Srimad Bhagavatam 8th Canto 4th chapter,

śrī-śuka uvāca
tadā devarṣi-gandharvā
brahmeśāna-purogamāḥ 
mumucuḥ kusumāsāraṁ
śaṁsantaḥ karma tad dhareḥ
(Srimad Bhagavatam 8.4.1)

  Sri Sukadeva Gosvami said, “When the Lord delivered Gajendra, King of the elephants, all the demigods, sages and Gandharvas, headed by Brahma and Shiva, praised this activity and showered flowers upon both—the Lord and Gajendra.”

  We have heard yesterday how Supreme Lord rescues Gajendra by listening to his prayers. In his prayers Gajendra says, “I do not have eligibility to pray for siddha-deha—transcendental body, or a place in Your abode. Only topmost devotees have that eligibility. They want to get completely immersed in the nectar of Your glories. They do not have any other desires. As I do not have the eligibility to pray like them, I pray only to be liberated from the crocodile of material existence. It is a very small thing for You. I cannot pray to You to open the door of Vaikuntha to have Your darshan and the service of Your lotus feet. You award these things to the eligible person but I am not eligible. I am an insignificant animal.”

Externally Gajendra is saying so but from within he has desire for getting His service. And Supreme Lord is bhāva-grāhi (one who listens to and accepts the inner mood) not bhāśa-grāhi (one who listens to and accepts what you speak externally).

One may misunderstand that Gajendra ignored the demigods by saying they are insignificant partial manifestations ( phalgvyā) of the Supreme Lord. He did not address them as one who rides on the swan (the vehicle of Brahma) or on Airavat (the vehicle of Devaraja Indra). So is it that he disrespected them? No. Because when one serves Supreme Lord Sri Krishna then all the demigods are automatically worshiped. Those who worship the original source, they are not indebted to anyone else, rather they actually serve all. And those who do not serve Supreme Lord or serve the demigods for some material benefits they actually do not serve anyone. Demigods do not get satisfied by their worship. It is said, haribhakti ācche jāra, sarva deva bandhu tār —for one who has devotion to the Supreme Lord, all demigods are in favour of him.

By listening to the prayers of Gajendra, the Supreme Lord with Sudarshan-chakra in His hand, rushed to him, seated on Garuda. He knew the inner desire of Gajendra to have His darshan. Gajendra did not desire to get rescued from the clutches of crocodile and enjoy the material world again in the body of an elephant. He came out from the conception that he is an elephant and whatever was connected to him as an elephant was under his possession. He realised that he belongs to Supreme Lord and He is the only shelter to him and in reality everything belongs to Him only. So what benefit will he get by again getting entangled in ignorance? But we want temporary material benefits. We do not think about end results. If we get material benefits then we consider the worship of Supreme Lord to be fruitful.

We think, “I visited Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math or Vrindavan-dham so all my difficulties have got removed. All my desires are fulfilled, my business is now in good condition and my wealth is increasing, so it is good to visit Math.”

But if we get the reverse, if we lose our material possessions then we will say it is not good to visit Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math or Sree Dham Vrindavan. Here what are the prayers of the leader of elephants, “No, I do not want to go back to the nescience.” What is nescience? The conception that I am this body and all bodily relations are mine is nescience. Gajendra is praying, “I want to be relieved from this grief of ignorance. I am not of this world. I am of You and You are mine. I have forgotten You so I have come this world.”

Once, a lady came to our Kolkata Math from Assam. I did not know her but she was known to our Bhakti Prasad Paryataka Maharaj. She came to me and started crying.

I asked her the reason for her plight. She replied, “I have one son, one of his eyes is damaged. He is young and at this young age it will be difficult for him to live with just one eye. Doctors have informed that his damaged eye will not get cured. Kindly, you show some solution.”

I asked her how her son is. Could she bring him to me? She brought her son to me. He was of dark complexion with good physical health. I advised him to show a homeopathy doctor named P. Banerjee. She agreed to take him to that doctor. Doctor told him to stay there for two months but she told she could not stay for such a long period. She told they could stay for fifteen days. After fifteen days the doctor sent him medicine to his house. And slowly the damaged eye recovered. They thought that because of Swamiji’s blessings his eye got cured so they decided to be the disciple of Math but not for Krishna’s shake. Do we need such material benefits? Our Bhakti Prasad Paryataka Maharaj forced me to go to their house during my Assam visit. A big procession was arranged there. All the members from her family took initiation. She and her family members took initiation because her son’s eye recovered so now he can enjoy the material world but at the time of death the eyes will get burnt with the body. The eyes and all other sense organs will be destroyed. For how long will they remain? But we want those non-eternal benefits.

