about God but I don’t believe in God. There is no God.” Swami Maharaj said, “Who has given you the power to say I don’t believe in God? If the power is taken away can you say I don’t believe in God? How long shall your vanity remain?”

Another phrase spoken by Swami Maharaj is, “When one is enlightened with the knowledge by which ignorance is destroyed then his knowledge lights up everything as the sun lights up everything at day time.” Here knowledge means self-effulgent knowledge and not intellectual knowledge. When the sun rises everything including all living beings beasts, birds, trees, humans, etc. can be seen in their proper perspectives by means of the sunlight. Nothing can be visible however in the darkness. Similarly, when the Lord manifests Himself in the heart of somebody, He will reveal the real form of that person and also the form of this world. Addressing the Lord Gajendra says, “I ¬pay my obeisances to you.”

The Gajedra then spoke about himself,

mādṛk prapanna-paśu-pāśa-vimokṣaṇāya
muktāya bhūri-karuṇāya namo ’layāya
svāṁśena sarva-tanu-bhṛn-manasi pratīta-
pratyag-dṛśe bhagavate bṛhate namas te
(Srimad Bhagavatam 8.3.17)

So each time after Gajendra was singing the glories of the Lord he is paying his obeisances to Him. Here Gajendra says, “Only the Lord can rescue a surrendered animal like me who has fallen in the clutches of the crocodile.” Who is the Supreme Lord? The one Who only can rescue a fallen soul from the grip of māya. The Supreme Lord however is ever liberated (mukta) Himself. He is the reservoir of unlimited mercy. He does never have laziness in Him. He resides in the heart of every living entity as Super Soul (antaryāmī). He is the embodiment of Knowledge. He is aparichinna—unlimited or infinite. He says, “I pay my obeisances to you.”

Now please try to understand the meaning of each and every word spoken by Gajendra. First, he says, mādṛk prapanna—to the surrendered being like me. Bhaktivinoda Thakur writes in one of his Giti,

ṣaḍ-ańga śaraṇāgati hoibe jāhāra
tāhāra prārthanā śune śrī-nanda-kumāra

The son of Sri Nanda Maharaj, Sri Krishna listens to the prayers of the one who had developed six-fold śaraṇāgati. One cannot develop śaraṇāgati without associating with a pure devotee of the Lord who is himself surrendered to the Lord. This has been said by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur. Only by memorizing one cannot get the actual benefit. A person who is suffering from some ailment goes to a doctor and the latter diagnoses his disease and writes the medicines to be taken in a prescription. He tells the patient, "You please keep this in mind." The ailing person simply memorized the prescription including the address written on it. He was repeatedly uttering those things. But he did not take the medicines. He did not get cured of his ailment. When he goes back to the doctor and tells him that he has not got cured. The doctor asks whether he gave attention to all the things advised in his prescription. The ailing person replied, "Yes, I did." He then simply recited the prescription to him. When the doctor asked him if he had taken the medicines that were written in the prescription the man simply said he hasn’t. The doctor said, “What is the benefit of memorizing the names of the medicines! They were meant to be taken by you to get yourself cured.” The person should have taken the medicines along with a proper diet to get himself cured of his ailment. Similarly, if we just memorize the teachings but do not practice then that will be of no use. We have to accept the medicine (teachings) given by sādhu-vaidya, sad-guru. Simply by memorizing and reciting the six symptoms of six-fold surrender one cannot get the actual benefit if he does not put them into practice. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur says in his song on śaraṇāgati

rūpa-sanātana-pade dante tṛṇa kori’
bhakativinoda paḍe duhuń pada dhori’
kāńdiyā kāńdiyā bale āmi to’ adhama
śikhāye śaraṇāgati kara ha uttama

Bhaktivinoda places a straw between his teeth, prostrates himself before the two Goswamis, Sri Rupa and Sri Sanatana, and clasps their lotus feet with his hands. He tells them weeping, “I am certainly the lowest of men. By teaching me the way of śaraṇāgati make me the best.”

