"Mari mari ninne"- Part2: The story of Gajendra, the elephant

In the last post, we saw that Tyagaraja referred to 4 devotees in his kriti "Mari mari ninne" who earned the grace of Lord Vishnu. We also saw the various facets of the term "sarvaantaryaami" used in this kriti.
In this post, we want to spend time on one of the devotees: Gajendra, the elephant. This episode is described in detail in the Bhaagavatam, popularly known as the "Gajendra moksham" section.

Tyagaraja says in the anu-pallavi:

kari mora vini saraguna chana neeku
kaaranam emi sarvaantaryaami

kari- elephant in general, but referring to Gajendra here. mora-  entreaty. vini- on hearing. saraguna-  immediately. chana- to proceed. neeku- for you.
kaaranam emi- what is the reason? sarvaantaryaami- O indweller and controller of everyone.
The running meaning is:
O sarvaantaryaami, what is the reason You chose to proceed immediately (and help Gajendra) on hearing his entreaty?
It has to be connected to the pallavi.. "mari-mari ninne moralida...."
whereas I plead to You repeatedly and you ignore me, with no compassion whatsoever (daya raadu).

Similarity with Mysore Vasudevacharya's brochevaarevarura:

Mysore Vasudevacharya lived after Tyagaraja and has borrowed the same idea in his famous Kamas raaga kriti "brochevarevarura".

"naa moralanu vinaraadaa
bhaasuramuga kari raajunu brochina vaasudevudavu neevu kadaa"

The words are the same. naa- my.  moralanu- pleading, same as Tyagaraja's moralida above. vinaraadaa- You do not hear, much like Tyagaraja's daya raadu.
But you heard "kari raaju"- the elephant king (Gajendra).
"Aren't you that Vasudeva who heard the lamentation of Gajendra and protected (brochina) him? How can you then turn a deaf ear to my pleading?" asks Vasudevacharya in this kriti.
Kamas is a janya raaga of Hari Kambhoji. Kambhoji, Tyagaraja's choice for "Mari mari ninne" is also a janya raaga of Hari Kambhoji. Both are related raagas in many ways- both admit the same "anya swara" (foreign, alien note-a different "nishadam" ) in certain passages making them "bhaashaanga raagas".
Tyagaraja's "mari mari ninne" influence on this kriti is unmistakable.

Mari mari ninne and "aarta traana paraayana stotra":

It is likely that Tyagaraja himself was influenced by the "aarta traana paraayana stotra" for this kriti. "Aarta traana paraayana stotra" is an ashtakam (8 verses) found in Vaishnava sampradaya. It is attributed to Kuresha, who was a disciple of Ramanujacharya.
In this ashtakam, 6 examples are taken to show how Lord Vishnu helped his devotees in distress. The examples are: Gajendra, Prahlada, Dhruva, Vibhishana, Ahalya and Draupadi. One verse is dedicated to each devotee. It has an introductory verse and strangely, an extra verse for Draupadi- making it 8 verses in all. There is a concluding, phala shruti verse as well.

All of Tyagaraja's examples in this kriti are found in one place- this stotra. One may argue that Vibhishana is not quoted by Tyagaraja; Tyagaraja only mentions Sugreeva. Curiously, the stanza on Vibhishana found in this stotra mentions Sugreeva as well.

Aarta- a person in distress. Traana- the one who protects. Paraayana- One who is an adept, an expert. Lord Vishnu is the "aarta traana paraayana"- the one who never fails to help a devotee in distress.

Each example in this stotra ends with the refrain- "aarta traana paraayana sa bhagavaan Narayano me gatih"- My refuge (me gatih) is that Narayana, who never fails to help the afflicted.
Note that Lord Rama is also praised as "aartaanaam aartihantaaram" in another shloka. He too alleviates the pain of an aarta bhakta.

The verse on Gajendra in this stotra reads as follows:

nakragrasta padam samuddhrta karam brahmaadi deveshvarau
maampaatityati deena deena karunaad deveshu shakteshu cha
maa bhaiksheeriti raksha nakra vadanaat chakraayudha shridharau
aarta traana paraayanah sa bhagavaan naaraayano me gatih

When a crocodile grabbed the leg (of Gajendra) and when he (Gajendra) raised his trunk and implored to Brahmaji and all the devas.... (line 1)
"Please save me" he implored in utter helplessness to the devas... (Finally it was..) (line 2)
Shridhara (Lord Vishnu) who said "Don't fear" and used his chakra to extricate Gajendra from the crocodile.. (line 3)
That bhagavan Narayana is my refuge, who is ever ready to help a devotee in distress (line 4).

One last point before we focus on the story of Gajendra:
The "aarta traana paraayana stotra" itself seems to take ideas from the Gajendra moksham verses of the Bhaagavatam. The refrain found in this stotra is present in the Bhaagavatam. Please check the concluding line of Gajendra Moksham, verse 7. It says-
"bhutaatma-bhutaah suhrdah sa me gatih".

Like this, we can go on- finding similarities and parallels across the canvas!

The story of Gajendra:

Indradyumna was a Pandya raja, in "dravida desha". He was a great bhakta. In a particular context, however, Sage Agastya thought that he was arrogant and cursed Indradyumna to be reborn as an elephant.

HuHu was a Gandharva who once misbehaved with the Rishi Devala. He caught hold of the Rishi's leg when the Rishi entered the water where the Gandharva was having some fun. The rishi cursed him to be reborn as a crocodile...an animal whose vocation is to pull others' legs!

The elephant Gajendra entered the lake where the crocodile was living. It caught hold of the elephant's leg. Other elephants tried to help Gajendra, to no avail. When all the local methods failed, Gajendra prayed to Lord Vishnu, the only refuge, through a set of 30 verses, famously known in the Bhaagavatam as the "Gajendra moksham" verses.

