There is a special significance of reading Gajendra Moksha narration from Srimad Bhagavatam in Kartik-vrata. Therefore Srila Gurudeva and Guruvarga used to read Gajendra Moksha narration each year in the month of Kartik. This narration has some essential teachings for all the aspirant votaries who want to attain their ultimate goal of life. Gajendra, being attacked by the formidable crocodile, fought for one thousand years. He was a devotee in his previous birth. Because of the curse of Agatsya Muni he got the body of an elephant who then became the leader of the wild elephants. After fighting for one thousand years, he remembered the prayers which he used to offer to the Supreme Lord in his previous birth. It was almost impossible for him to remember the Lord in the situation he was in. If anyone can pray to the Supreme Lord like Gajendra did then he will be rescued from the clutches of the illusory energy of the Lord. The illusory energy has enveloped us. The root cause of our suffering is the forgetfulness of our relation with the Supreme Lord. We have forgotten our real-self. If someone can sing the glories of the Supreme Lord with devoutness, sincerity and perturbation of heart, He will appear there and will shower His grace. He appeared for Gajendra and gave him the ultimate goal of his life. Though we read Gajendra’s prayers, we do not get those feelings from within. Then too we have the hope that as these prayers are uttered by Gajendra, the Supreme Lord will be pleased if we recite them.

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

ātmātma-jāpta-gṛha-vitta-janeṣu saktair
duṣprāpaṇāya guṇa-saṅga-vivarjitāya
muktātmabhiḥ sva-hṛdaye paribhāvitāya
jñānātmane bhagavate nama īśvarāya

yaṁ dharma-kāmārtha-vimukti-kāmā
bhajanta iṣṭāṁ gatim āpnuvanti
kiṁ cāśiṣo rāty api deham avyayaṁ
karotu me ’dabhra-dayo vimokṣaṇam

ekāntino yasya na kañcanārthaṁ
vāñchanti ye vai bhagavat-prapannāḥ
aty-adbhutaṁ tac-caritaṁ sumaṅgalaṁ
gāyanta ānanda-samudra-magnāḥ

tam akṣaraṁ brahma paraṁ pareśam
avyaktam ādhyātmika-yoga-gamyam
atīndriyaṁ sūkṣmam ivātidūram
anantam ādyaṁ paripūrṇam īḍe

yasya brahmādayo deva
vedā lokāś carācarāḥ
nāma-rūpa-vibhedena
phalgvyā ca kalayā kṛtāḥ

yathārciṣo ’gneḥ savitur gabhastayo
niryānti saṁyānty asakṛt sva-rociṣaḥ
tathā yato ’yaṁ guṇa-sampravāho
buddhir manaḥ khāni śarīra-sargāḥ

sa vai na devāsura-martya-tiryaṅ
na strī na ṣaṇḍho na pumān na jantuḥ
nāyaṁ guṇaḥ karma na san na cāsan
niṣedha-śeṣo jayatād aśeṣaḥ

jijīviṣe nāham ihāmuyā kim
antar bahiś cāvṛtayebha-yonyā
icchāmi kālena na yasya viplavas
tasyātma-lokāvaraṇasya mokṣam

so ’haṁ viśva-sṛjaṁ viśvam
aviśvaṁ viśva-vedasam
viśvātmānam ajaṁ brahma
praṇato ’smi paraṁ padam

yoga-randhita-karmāṇo
hṛdi yoga-vibhāvite
yogino yaṁ prapaśyanti
yogeśaṁ taṁ nato ’smy aham

namo namas tubhyam asahya-vega-
śakti-trayāyākhila-dhī-guṇāya
prapanna-pālāya duranta-śaktaye
kad-indriyāṇām anavāpya-vartmane

nāyaṁ veda svam ātmānaṁ
yac-chaktyāhaṁ-dhiyā hatam
taṁ duratyaya-māhātmyaṁ
bhagavantam ito ’smy aham

(Srimad Bhagavatam 8.3.2-29)

Gajendra says to the Lord at the end of his prayers, “You can give everything—dharma (piety); artha (wealth); kāma (fulfillment of desires); mokṣa (salvation). Apart from all these you can also give a transcendental body. Nothing is impossible for You. You can also award a transcendental body to those who worship you with material desires. You have given a transcendental body to Dhruva. Despite the fact that you can give me anything, I pray to you for an insignificant thing. I want to be freed from the clutches of this material life which has captured me in the form of this crocodile.”

