“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” – Lao Tzu
The crocodile’s jaws have got me! But the bigger tragedy is I am
unaware of its vicious grip. This alligator has many teeth; sometimes
the pleasure teeth bite me and at other times, there’s pain. But the
terrible, gaping maws of this beast are irresistible.
I just can’t get out of this deadly trap unless I call out to the Lord
in utter surrender.
Thousands of years ago, an elephant named Gajendra was captured by a
crocodile in a lake. The king of elephants sported with his many wives
when unexpectedly, a crocodile grabbed on to his feet. He tried
drawing away. Whereas the water is the home ground for aquatic
predators, for Gajendra it was a foreign environment. He struggled,
and even his wives and children tried pulling him away. But the
crocodile just wouldn’t let go. Exasperated, the family of Gajendra
left him to navigate the crisis alone.
The struggle lasted for centuries and finally, Gajendra realized he
needs to take his existence to the next level- surrender!
He called out to God helplessly for help and promised he’d offer his
entire existence only to serve and please the Lord. He realized no one
could really help him in this moment of crisis and he’s all alone in
this dangerous world of suffering. The moment his appeal was sincere
and heartfelt, the Lord descended in his giant eagle airplane, and
hurled his sudarshan disc to cut off the head of the unrelenting
crocodile. Gajendra was thus saved and reinstated in his position of
service to God.
We go through three phases in life- like Gajendra. We first seek to
enjoy pleasures like the king of elephants did. This stage is called
SENSE GRATIFICATION. But sense pleasures bring misery and we hope to
find relief with more pleasure pursuits. The result is an endless,
complicated mesh of suffering. And this stage is called STRUGGLE or
SUFFERING. We pull and push our way through in this world, paying
heavy taxes for all the sense gratification we engaged in. And often
that’s a hefty price. We suffer as we struggle and with no respite in
sight, we delude ourselves to believe it’s all part of the game called
life. But our hearts really hanker for unending happiness and relief
from all sufferings of this world.
But that would happen only when we enter the third phase…
To be continued…
