Gajendra and the Crocodile

In a forest of cool green hills there lived a mighty elephant, the king of all the herds. Gajendra was his name, and he was as strong as twenty ordinary elephants. Nothing in the forest frightened him.

One hot day Gajendra led his herd down to a wide and beautiful lake. The water was clear and lovely. He waded in, deeper and deeper, lifted his trunk, and sprayed the cool water over his back, happy as could be.

But under that lovely water something was waiting. A huge crocodile, old and patient and terribly strong, slid silently up and clamped its jaws around the elephant’s leg.

Gajendra pulled. He was the strongest elephant alive, so he pulled with all his might, certain he would be free in an instant. But the crocodile did not let go. It dragged him deeper instead.

So began the longest struggle anyone had ever seen. Gajendra heaved toward the shore, and the crocodile hauled toward the deep, and neither would give in. Hours went by. Then days. His herd watched helplessly from the bank, and one by one, when they found there was nothing they could do, they wandered away. And his strength, the thing he had always been so proud of, began at last to fail him.

There, exhausted and alone, up to his neck in the water, Gajendra finally understood something. This was not a fight he could win by being strong. He had run out of strong. He had only one thing left to try.

With his trunk he reached up out of the water and plucked a single lotus flower. He lifted it to the sky. And with the last of his voice he called out, not to his herd, not to his own great muscles, but to Vishnu, the protector of all who call to him in need. “Help me. I cannot do this alone. Please. Help me.”

And he was heard.

In a rush of wind and light, Vishnu came, swift as a thought, and reached down to the struggling elephant. The crocodile’s grip was broken in a moment, and Gajendra was lifted gently to the safe green shore.

It is said the crocodile was set free that day too, freed from an old curse it had carried a very long time. And Gajendra, the strongest elephant in the world, never forgot the day he learned that even the strongest sometimes must call out for help.