Srila Viswanath Chakravarti Thakur in his commentary has written about the inner desire of Gajendra. The Supreme Lord awards benedictions to a living being according to the desires within that being’s heart. It is not that the living being is desiring something from within and the Lord awards him something else. Gajendra, the elephant, prayed to the Lord, “Though You can give me any sort of benedictions, I only ask from You to release me from the crocodile of material bondages.” Before saying so he mentioned that the Lord can also award loving devotion. Though he always saw himself as a mere animal caught in the clutches of a crocodile and unworthy of requesting any boon from the Lord, deep within his heart he cherished the desire to attain a transcendental body—one through which he could render loving devotion unto the Lord. He did not have the courage to ask for benediction according to his heart's desire. But the Supreme Lord is ‘Bhavagrahi Janardana’—one who offers benedictions as per the heart’s desire of His devotees. Gajendra never desired that the Lord shall rescue him from the grip of the crocodile and restore his elephant body so that he can continue enjoying material life with his wives and children. He was very much aware of the fact that this material body is born out of ignorance. The living entity forgets the Supreme Lord and gets a material body. This body born out of ignorance is the cause of extreme suffering for the living entity. He wanted to rise above this ignorance and be situated in his original self as an eternal servant of the Lord. The living entity comes to this material world by forgetting his relation with the Supreme Lord. A mere worldly man can ask the Lord to free him from the difficulties of material life and restore back his material life so that he can continue enjoying this world but a pure devotee like Gajendra never asks for such a benediction.

Gajendra is praying, “I am covered by ignorance both from inside and outside. I want to get released from such ignorance and pray that the door of the spiritual world of ‘Vaikuntha Dhama’ shall open for me. I want to go back to that eternal abode of the Supreme Lord. But I know that I possess material senses. How, then, can I go back to You?”

We cannot know the Lord by means of our five material senses namely (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin) and their objects namely (sound, touch, form, taste and smell). The enjoyment through the material senses is the cause of bondage to this world. Gajendra was well aware that he cannot attain the Lord by means of his materially polluted senses. One can realize the Lord only by means of transcendental sense organs. We have the desire in our hearts to enjoy material objects namely (sound, touch, form, taste and smell) by means of our material sense organs. We have forgotten the Lord and got entangled by His illusory energy and thus come under the grip of material bondage. The material word looks fascinating and blissful from outside but in reality, it is completely devoid of any sort of bliss. It is analogical to wrongly think a mirage to be a water body in a desert and run after it to quench thirst. So why do we run after gratifying our material senses and their objects? There are transcendental senses behind the material senses of the living being and the object of those senses is Supreme Lord Sri Krishna.

A pure devotee of the Lord possesses the greatest wealth which is the wealth of ‘śaraṇāgati’ (submission to the Lord) which leads to developing Divine Love (Krishna-prema) for Him. No other wealth in the entire creation can be greater than such a wealth. Ekāntino yasya na kañcanārthaṁ vāñchanti—one-pointed devotee of the Lord never asks anything from the Lord. He only engages himself in singing the glories of the Lord and His devotees and thus gets immersed in the ocean of bliss. Gajendra also had the desire to keep himself engaged in singing the glories of the Lord and His devotees and stay immersed always in the ocean of bliss but out of humility he was not considering himself eligible for the same.

