What Happened to the Crocodile?

 What Happened to the Crocodile?

I heard it at the feet of my maternal grandma, the story of how an elephant got its salvation from Lord Vishnu in one of the hundreds of Hindu stories. The story is meant to fascinate the pre-teens, mainly between the ages of three and ten, and to indoctrinate them in unquestioning conformity. As I grew older, the story lost its sharp edges, and was relegated to the back folds of my brain’s prefrontal cortex (I am no brain specialist, please remember).

But, then it hit me hard some time not too far back. For the reader to understand what hit me, they have to know the story. So, I proceed to tell that first.

There was this elephant that went bathe in the river. It was a religious elephant. As it was enjoying the cool waters splashing on him, it felt a sudden tug in one of its front legs. It saw a crocodile trying to bite off the lower portion of the leg. It yelled out in pain.

Here is where it gets interesting. The elephant did not let out its usual low pitched stentorian sound. The sharp high pitched sound (much of what follows is my telling, but reasonably true to what I heard) was heard where Lord Vishnu was resting, and He got on his mount, flew supersonic to the site, and saw what was happening. He immediately sent off his Chakra, sharp edged and whirling fast. The hapless crocodile did not have time enough to release his bite. It was slain, and Lord Vishnu welcomed the elephant to His abode. This is the story of Gajendra Moksham (the name of the elephant, Gajendra)!

I am not enamoured of this story now, though I was then. This really should not matter to me now, but it does as I care for the current generation and those of the future. It is for this purpose, I have raked my brain over hot coal trying to figure out what the crocodile did was so wrong that it paid for it with its life.

Look at the picture and there is a particular detail that the reader should take note of. The elephant waded into the water merely to fetch the Lotus flower and offer to Lord Vishnu (it looks like it is offering ahead of the time for offering, perhaps under duress). There is a story behind this too! In its previous birth, the elephant was a king/prince and he disrespected either God himself or one of the seers dear to Lord Vishnu (my copyrighted version!) and was thus cursed. With the punishment of hanging on to his dear life for what must have been felt as eternity by the elephant, the effect of the curse had been completely erased. Thus Lord Vishnu welcomed Gajendra to His abode. This is the genius of Hindu writers of tall tales. They are good at tying up the loose ends, across generations, merely by going backwards in time! The concept of soul comes to their help. Our physicists may learn from them.

Yet, my discomfort from this story arises from the fact something important was missed. The crocodile must also have done something wrong in its previous life, in which it too was a devotee of Lord Vishnu. Why else would it be killed, and killed by that highly sacred weapon Sudharshan Chakra?

Perhaps I will hear a tall tale on that at the knees of my grandmother when I die and be reborn to a different set of parents, as a human. This is to hoping.

Raghuram Ekambaram