FINDING SHELTER IN SUFFERING

Finding shelter in sufferings

In the most hopeless situation there is hope—when we turn to Lord Krishna.

 “Can you please speak to my relatives,” a doctor friend requested me after one Sunday feast program in our temple. “Their youngest son died in an accident recently,” he said, “They are much traumatized.”

I agreed and went to meet the family in a corridor outside the temple hall. The father explained to me how the son had gone to a picnic with his friends and there he drowned in a river. He was just 18. I listened patiently and when they asked some questions I offered some answers that I thought would be hope giving in their painful situation. After half and hour of talk some of the family members seemed consoled, though the mother had been silently shedding incessant tears.  

As we parted my thoughts veered to another story I had heard. It  too, took place near a lake, a sudden catastrophe that struck a family, but the attitude of the victim turned a life-threatening crisis up-side down.

NIGHTMARE ON AN EXCURSION

Once a mighty elephant, named Gajendra, the head of his heard, went to a lake to bathe along with his many wives, children, and other members of the herd. Bathing in the cool, clear waters thoroughly refreshed them and then they sported by raising water from the lake with their trunks and spraying it over each other. Suddenly when everyone was laughing and enjoying water sports in the crystal clear lotus filled lake, a crocodile attacked Ganendra and would not let go. The elephant, sure of his mighty strength, fought valiantly, but could not free himself. Seeing him in that grave condition, his wives felt very, very sorry and began to cry. The other elephants wanted to help him, but because of the crocodile’s great strength, they could not rescue him by grasping him from behind. The fight continued for a long time, slowly draining away the strength of the elephant.

 

THE INEVITABILITY OF DISASTER

This story, which is not yet over, is narrated in Shrimad Bhagvatam, which through many such descriptions offers us valuables lessons of life. Here Gajendra can be compared to a perosn and the crocodile to the miseries that afflict him or her. Gajendra was living what any person would consider an ideal life in every possible way—terrific power, presitige, and control, loving family and friends, and luxuriant life-style. But now he found himself trapped in the jaws of a crocodile.  Similarly our world is full of many crocodiles with sharp teeth, great strenght and different appearances. Some may not look as menacing as the amphibian reptile—for example a mosquito or a virus—but can have the same effect as the crocodile had to Gajendra. They come in different forms. Either natural disasters, or miseries arising from others like terrorist attacks, corruption, disease, and exploitation or miseries due to ones own body or mind. These crocodiles seem to be inbuilt in the world. We may feel that we are safe now, but they are there, just a step away waiting to clench their mighty jaws upon us.That is the world we live in.

One may feel that problems are indeed part of life and one should fight them with courage and determination.

I agree. But what generally is our crisis management strategy? When faced with a crisis, we pitch our personal strength, intelligence or finances or garner support of friends, relatives and political leaders.  But there are always situations when all our support systems fail. Disease don’t turn away if one is rich or beautiful, nor do accidents not happen to big scholars and famous personalities, and what can all the money do if a terrorist decides to plant a bomb in the office you work in? Some day when all our support systems fail, then what? Whom will we turn to?

For the answer let us go back to Gajendra.

SURRENDER TO THE SUPREME

When Gajendra saw he had no power to defend himself and none of his friends, relatives, or wives could help him, he became extremely afraid of being killed. He consequently thought for a long time and finally reached the following decision. “It is by the will of providence that I have been attacked by this crocodile, and therefore I shall seek shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is always the shelter of everyone, even of great personalities.” Shrimad Bhagvatam (8.2.31-33)

Gajendra began to pray from his heart and soon God manifested right before him. Gajendra had been forcefully captured by the crocodile in the water and was feeling acute pain, but when he saw that Lord was coming in the sky he immediately took a lotus flower in his trunk, and with great difficulty due to his painful condition, he offered it to the Lord. The Lord  Naryana pulled the King of the elephants, along with the crocodile, out of the water. Then the Lord severed the crocodile’s mouth from its body with His disc. In this way He saved Gajendra.

This approach of Gajendra is one that we should consider because by turning to God we, too, can find the ultimate sheltor. We may not have Krishna come in person before us, but surely His help will.

THE CREATION OF CALAMITY

One may still feel reluctant to approach God for a solution and just wait, either because life is comfortable or because one feels that the tragedy will tide over. This inertia is because of ignorance about the unseen powerful dynamics that control this world.