Gajendra says, “With my material eyes I am seeing this world. This world is the Lord Himself.” In other words, this world is a manifestation of the external potency of the Supreme Lord. Thus, we can say that this world is a representation of the Lord. But the Lord is immanent (everywhere in this word) as well as transcendental. So, He is the world and again He is not. So, if we touch this world we cannot touch the Lord. The Supreme Lord is immanent and also transcendental; He is self-effulgent. He is the cause of all causes and the Lord of all the worlds. He knows everything that is going on anywhere. In other words, He is Omniscient. He resides in the heart of every living being.

Thereafter Gajendra says, “I am submitting myself to the Supreme Lord and not to any demigods. All the demigods emanate from the Supreme Lord and again go back to Him exactly like sparks of fire emerge from the main fire and again merge with the latter. So, I am submitting myself to the Supreme Lord and not to any insignificant partial manifestations of Him, the demigods.”

Gajendra continues, “I am now submitting my prayer to You. I am enveloped by Your illusory potency and have forgotten You. How can I know You?” This illusory energy shall only leave me when I take absolute shelter to You.”

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

Gajendra says, “But I have no capacity to take absolute shelter in You. I do not know anything; whatever You wish You can do to me.”

Gajendra is praying in the same mood as Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur prayed in one of his hymns 'mārabi rākhabi — yo icchā tohārā nitya-dāsa-prati tuyā adhikāra'—as I am Your eternal servant, You have the right to do everything; if You wish You can keep me alive or else You can kill me. Gajendra had this sort of ‘śaraṇāgati’ (submission to the Lord).

śrī-śuka uvāca
evaṁ gajendram upavarṇita-nirviśeṣaṁ
brahmādayo vividha-liṅga-bhidābhimānāḥ
naite yadopasasṛpur nikhilātmakatvāt
tatrākhilāmara-mayo harir āvirāsīt
(Srimad Bhagavatam 8.3.30)

Sri Sukadeva Goswami says that Gajendra did not refer to any particular personality; he described the attributes of the Supreme person (param-tattva). He called for nirviśeṣa—the one who is beyond the material attributes, negating everyone and everything of this world. He denied submitting to any entity having material forms including Lord Brahma and other demigods. And therefore, no demigod came to rescue him. The commentator, Srila Viswanath Chakravarti Thakur, has made this point here. All forms of life under the supervision of Brahma—including the demigods—are created during his daytime and destroyed during his nighttime. Though Brahma’s lifespan is vast, beyond human comprehension, it too comes to an end. Even he is not beyond the reach of time. So, Gajendra did not desire to surrender to someone who is himself perishable. He considered such perishable beings to be insignificant. Therefore, he took shelter of nirviśeṣa—the one who is beyond all these material attributes.

In this manner, Gajendra fully surrendered himself to the Lord, resolving that whether the Lord saved him or let him perish, he would never withdraw his submission at His lotus feet.

The commentator goes on to elaborate on the mindset of the demigods. The demigods, including Brahma, tried to make Gajendra understand, saying: "You must know that attaining the Supreme Lord is not so easy."

They thought, “This Gajendra has considered us so insignificant. We also have the swan or Airavata as our carriers. We also have some respect. If he had called for the one who has the swan or Airavata as their carrier, we would have gone to rescue him. But he ignored us and referred to us as insignificant, so we will not go. He called out for the Supreme Lord, but it is not so easy to get Him here. And therefore, this Gajendra will be killed today. Let him die.”

Thinking so, the demigods became silent. They have false pride within because of which they ignored Gajendra.

At that time, sarva-svarūpa—the embodiment of all the forms, because of which Who is also called sarva-devamaya—by serving Whom everyone is served, the Supreme Lord appeared before Gajendra. Though the Lord could have rescued him even without appearing in front of him, He chose to appear there in person in order to give pleasure to Gajendra. Since Gajendra was a devotee of the Lord, he had the inner desire to take the audience (darshan) of the Lord. His main objective was not to get released from the clutches of the crocodile but to have an audience of the Lord and go back to His eternal abode (Vaikuntha).

