Abhanga 3077
When you stop looking for help from anyone else and wait only on the divine, rescue comes, and it can reach even the one who was tormenting you.
The verse
गजेंद्र तो हस्ती सहस्र वरुषें । जळामाजी नक्रें पीडिलासे ॥१॥
सुहुदव सांडिलें कोणी नाहीं साहे । अंतीं वाट पाहे विठो तुझी ॥ध्रु.॥
कृपेच्या सागरा माझ्या नारायणा । तया दोघांजणा तारियेलें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे नेले वाऊनि विमानी । मी ही आईंकोनी विश्वासलों ॥३॥
Literal translation
Gajendra tō hastī sahasra varuṣe — Gajendra the elephant, for a thousand years; jaḷāmāji nakre pīḍilāse — tormented in water by a crocodile. Suhudava sāṇḍile kōṇī nāhī sāhe — the kin abandoned, no one came to help; antīm vāṭa pāhe Viṭhō tujhī — at the end, (he) waited for your path, Viṭho. Krpeñcyā sāgarā mājhyā Nārāyaṇā — the compassion-ocean, my Nārāyaṇa; tayā dōghāmjaṇā tāriyele — carried-across both of them. Tukā mhaṇe nele vāūnī vimānī — Tukā says: (he was) taken up on the vimāna; mī hī āīmkōnī viśvāsalōm — I too, having heard, have trusted.
What it means
A 3-verse Gajendra-mokṣa narrative bhakti-redemption text by Tukārām.
The narrative: Gajendra (the king-elephant) was tormented by-the-crocodile in-water for-1000-years; his-kin-abandoned-him; no-one-came-to-help; at-the-end, he-waited-for-Viṭho's-path. The compassion-ocean-Nārāyaṇa carried-both-(elephant-and-crocodile). Closing: (Gajendra-was) taken-on-vimāna; I-too-heard-and-trusted.
The detail tayā-dōghāmjaṇā (both-of-them) is striking — the crocodile-too is-saved, not-just-the-elephant. The bhakti-redemption extends-to-the-attacker. This is a-rare-detail in-the-canonical-Gajendra-mokṣa-story.
Compare-Tukārām's 3044 (avatāra-stotra including-Gajendra-vimāna-Vaikuṇṭha), 3076 (kuṇṭanī-saved-by-trust). 3076-3077 form-a-pair: kuṇṭanī-and-Gajendra both-extreme-cases-saved-by-Viṭho.
For someone today
This is Tukārām's telling of the Gajendra-mokṣa story. Gajendra the elephant was tormented in the water by a crocodile for a thousand years. His kin abandoned him; no one came to help. In the end, he waited for the path of Viṭho. The ocean of compassion, my Nārāyaṇa, carried both of them across. Gajendra was taken up on the vimāna. I too, having heard this, have come to trust. The verse offers the canonical Gajendra-mokṣa story as proof of bhakti's power to redeem — even the attacker is saved alongside the devotee.
मराठी: तुकारामांची ही गजेंद्रमोक्षाची कथा आहे. गजेंद्र हत्ती हजार वर्षे पाण्यात मगरीकडून पीडित होता. त्याच्या आप्तांनी त्याला सोडून दिले; कोणीही मदतीला आले नाही. शेवटी त्याने विठोबाच्या वाटेची वाट पाहिली. करुणासागर माझ्या नारायणाने त्या दोघांनाही तारले. गजेंद्राला विमानातून नेण्यात आले. मीही हे ऐकून विश्वास ठेवला. हा अभंग गजेंद्रमोक्षाची पारंपरिक कथा भक्तीच्या तारणशक्तीचा पुरावा म्हणून मांडतो — भक्तासोबतच आक्रमण करणाराही तारला जातो.
Where this applies
- When everyone who should have helped you in a crisis has walked away
- When you've been struggling against the same trouble for so long it feels endless
- When you assume the person who hurt you is beyond forgiveness or rescue
- When you finally stop waiting on other people and simply wait on God