Vishnu Is Back

Emoji spell for regaining memories!

Gajendra Moksha 18th century. Bundi, India.

Kapoor Galleries wrote : In Hinduism, the attainment of moksha, or liberation from samsara––the cycle of death and rebirth––is the ultimate achievement. The question of how to achieve this status has been tackled by countless Hindu poets, revealing many different paths. One of these such paths is to live a life of devotion, or bhaki, as wonderfully illustrated in the present painting.

This image depicts the story from the Bhagvata Purana in which Vishnu rescues the elephant Gajendra from the jaws of a crocodile makara. In a past life, Gajendra was a Pandyan prince and ardent devotee to the god Vishnu. So fixated on his devotion, Gajendra ignored a visiting sage, angering the sage and earning his wrath.

In retaliation, the visiting sage cursed Gajendra to be reborn as a dim-witted elephant in his next life. Despite losing all his memories, the elephant Gajendra retained his devotion to Vishnu, and one day, when attacked by a makara, the elephant prayed to Vishnu for release.

As seen in the present painting, Vishnu comes to Gajendra’s rescue on his devine vehicle, Garuda, spinning a chakra with which he uses to sever the makaras head. In reward for his devotion, Vishnu then offers Gajendra moksha. In discussion of this story, Topsfield notes, ‘Gajendramoksha became a popular theme of Vaishnava devotee literature, the elephant’s plight symbolizing the inexorable entrapment of the human soul by worldly illusion, from which the invocation of Vishnu brings release.

Vishnu Sleeping on Sheshnag, Budhanilkantha Nepal The statue stands 5 meters tall (around 16.4 feet) and is positioned in the middle of a recessed pool of water, which is 13 meters (42.65 feet) long. The largest stone carving in Nepal.

~ Seated Vishnu Depicted as King of Boon Bestowers (Varadaraja).

Date: A.D. 14th century

Place of origin: India, Tamil Nadu