Gajendra Uddhaar (गजेन्द्र उद्धार ।)

Dear readers, today I am going to make a new story for you from inside my story destination.

Hinduism has many religious texts, such as the Puranas and Upanishads, which teach us ethics, morality, and humanity.    

 This story is adapted from the eighth verse of our Bhagavata Purana, also known as Gajendra moksha stotra.

There was once an elephant named Gajendra who lived in a garden called Ṛtumat which was created by varuna. This garden was located on  Trikuta, the "Three-Peaked Mountain." Gajendra ruled over all the other elephants in the herd. One day as usual he went to the lake near by to pick lotus flowers to offer prayer to Lord Vishnu. Suddenly, a crocodile living in the lake attacked Gajendra and caught him by the leg. Gajendra tried for a long time to escape from the crocodile's clutches. All his family members, relatives and friends gathered around to help him, but in vain. The crocodile simply would not let go. When they realised that ‘death’ had come close to Gajendra, they left him alone. He trumpeted in pain and helplessness until he was hoarse. As the struggle was seemingly endless and when he had spent his last drop of energy, Gajendra called to the god Vishnu to save him, holding a lotus up in the air as an offering.

Hearing his devotee's call and prayer, Vishnu rushed to the scene. As Gajendra sighted the god coming, he lifted a lotus with his trunk. Seeing this, Vishnu was pleased and with his Sudharshana Chakra, he decapitated the crocodile. Gajendra prostrated himself before the god. Vishnu informed Gajendra that he, in one of his previous births, had been the celebrated King Indradyuna, a devotee of Vishnu, but due to his disrespect to the great Sage Agastya, he had been cursed to be reborn as an elephant.

Because Indradyumna had been devoted to Vishnu, the god had him born as Gajendra and made him realize that there is something called Kaivalya which is beyond Svarga Loka and Urdhva Loka, the realm of the gods. Indradyumna could attain Moksha finally when he (as Gajendra) left all his pride and doubt and totally surrendered himself to Vishnu.

         शुक्लांबरधरं विष्णुं शशि वर्णं चतुर्भुजं ।
         प्रसन्न वदनं ध्यायेत सर्व विघ्नोपशान्तये॥

This is the prayer made by Gajendra on this occasion became a famous hymn in praise of Vishnu called the Gajendra Stuti.

The unfortunate bride.

Sometimes things happen in our lives that force us to burn our lives to the brim. That's exactly what happened that day, in the fortunes of my village, like a black cloud.

 This is the story of the first decade of the nineteenth century, when India was still under British rule. The situation in Indian villages is dire. There is no hope of development, because people are turning away from education and turning to superstition and falsehood.

It was a hot summer night. A girl's wedding took place in a village near our village. Her carriage was passing through our village.

The Bride's name was  Bai Padhi, a brahmin girl newly getting married and going on her way in a Palki  carried by  four persons with her husband and all the relatives of family members from both father and in laws sides. 

Suddenly a man in a horse-drawn carriage stopped the bridegroom with a gun.She forcibly abducted the girl and threatened them to return.

The bride requested him to leave, but he forced her to stay with him.

 She decided to not to move back or go forward and requested all to leave her there alone. Also she requested to distribute all the sweets and gifts that she was carrying  , to the villagers of in laws sides. she sold all her jewelry ornaments to dig a big pond ( Pokhari ) to benefit local village people and to be remembered for time to come. One day surprisingly water came out of that dry pond and started overflowing all sides .

One morning, the girl jumped into the pool and committed suicide. She ended her life by jumping into the waterfull of big pond. The water from that big deep pod stopped overflow and remained calm.

The news was heard by all the villagers, but no one conducted her funeral. The man who abducted her was a notorious robber, so he did not perform the funeral.

 With no funeral, the girl's soul became dissatisfied. The dissatisfied wandered around the village for years to avenge her. In the end, she killed the notorious criminal and all his family members to avenge her death. But the villagers were surprised to see that the death of each person, was like a suicide not murder.

The real thing happened more than hundred years.  We just heard the story 25 years before from the third generation of that adopted family members of the notorious person in my village.  The woman (who narrated the whole story to me) was adopted by that cursed family and she narated to me  all that cursed unhappening happened exactly in her great grandfather times for what their continuing  adoptive family members are suffering from the cursed life since four generations. 

Later I came to  know that woman herself also committed suicide in the very early morning found  hanging  in a rope in front of her own house. I also have seen in my childhood that in one very  early morning her house started burning with  very high flames of more than 10 feet high over above the roof but not touching neighbouring houses closed to it.

That pond is still in our village today.

The villagers put the name of the pool in the girl's name. But even today, everyone is afraid to go alone to that pool