Miscellaneous - Religion   

Bond of Bhakti

CHENNAI: The Bhagavata Purana celebrates the efficacy of Bhakti and the supremacy of the Lord's Nama and highlights the special status assigned to the Lord's devotees.

Behind every misfortune or sorrow suffered by a Bhakta there is divine grace present with the assurance of a superior fortune that can confer peace, bliss and salvation, pointed out Damal Sri Ramakrishnan and Srimati Perundevi in a lecture.

When Parikshit was destined to die in seven days, the advantage he reaped was the good fortune of listening to the Bhagavata Purana. The elephant-king Gajendra's misery was a prelude to the vision of the Almighty Himself who rushed to his rescue. The manner in which he attained salvation exemplifies the finer aspects of devotion wherein the two-way flow of the devotee's love and divine grace meld together to strike a unique relationship.

The devout Pandya king Indradyumna, while fully involved in worship of the Lord, had inadvertently incurred the wrath of Sage Agastya for a lapse in hospitality due to a guest. As a result of the sage's curse he was born as an elephant in his next birth. A crocodile (a Gandharva by name Hu Hu in his previous birth and also waiting for redemption from Sage Devala's curse) caught hold of the elephant's leg. After a long and futile struggle, the elephant remembered its past and started to address the Supreme Being, who is the ultimate and primal source of all creation, for help. Neither Indra, nor Brahma nor Siva responded to this invocation since such an attribute was not their prerogative.

Bhattadri highlights the Lord's haste in rushing to rescue the elephant in distress, a haste that was driven by sheer mercy. Since Gajendra had contemplated on the Lord as mounted on the Garuda, the Lord appeared so to him and cut asunder the crocodile with His discus. Both of them were released from the curse. The Gandharva got back his form, and the elephant king attained salvation.

Individuals caught in the grip of anger, desire, pride, jealousy, envy and greed need the grace of the Lord to be relieved from the ill effects of these.

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