Gajendra Moksham

Gajendra Moksham is a very famous and important part in Srimad Bhagavatham. This explains that Lord Sriman Narayana is the saviour for all the various living beings. In this case, Gajendra, an elephant seeks refuge in Lord Sriman Narayana and explains how the lord saves him.

The mythological story

Gajendra, is the king of elephants in a dense forest. One day he, along with his queen(the she-elephant) and his family go to a near by lake to play and have fun in the waters. While they were enjoying themselves and having fun, a crocodile(makari) which happened to reside in that lake catches the elephant by its leg, and tries to bring the elephant down and kill him.

Gajendra who happens to be theking of the elephants and is haughty at first, and tries to freehimself by fighting the crocodile. But it proves to be too strong for Gajendra. Next Gajendra seeks help from his wife and his other family members but they refuse to help him, as they are afraid of fighting with the strong crocodile and they instead ran away to save their skin.

Now Gajendra is helpless, having fought with the crocodile for so long, he is become weak. Finally he understands that only the Lord, Sriman Narayanaa, the emperor of the world, the lord who resides on Adi-Shesha, govindaa, apathbhandhava, anadarakshakaa, deenabandhu, krupasindhu, only he can save him.

Gajendra now prays sincerely to Lord Maha Vishnu. While this is happening in Bhoo-loka, in Vaikunta, Sriman Narayana is resting on the Adi-Shesha, while Lakshmi Devi is servicing him by pressing his legs, vishnu is spending time with her, by talking toher, holding the border of her saree in his hands. The cries and prayers of Gajendra reaches Vishnu and immediately he rushes to the aid of his baktha.

In his hurry to protect his devotee, he forgot to leave the saree of Matha Lakshmi Devi, which he was holding earlier,he does not even tell lakshmi devi, where he was going, and lakshmi devi follows him, because her saree is in Lord's hands and he is in a hurry and he has forgot to release her saree from his hands. So mother too follows him. Vishnu also forgets to take his divine weapons the Paanchajanya (his shanka) and sudharshana (hischakra), Nandaka(his sword). But they too follow him. He doesn't even call garuda, but garudaa too follows the lord. Seeing both their master and their mistress going out in a hurry, the maids and servants and the other maha-rishis at vaikunta also follow Vishnu and Lakshmi devi.

Seeing vishnu, along with Matha Lakshmi Devi, come to his rescue, Gajendra is ecstatic, he is crying with tears of joy. He praises lord vishnu, prays to him sincerely. Lord is immensely pleased withGajendra's Bhakthi and he punishes the evil Makari with his Sudharshana chakra. Lord also grants Kaivalyam to Gajendra.

Seeing lord in all his grandeur along with Lakshmi Devi (that is his pleasing, beautiful form as Lakshmi Narayana) is a boon in itself. Even the devas of Heaven, Brahma deva, Maheshwara dont get this opportunity quite often and here the same lord has come down to Bhooloka, to save his devotee. Immediately all the devatas, accompanied by Brahma deva and Maheshwara come there to have the darshan of Lord Sri Lakshmi Narayana. They praise gajendra, as only because of him they were able to have the darshan of Lord SriMan Narayana and goddess sri Mahalakshmi.

Sri Vedanarayana Swami temple in Nagalapuram, A.P, India

Lord Vishnu resides in this temple as Sri Vedanaraya Swami. The significance of this temple is that the lord is in Matsya avatar,that is the lower part of the lord's moorthy is fish-shaped. Lord has taken this avatar to protect and release the vedas from a rakshaha(Somakudu). Another significance of the lord in this temple is he has his sudharshana in prayoga (ready for release). That is lord protects his devotees by using the sudharshana on the evil doers who are harming his devotees. It is with this prayoga sudharshana in his hand, lord gave darshan to Gajendra. This is another significance of this temple and indicates that it is related to Gajendra Moksham episode of Srimad Bhagavatham. Nagalapuram is close to Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh border, well connected by road from Chennai. Nagari is an important town on route chennai-tirupati. It has a railway station too. Nagari is close by Nagalapuram. Another famous shrine near this place is the Kalyana Venkateswara Swami vari Alayam at Narayanavanam. This is the place where Lord SriVenkateswara married Goddess Padmavathi.

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavanthu

Sarvam Sri Krishnaarpanamasthu