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God’s accessibility

CHENNAI: The mark of spiritual maturity is remembering God during the last moments of worldly life, which is a sure way to be liberated from rebirth. As spiritual evolution spans countless births, the soul’s accumulated spiritual merit from its previous lives helps when the time for liberation draws near by dint of the latent tendencies (Vasana) in the mind to remember God and pray to Him. The deliverance of Gajendra, the king of elephants, which prayed to the Almighty when it was drowning after a crocodile caught it, highlights that spiritual striving is never in vain.

In his discourse, Sri M.V. Anantapadmanabhachariar said Gajendra’s prayer to the Lord addressing Him as the cause of creation was an eye-opener in that the elephant did not call Him to save itself from the clutches of the crocodile but for delivering it from bondage. In its previous life the elephant was a king by name Indradyumna, and he was a great devotee. The manner in which the Almighty came rushing to its rescue highlights His benevolent traits of compassion and easy accessibility to those who surrender to Him. Why should the Lord come in such haste to save an elephant which He could have done from His supreme abode by His mere will?

Commentators aver that the Almighty’s punitive measures are effected by His will while His singular acts of benediction towards His devotees will be in person because to behold His resplendent form and serve Him are the ultimate yearnings of a true devotee, which only He can fulfil.

Whether man or beast only true devotion matters to the Lord and Gajendra in that dying moment had wanted to offer the lotus it had gathered at His feet. Tondarippodi Azhwar in his hymn Tirumalai underscores that it was this act of service that a devotee should emulate, “Even gods cannot understand the radiant Lord. Heeding an elephant, He came rushing against a flesh-eating crocodile. Need we carry our burden! Meaner than dogs we are cared for by Him. If I am not to serve Him, for what was I born?” Parasara Bhattar in a verse declared that he paid obeisance not to the Lord but to the speed with which He rushed to save Gajendra.

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