So the Lord Himself appeared before Gajendra to bestow happiness upon him. A devotee of the Lord does not get satisfied unless and until the Lord Himself appears before him. The Lord can protect His devotee even without appearing personally, but the latter always hankers for His darshan (audience), service of His lotus feet and residence in His abode. Therefore, the Lord appeared before Gajendra and rescued him. The demigods had become a little displeased that Gajendra did not utter their identity as the one who rides on the swan or on Airavata; instead, he called them insignificant (phalgu). But one has to understand that the one who worships the Supreme Lord Sri Vishnu, he automatically serves everyone including all the demigods. A worshipper of the Supreme Lord respects and serves every demigod automatically without undergoing any separate endeavor for their service. Until the Supreme Lord is being served, no demigods can accept any sort of service. It is exactly like if one pours water at the root of the tree all parts of the tree get nourished. If food is given to the stomach, all other parts of the body get automatic nourishment. By serving the Supreme Lord, one serves all. Did not Gajendra serve the Supreme Lord? The demigod's argument was baseless. In reality, Gajendra did the actual service, haribhakti āche yāṅhāra, sarva deva bandhu tāṅhāra—the one Who possesses devotion to the Supreme Lord Sri Hari, he naturally befriends all the other demigods. The demigods should consider Gajendra to be their friend. They should not be unhappy with him.

taṁ tadvad ārtam upalabhya jagan-nivāsaḥ
stotraṁ niśamya divijaiḥ saha saṁstuvadbhiḥ
chandomayena garuḍena samuhyamānaś
cakrāyudho ’bhyagamad āśu yato gajendraḥ
(Srimad Bhagavatam 8.3.31)

The jagan-nivāsa hari—the Lord who dwells within the world as the antarātmā (Supersoul)—upon seeing Gajendra helpless and tormented by pain, and hearing the prayers of the demigods, appeared at the scene. He arrived riding on the back of His divine carrier, Garuḍa—who travels with the swiftness of his will—and bearing His divine weapon, the Sudarshan Chakra. If the Lord simply wills it, Gajendra can be rescued. But a pure devotee like Gajendra will not be satisfied by this. The Lord thought to Himself, “Gajendra wants to see Me, he wants to perform worship, offer something to My lotus feet, he wants to go back to the Transcendental Realm. He wants to see Me. Otherwise he will not be satisfied.”

The Supreme Lord gave assurance to Gajendra, “I have come for you. Why are you thinking? I have got so much love for you.”

so ’ntaḥ-sarasy urubalena gṛhīta ārto
dṛṣṭvā garutmati hariṁ kha upātta-cakram
utkṣipya sāmbuja-karaṁ giramāha kṛcchrān
nārāyaṇākhila-guro bhagavan namas te
(Srimad Bhagavatam 8.3.32)

Though Gajendra became greatly blissful on seeing the Lord appear before him, he was in too much pain due to being caught in the jaws of the crocodile. The crocodile was pulling him causing him extreme pain. Despite being in such a painful condition, a thought immediately poured to him about how he could serve the Lord. He picked up a lotus flower from the lake with his trunk and offered it by throwing it towards the Lord thinking I cannot do anything else in this condition. The Lord only sees at the feelings of His devotee. Gajendra called out, “Hey Narayan! Hey Kulaguru! Hey Bhagavan! I am offering my obeisance to You.”

Thereafter, seeing Gajendra in such an aggrieved condition, the unborn Supreme Lord, Sri Hari, immediately leapt from the back of Garuḍa and by His causeless mercy, He pulled the King of the elephants, along with the crocodile, out of the water. Then, in the presence of all the demigods, who were looking on, the Lord split the crocodile’s mouth (jaws) with Sudarshan Chakra and released Gajendra. In this way He saved Gajendra, the King of the elephants.

The Lord performed such a wonderful act in front of all the demigods. He showed them how he rescued Gajendra by pulling him out of the water along with the crocodile and then severing the head of the crocodile with his divine discus.

We also need to know the history behind this entire incident. We need to know who Gajendra was in his previous birth. How he took the birth of an elephant. What is the real identity of the crocodile? How this entire episode was shaped. Today time is very less. We shall discuss it tomorrow.