Once there was an elephant named Gajendra. He was the king of a huge herd of elephants and he had many friends with whom he used to bathe in a huge lake.

Gajendra was proud about his status as he was very popular and respected by everyone…one day he was arrogantly bathing in the lake with his friends. Suddenly a crocodile from below caught him by the foot and tried to pull him to the bottom of the lake.Gajendra fought hard to get rid of the crocodile but nothing could save him…in the meantime, all this friends and queens left him and ran away… 

Finally an exhausted Gajendra prayed to Lord Vishnu when realization dawned on him…he surrendered himself to the lord with faith and devotion…Soon Lord Vishnu appeared before him and on seeing the Lord, Gajendra plucked a lotus with great effort and offered it to his lotus feet…and said ‘Oh sri hari! oh Bhagavan! I bow down to you…” Gajendra was instantly released from the clutches of the crocodile and saved by the merciful bhagwaan… 

The egoistic mind is the elephant…which is Uncontrollable without the grace of god and guru…As long as we are young, healthy and wealthy, we feel that our friends and relatives love us and will protect us at any cost…and therefore we become egoistic. The crocodile symbolically represents death/misery, which catches us because of our own mistakes…it ends up everything.When we are caught in the jaws of death, there is no one who can save us. Friends flee, relatives disappear and  our own body fails us miserably… the only solution from suffering at that time is to surrender to the Lord. In the moment of that utter surrender, God rushes to our aid and destroys our misery and releases our soul from the clutches of death, that is liberation or Moksh which comes only by the grace of the Supreme and the guru. 

Thank you!