So in order to develop śaraṇāgati one has to go to a devotee who himself is surrendered to the Lord. If we get the grace of Gajendra, we shall be able to develop śaraṇāgati. We should pray for the grace of Gajendra.

Gajendra is saying, prapanna-paśu-pāśa-vimokṣaṇāya—the Lord is the only resort for a surrendered animal like me. The Lord protects only those who have surrendered unto Him. It is never said here that the Lord shall only rescue human beings and not animals. Neither it is said that the Lord shall only protect the Brahmins and not Shudras.

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 7.14)

Ye prapadyante te taranti—whoever will surrender, I will rescue Him. Whoever surrenders to the Lord whether he be a human being or animal shall be rescued by Him. Everybody is equal in the eyes of the Lord. Mokṣaṇam yena tasmai avidya—only the Lord can remove ignorance (avidya) from us. Since we are entangled by the illusory energy of the Lord only the Lord can rescue us from it. There is no other way to get deliverance. One cannot get deliverance by his own efforts and neither by the efforts of other persons of this world. The Supreme Lord is muktāya—the Lord Who is not under the control of material nature (svayam prakṛti pārvaśya rahitaya). In the commentary of this verse, Srila Vishwanath Chakravartipada writes bhakt-vedya bhagavat-svarūpamāh madrgiti jāvat stuti—the Lord manifests that form of Him which the devotees realize. Gajendra is singing the glories of such form only till the end of his prayers. Further, Srila Vishwanath Chakravartipada writes pāśo grāharūpaḥ sansār-svarūpasca. Here our worldly entanglement is compared with the crocodile or the alligator. How we shall be rescued? Only the Supreme Lord can rescue us and nobody else. When we become averse to the Supreme Lord His illusory potency envelops us and we get this misconception of ourselves and we think that this world is very beautiful. Thinking like this we jump into it and try to enjoy it and in return get all sorts of sufferings. So we are to take shelter to the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord is muktāya which means mādṛgbhiretāvatkālam parityaktāya asevitāya-ityarthaḥ. In this world, we see that a person may serve some other person and then leaves his service and goes away. Though the master asked him to stay back the servant didn’t and went away. After some time due to difficulties when the same person comes back to the master and wants to get back his service, the master refuses him. He says, “No please go away. When I asked you to stay you didn’t and now you are coming back. Go and die I don’t care.” But the Supreme Lord is not like this. He shall never say like this but we say like this. Since the Lord is the Supreme Master it is not proper for us to leave His service and go away. Let us say someone leaves the service of the Lord and when he is in difficulty being entangled by the crocodile of material life he comes back to Him to seek refuge, the Lord never says to him, “No No No I shall not accept you back in My service.” The Lord never says like this to a person who wants to come back to His service. So we don’t have to worry about this. Only human beings say this. Srila Vishwanath Chakravartipada further writes parityaktāya asevitāya-ityarthaḥ tadapi mādṛgbhyo na kṛdyate. That person has not served the Lord for a long time so the Lord has become angry. This is not possible. It happens so with us. We get angry in such situations but the Lord does not get angry.

Gajendra further says, bhūri-karuṇāya—the Supreme Lord is an ocean of mercy. When somebody takes shelter to Him and utters His Name then even by nāmābhās (just the glow of the Holy Name), he shall get deliverance from worldly bondage what to speak of the benefits one obtains by śuddha-nāma! If somebody calls out to the Lord from the core of his heart, the Lord shall rescue Him. He is so much merciful. The Lord never says, “Oh you have committed so many sins. I shall not rescue you.”

Srila Vishwanath Chakravartipada writes jato-amalāya prākṛtānāmiva īrṣā-mālinya-bhāvāditi bhāvaḥ. In this material world there exist vices like malice and envy but such things are not present in the Supreme Lord. The Lord never says like this, “Oh I had given you so many advantages and happiness. But you have deceived Me and did treachery with Me. Now I shall no more accept you.” Worldly people have this sort of attitude but not the Lord.