Here, Gajendra is not praying for that. He does not want to revive his elephant body or his bodily passions he had. He knows that the conception that he is an elephant possessing so many bodily passions is false. He realized that He is of Krishna and Krishna is everything for him. And so he prays, “I want to be relieved from the nescience and want to go to the transcendental realm.”

Outwardly, he is saying that he wants to be relieved from the clutches of crocodile which represents Maya, nescience. The Supreme Lord is satisfied by his prayers. He arrives there seated on Garuda, holding Sudarshan-chakra in His hand. The Supreme Lord wants to reach His devotee so rapidly that even the speed of Garuda, He felt less and He dismounted Himself from Garuda and rushed to Gajendra. He pulled both of them out from water and slit the mouth of the crocodile with Sudarshan-chakra and relieved them. He would have accomplished this without even appearing there. But without His appearance His devotees will not get satisfied. So He appeared there. At the time of leaving his body, Gajendra offered a lotus flower with the help of his trunk.

It is written here who Gajendra is and also the crocodile. The crocodile was a Gandharva, a class of demigods who are expert in music and fighting. There was one expert Gandharva named Huhu. While a Risi named Devala was taking bath in the river, Huhu, who had the capacity to dive deep, pulled the legs of the Risi. Deval Risi became angry at him, “You pulled my legs in the water like a crocodile so you become a crocodile.”

That Gandharva felt dejected and asked for forgiveness. Devala Risi told him, “Gajendra will come to you. You catch hold of his legs. Supreme Lord will come to rescue him and at that time you will get relieved from the body of crocodile.”

If anyone gets killed by Supreme Lord, he will get good consequences. So upon killed by Supreme Lord, Huhu Gandharva got back his life as a demigod.

Gajendra was the King Indradyumna Maharaj in his past life. He used to worship Supreme Lord with great devoutness in his cottage. Once, Agastya Muni came to his cottage with all his disciples. The king, at that time, was fully absorbed in meditation. He did not notice the arrival of Agastya Muni and so did not honour him. Feeling insulted, Agastya Muni cursed him, “You have no action; you are behaving like an elephant. I along with other Brahmana have come here but you have no aptitude to serve them. As you are behaving like an elephant, you become an elephant.” By the desire of Supreme Lord, Agastya Muni cursed Indradyumna Maharaj to become elephant so that Huhu Gandharva can get rescued from the body of crocodile. To make this pastime possible for the eternal welfare of the enslaved jivas, Agastya Muni became instrument.

What is the benefit of hearing Gajendra Moksha narration? It is written here, if you hear about how the Gajendra became relieved from the grip of the crocodile, Sukadeva Goswami says,

etan mahā-rāja taverito mayā
kṛṣṇānubhāvo gaja-rāja-mokṣaṇam 
svargyaṁ yaśasyaṁ kali-kalmaṣāpahaṁ
duḥsvapna-nāśaṁ kuru-varya śṛṇvatām
(Śŕīmad Bhāgavatam 8.4.14)

“My dear King Pariksit, I have now described the wonderful power of Krishna, as displayed when the Lord delivered the King of the elephants. Those who hear this narration become fit to be promoted to the higher planetary systems. Simply because of hearing this narration, they gain a reputation as devotees, they are unaffected by the contamination of Kaliyuga, and they never see bad dreams. Those who recite this Gajendra Moksha Stava after getting up from the bed in morning will never see distressful bad dreams. He will get good name and fame, all sins and unholy things will be destroyed. Whoever will utter these hymns will get tremendous benefits. Those who hear or chant Gajendra Moksha narration will attain all these fruits.”

I have somehow finished these topics (Gajendra katha) today as we will be busy with the celebration of our Gurudeva’s appearance Tithi day after tomorrow. We also have to remember the pastimes of Damodar-bandhan, how Yashoda Devi tries to fasten Nandanandan Sri Krishna. So tomorrow, I shall try to speak about it. I do not know how much time I will get, what can be done?