Gajendra Moksha and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

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Gajendra Moksha and Mahatma Gandhi  

 

Have you heard the story of Gajendra Moksha? I ask the Burmese students here who do not know one of the greatest of all poems, one of the divine’s things of the world, to learn it from their Indian friends. A Tamil saying has always remained in my memory and it means, God is the help of the helpless. If you would ask Him to help you, you would go to Him in all your nakedness, approach Him without reservations, also without fear or doubts as to how He can help a fallen being like you. He who has helped millions who have approached Him, is He going to desert you? He makes no exceptions whatsoever and you will find that every one of your prayers will be answered. The prayer of even the most impure will be answered. I am telling this out of my personal experience, I have gone through the purgatory. Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and everything will be added unto you. Do not go to your books or to your teachers with impure hearts. Go with the purest hearts and you will get from them what you want. If you want to become patriots, real patriots and protectors of the weak, espousers of the cause of the poor and the oppressed to whom the education you get is not available, if you want to become guardians of the purity of every girl and woman in Burma, purify your hearts first. If you approach your mission in life in that spirit all will be well. 1

 It is taken from the classical episode of “Gajendra Moksha” from the Bhagavata. The original is a piece of rare poetical merit, combining as it does the melodious music of verse with loftiness of the sentiment which it embodies. That is the test of all great pieces of art. It must combine beauty with use. Cattle might be satisfied with filling their bellies with fodder but man likes his food to please the eye as well as provide nourishment. 2 By way of introduction Gandhiji said that he felt very happy that Prof. Nelson had thus shared in the prayer. While in detention at the Aga Khan Palace, Mirabehn used to sing this hymn to him in her rich, sonorous voice. He then paraphrased the meaning of the first three verses and said that the sentiment expressed in it was the same as found in the Gajendra Moksha bhajan sung last evening. There was the same reliance upon God, who was the source of all strength when every other earthly aid failed us. All human power was transient and real safety could lie only when we placed our reliance wholly on God.

 

References:

 

1. 1.      Young India, 4-4-1929
2. 2.      The Hindustan Times, 19-6-1946
3. 3.      Harijan, 5-1-1947