Gajendra Moksham

                                                       

Gajendra Moksham is a story of an elephant king (Gajendra) who was caught by a crocodile (Makara) in the river, and the elephant king prays to Lord Vishnu to save him. When you read this story or hear this story, you will not get any bad dreams and you get your wishes fulfilled and blessed with prosperity.

NOW, LET US GET INTO THE STORY

In the Palla Samudram (Milky Ocean), there was a mountain called Thrikutam. This mountain consists of gold, silver, and many other precious metals.  There were a lot of beautiful trees and rivers flowing in the mountain where the gods and goddesses live with all kinds of animals and birds.  One day, a herd of elephants were moving around and enjoying the nature.  When in herd, elephants had an attitude to not fear for anything such as thunder, lightening, etc.  All other animals would fear and run for their life at the sight of elephant herd.  When this herd of elephants were enjoying the view of nature and moving, one of the elephants in the herd was enjoying the nature too much and did not notice that the herd was moving and lost its way.  After some time, it realized that it was not with the herd and started looking for its herd here and there.  Even after searching for quite some time, it did not find its herd and it started feeling very thirsty, so it started searching for water.  After a long strenuous search, the elephant found a river which was very scenic.  It drank the water until it felt full and satisfied.  After drinking the water, it started playing in the river splashing the water with its trunk.  The sound of water was so loud that it caught the attention of a nearby crocodile (Makara).  The crocodile was very hungry and was very happy to find such a big animal and wanted to kill it and eat it for lunch.  The crocodile slowly moved closer to the elephant and suddenly attacked it by catching one of the legs of the elephant with its powerful jaw.  With the unexpected surprise attack, elephant was taken aback and tried to fight back the crocodile with all its might.  Both the crocodile and elephant fought for many hours, but the crocodile never let the elephant free and was tightening its grip on the elephant’s leg causing extreme pain.  In the process, elephant started to lose all its hope of winning over the crocodile.  Finally, the elephant started praying to god.  “Dear god, you, the creator of this universe and galaxies, please rescue me from this situation.  I am unable to bare the pain that the crocodile is imposing on me.”  After repeated prayers, elephant was wondering if its prayers were really reaching the god, and it is, then why does he not see its suffering and come quickly for its rescue.  By now, the elephant lost all its strength to fight against the crocodile, but continues to pray, and it firmly believed that no one else other than Lord Vishnu could help it to come out of the present situation.  Lord Vishnu in Vaikuntam along with goddess Lakshmi hears the crying prayers of the elephant, and he orders Garuda the bird king to take him to the elephant (Gajendra).  In a hurry, Lord Vishnu leaves behind his weapons like Shanku and Chakra and rushes to help the elephant.  Lord Vishnu does not even notice that he was holding goddess Lakshmi's hand and does not observe anything that is around him.  He was able to hear only the crying prayers of the elephant.  As soon as Lord Vishnu reached the place where the elephant was, he beheaded the crocodile (Makara) and freed the elephant from its suffering in an instant.  Lord Vishnu touched the elephant with his hands gently and the pain and suffering of the elephant went away instantly.  Gajendra and Makara were actually cursed and were in the form of elephant and crocodile due to the karma in their past life.  With the presence of Lord Vishnu, they both were freed from their curses.

This story tells us about how Lord Vishnu comes rushing to help his devotees by their call and helps them out from their suffering every time.

Thank you for reading the story.