The Vedic texts teach us that this material world is created for the rebellius souls—all of us—who have turned away from God to enjoy independent of Him. Being a loving father, God has created an imitation world for us to enjoy to our hearts’ content. But since He wants us to enjoy the best, and not just be happy with the imitation, He has employed His representative, Durga Devi, the supervisor of material world, to gradually bring us to proper knowledge. So along with the advice of the scriptures and the sages on how to enjoy to our hearts’ content in this world and then eventually transcend it to go back to God, we also have the crocodiles of Durga Devi that by biting us shake us out of our inertia and make us want to escape this miserable place.

The reality is that the moment we come in this material world, these crocodiles have us in their grips and despite our best hopes and efforts, the crocodile will not let go of us. The only thing that can break us lose from the jaws of the crocodile of material energy is when we totally humble ourselves like Gajendra realizing that we are completely helpless and then surrender to Krsna, the supreme Lord .

Our illusion is that we are not aware of our predicament. And even if we are aware sometimes, our illusion is that we think it is going to go away. Unless we surrender to Krsna, it doesn’t. 

KRISHNA – OUR COMPANION IN THE DARKEST TIMES

In every situation, even in the most extreme condition Krishna is always there to help us. He never lets His devotee down. He is ‘suhådaà sarva-bhütänäà: everyone’s best friend. He is right there within our hearts, just waiting to give us a completely blissful life. No matter what we do, no matter what we have done, Krishna never leaves us. Who could be a better friend than Him? Birth after birth we have totally betrayed, blasphemed, and rejected Him, still He is with us. His love is unconditional; He never leaves us. He is always waiting, always willing to give us a chance. There is no time when Krishna will not deliver us, if we just turn to him. And that is what He did to Gajendra.

This choice of seeking sheltor of Lord is one that we have to make moment after moment throughout our sojourn in material world. Because it is easy to forget Lord when we find that the teeth of crocodile are no longer biting into our flesh. Then our dorment desires of enjoying the illusion raise their heads again. Again we should learn from Gajendra.

Gajendra, after being liberated, was not thinking of enjoying again in this world. If it were so then Krishna would have just left him there. Krishna would have said, “Oh! You want to enjoy here, but there is going to be another crocodile. You are not out of the real crocodile’s mouth.” But after he was liberated from the crocodile Gajendra didn’t want to do anything except serve the Lord, love the Lord. He was so grateful. So seeing that that he had no other desire, he lost all his hopes in the blind faith of maya’s false promises within this world, Krishna not only cut him out of the crocodile, He put him on an airplane and sent him directly to Vaikuntha to the spiritual world.

HOLY NAME—THE ONLY HOPE

In this age the Holy Name of the Lord  incarnate to liberate us from the jaws of crocodile of material energy and take us back home to the eternal world of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So in the spirit of Gajendra, not tomorrow but today, we should learn to surrender to Lord with a humble and sincere heart. When we have that humility, that grateful tolerance, offering all respects to others not expecting oneself, that is the spirit by which we can actually take shelter of the Lord. That’s the meaning of surrender. At superficial level surrender means doing what you are told. But deep down surrender means to have that type of humility, “My Lord I am Yours. ashlishya va pada-ratam pinashöu mam: “You can trample on me or You can embrace me or You can make me broken hearted. Whatever situation You put me in My Lord, I am Yours. (Shikshashtaka 8) And all I have is Your holyname.

This is the spirit of Gajendra and the lesson of Shrimad Bhagavatam. To welcome the adversities that come in our lives and transform them in to blessings by sincerely and intensely taking shelter of the holynames of the Lord. The whole material existence is especially designed to give us the optimum scenario in which we can really, seriously from our hearts, following in the footsteps of Gajendra cry out, Krishna’s holy names. Factually in every situation the crocodile of suffering and death is eminent. One who takes shelter of the Lord when difficulties come, for that person alone is the supreme liberation his or her rightful claim. Even when great difficulties arise, impediments, setbacks, disturbances, intrusions, when they come into our lives, with folded palms and grateful hearts we welcome them. “Actually I deserve worse and this is only a token by Krishna.”

All dangers are actually blessings. Because the body dies, today, tomorrow, anyway. But if we can once take shelter of Krishna and sincerely cry out his holynames, the soul is delivered. Krishna is inviting us into His eternal transcendental pastimes to give us total relief and shelter and ecstatic joy. Why wait for the crocodile?

This article is inspired by the discourses on “Gajendra Moksha” given by H.H. Radhanath Swami Maharaja.