Sai Baba Gita - The Story of Gajendra, the Elephant

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Sai Baba GitaJuly 17, 2004

The Story of Gajendra, the Elephant

You will have to control your tendency to look outwards towards the body and its

deeds and towards the mind with its thoughts and feelings. Instead, develop the

inward vision of the sacred self. This is the true vision, the integral vision.

There is a fine example of this in the ancient spiritual classic called the

Bhagavatam. It is the story of Gajendra, an elephant who was caught by a

crocodile. This elephant, Gajendra, had a strong ego and he was convinced that

with his great strength he would be able to fight and free himself from the

crocodile. But here two facts must be known; elephants are very powerful on

land, crocodiles are very powerful in the water. When an elephant enters the

water he will not have so much strength, and when a crocodile comes out on land

he will also be less mighty than in his natural habitat, the water. In this

case, because the crocodile was in the water he was able to exercise all his

great strength. But the elephant, Gajendra, was very

arrogant; he was blown up with ego and felt that no crocodile could ever be

equal to an elephant, who was the lord of the forest. He did not know that a

crocodile in the water would be more than a match for any elephant away from

land.

For a long time they fought relentlessly. Finally the elephant got tired and

lost all his physical as well as mental strength. He had placed all his

confidence in his physical and mental prowess, but having exhausted all that,

he began praying to the Lord. As long as his vision had been directed to his

body he did not look towards God. As long as he had confidence in his own

bodily and mental strength, the thought of God did not arise and the Lord's

grace did not descend. When the elephant lost his physical and mental power and

turned towards God, immediately Lord Vishnu hurled his sacred discus, and freed

Gajendra from the catastrophe that had overtaken him. Now, the discus spoken of

here does not refer to a mere weapon used by the Lord; but it refers to his

grace. You evoke God's grace by turning your vision towards God. Then God turns

his vision towards you.

http://www.atmapress.com/saibabagita/saigita290.html

Sai Baba Gita, Compiled and edited by Al Drucker - Published by Atma Press -

http://www.atmapress.com - ISBN: 0963844903Online Edition:

http://www.atmapress.com/saibabagita/index.html

 

 

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