Srila Vishwanath Chakravartipada further writes in his commentary, alayāyeti pathe tratra karuṇāyam na vidyate layaḥ. The Supreme Lord is an ocean of mercy Whose mercy never perishes. He also writes, ālasyam yasya tasmai—the Supreme Lord is never lazy. In this material world, we see that the one who is the rescuer himself becomes the enjoyer of the one who is to be rescued. In this material world, the protector is himself the killer. The Government people are somehow like this. Suppose a gang of robbers surround a house and break in the people of the house call the police and tell them, “Please come here. We are in trouble.” The police will think that there is no benefit in going there and on the contrary there is a risk of our being killed. They tell the victims, “Ok Ok we are coming. We are coming!” The police will make all sorts of delays in going there. They are lazy. After half an hour or so when the police finally reach there everything has already been finished. Then the police enquire, “What! What has happened?” But by the time they arrived everything has already been finished. But the ways of the Lord are not like this. He shall not appear to rescue Gajendra after he has already been killed by the crocodile. So there is no need to worry. The Lord is not lazy like the worldly protectors.

Srila Vishwanath Chakravartipada further writes na ca tvayi dukha-gyāpana-apekśetyāh śvāmśeneti. The Supreme Lord does not even wait for anybody to relate to Him his or her pains and sufferings. For this reason

atha vā bahunaitena
kiṁ jñātena tavārjuna
viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam
ekāṁśena sthito jagat
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 10.42)

In the Bhagavad Gita it is said that the Lord holds this material world by one of His fragment. The Lord has His eyes on each and every living being. It is not the fact that someone surrenders to the Lord and calls out to Him for help but the Lord remains inactive. The Lord shall appear to a surrendered soul and rescue him immediately. He will not even wait for him to express his pain to Him. The living entities are śvāmśa—parts and parcels of His energy. For this reason, they have got relation with Him.

Srila Vishwanath Chakravartipada further writes in his commentary, praīto yaḥ pratyagdṛak antaryāmī tasmai. He remains as the antaryāmī (All-Knower) in the hearts of every single living entity. He knows what each and every living entity is doing. He is not only residing in the hearts of both Gajendra and the crocodile but in the hearts of infinite living beings that He created. He knows everything that is going on in all of their minds. It is not the fact that He doesn’t know anything. Without His sanction, nothing can be done but we human beings cannot see this. Our Gurumaharaj once cited an example as follows. There is a place called Rajahmundry near Kovvur. There lived a headmaster of a school who was a very good man. He was also very famous. He lived with his wife and son. He was a dutiful person who regularly went to school and taught his students. When the master was away from his home his wife got engaged in an illicit relationship with another man. One day he came to know about it and became very saddened in his heart. Neither did he say anything to his wife nor did he leave his job despite knowing everything about his wife. Gradually the illicit relationship between the wife and the man became so strong that they thought that the master was no obstacle in their way of illicit activities since he goes to his job but the son is becoming an obstacle. Thinking like this they fed poison to the son and killed him. The master got so much grief-stricken by the demise of the son that he started beating that man with whom his wife had a relationship on the street with his shoes. People who knew him gathered around him and started inquiring him, “You are such a learned gentleman. Why are you beating this man on the streets?” But the master did not reply to them. All misunderstood him and started blaming him instead with abusive words. Later that man escaped and the master being very sad sat there. Some two-four persons who knew him came to him and suspected something going wrong. On being asked repeatedly, the master revealed to them everything that transpired. On hearing everything those persons also became enraged and started searching for that man to beat him up. They started shouting, “Find him! Find him!.” But these same people didn’t understand before why the master was beating that man. We human beings see the present and make judgments of right and wrong with our limited intelligence since we do not have the power to see past births. But the Supreme Lord knows everything. He knows what one has done and gives him fruits accordingly. For this reason, the Supreme Lord remains as the witness in the hearts of the living entities. Gajendra says, “I pay my obeisances to you.”

ātmātma-jāpta-gṛha-vitta-janeṣu saktair
duṣprāpaṇāya guṇa-saṅga-vivarjitāya
muktātmabhiḥ sva-hṛdaye paribhāvitāya
jñānātmane bhagavate nama īśvarāya
(Srimad Bhagavatam 8.3.18)