Lord Vishnu immediately rushed to the elephant's plea. As soon as Gajendra saw Lord Vishnu, he used his last bit of strength to pick up a lotus and offered it to Lord Vishnu... with his raised trunk. Lord Vishnu used his discus to sever the crocodile's neck and freed Gajendra. Lord Vishnu indeed is the "aarta traana paraayana".

Some interesting facts related to this story:

Though not found in the Bhaagavatam, there are some interesting ideas connected to this story.

1. It is said that Lord Vishnu still retains the lotus that Gajendra gave him. Guruvayurappan, Lord Vishnu's divine form at Guruvayur holds a lotus. That lotus is the one that Gajendra gave him. Doesn't Lord Krishna say:
"patram pushpam phalam toyam yo me bhakyaa prayacchati
tada aham bhaktya upahritam ashnaami ashnaami prayataatmanah" (Geeta Chapter 9).

2. Lakshmi devi wanted to know the reason Lord Vishnu was in such a tearing hurry to leave Vaikuntha. Lord Vishnu answered, "gajam traatum" (to protect an elephant). He said "ga" when He was in Vaikuntha. By the time He said "jam", he was already in front of Gajendra on the earth! Even now, in local parlance, in Tamil, when someone lands up... with a certain quickness and style, we say- "jamnu vandu nirkaraan!" The usage is from this incident.

3. Lord Vishnu wasted no time to leave Vaikuntha upon hearing Gajendra. He may be "alankaara priya", one who loves adorning himself, but now was not the time. He forgot his uttariyam (upper cloth) and grabbed whatever he could get hold of. It was when he wrapped Gajendra's wounds with his upper cloth, after killing the crocodile, that he realized that he had worn Lakshmi Devi's sari as his upper cloth!

4. He got his ornaments all wrong and ornaments which were to be present on one part of the body, were actually found on another. Such was his haste!

5. He appeared before Gajendra with 8 arms (ashta bhujah). However, the weapons did not exactly match with the arms on the opposite side. Instead of holding the bow (Shaarnga) in one hand and the arrow in the matching hand on the other side, they were both found on the same side! Same with the sword (Nandaki) and the shield. They were again found on the same side. There was no time to even align the weapons!

6. Lord Vishnu found Garuda to be too slow to get to the earth. At one point, instead of Garuda carrying Lord Vishnu, Lord Vishnu found it faster to carry Garuda and travel!

Informed readers can point out where these ideas are from. They don't seem to be present in the Bhaagavatam. However, they glorify Lord Vishnu's readiness to help the distressed. Hence, Tyagaraja's complaint that the Lord, who showed such alacrity to respond to a devotee, should be so indifferent to him.

Is the Lord partial?

We said in the last post that Tyagaraja seems to accuse the Lord of "pakshapaata", favouritism in this kriti. Is the Lord partial? Krishna answers this point in the Geeta (Chapter 9):

samoham sarva bhuuteshu na me dveshyosti na priyah
ye bhajantitu maam bhaktyaa mayi te teshu chaapyaham

Krishna says:
"I am the same towards all beings (samoham), there is none whom I hate, or whom I love.
But, the one to has bhakti towards me, he gets the benefit. He sees Me in him and I too see myself in him".
The devotee's attitude makes the difference.. much like the one who derives the benefit of the bonfire....by sitting close to it... to find warmth on a cold night. The fire is uniform (samah). If we sit far away from the fire and complain that it is bitterly cold, then, the grace of the fire is not for us! So too... with the Lord. His grace is available to all.
But the bhakta is able to "tap" the Lord's anugraha, His grace.

Does the Lord have to appear in person?

The Bhaagavatam tells the whole story and finally uses the expression "chandomayena garudena". Chandah- Vedic words, vedic teaching. It's as if the Lord rode on Garuda, who is personified as the vedic words. This expression is significant.
If we look at Gajendra stuti, it is extremely philosophical, packed with the teaching of the Upanishads. It is not the helpless rant of the distressed.
Hence, regardless of whether Lord Vishnu actually appeared in person before Gajendra or before any other devotee, "chandomayena garudena" lends itself to an alternate explanation.
Adi Shankara says "sarva vedanta siddhantha gocharam.. tam agocharam". The Lord may not be available directly for sense-perception (agocharam), still, He is available through the teaching of Vedanta (gocharam). Again, in another place, he says, "namo vedanta vedyaaya"- Salutations unto the One who is ever available through the teaching of vedanta.
Gajendra moksham.. has to be finally looked at from this angle. The Lord rides on the teaching of Vedanta.

Aarta to jignyaasu bhakta transformation:

If we look at the Gajendra Moksham verses, after a point, Gajendra wasn't even worried about his specific problem. He may have started as an "aarta bhakta", but soon rose above it to become a "jignyaasu bhakta"- the one who relates to the Lord primarily as a "seeker", a saadhaka. Where do we find this? In verse 25 of Gajendra moksham, Gajendra says- "jijeevishe naaham" (I don't even wish to live). His topical problem is no longer in focus. It has become irrelevant, much like Arjuna's specific problem about whether he should fight the war or not. Gajendra is in fact interested in something higher which he spells out, starting from the first verse- om namo bhagavatey tasmai yata etat chidatmakam.

Thus, some problems are directly solved. Others are solved in time. Vishnu's chakra can refer to "kaala-tatvam", as per an exponent. Kaala (time) solves problems. Thirdly, some problems are solved by rendering the problem itself irrelevant by focussing on something higher!
Arjuna's and Gajendra's topical problems were addressed using the third approach.

Let's remind ourselves that we started looking at all this because of Tyagaraja's "kari mora vini"!!
More on this kriti.... in the next post!