SB 8.3.2 Philosophical absorption in the Lords glories is not meant only for study time or preaching time

Transcript

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thank you yadita chidatmakam purushaya divijaya parishaya vidhi nahi here Gajendra who has been caught in the deadly grip of the crocodile’s jaws and has realized that he alone cannot free himself is praying to the Lord for mercy and we would normally think that if we are in such a mortal danger we will want to help help help that’s the only thing we will call out but we will see that Gajendra offers profoundly philosophical prayers but this is intriguing first of all the question comes how can an elephant think about philosophy how can an elephant offer prayers so the Bhagavatam explains that this is not just any ordinary elephant this elephant was actually a great devotee in a previous life and in this life the past memory is stimulated by the near-death experience by the crisis triggered by being so close to death and realizing that no other shelter will help so whatever spiritual life we practice the impressions are stored deep within us the soul itself is awakened and the impressions are stored in the subtle body also so then the awakening of the soul may get temporarily obscured and the spiritual impressions may get deeply buried but when the right moment comes then when we recognize that there is no shelter available materially that memory comes back and it is with that memory with that intelligence acquired in the previous life that Gajendra is praying and that is how this profound philosophy is coming up even while being in an animal body and how is it that while being amid such a crisis one can pray like this that’s because for great devotees philosophy and philosophical glorification of the lord is not something reserved for study time or preaching time philosophical glorification of the lord is the substance of their devotional absorption in Krishna that means that they can think of Krishna at all times at any time and they because they are philosophically rooted in the glory of Krishna so philosophy springs spontaneously for them just as we speak normal day to day language we don’t have to think and plan a child who is illiterate may have to think like that but we don’t have to because language has become ingrained for us similarly it is ingrained here for Gajendra and he is offering prayers so he is offering the prayer that my dear lord oh bhagavata that by whom this body is animated as well as the universe is animated that lord who is supreme person who is the original source of everything the transcendental lord is the object of my meditation is a word that is used in the Gayatri mantra frequently so Gajendra is meditating on how the lord is the source of everything the lord is the transcendental to everything and the lord is the animator of everything so by remembering this he is realizing contemplating realizing and expressing how the lord is not far away and that lord there is no order no temple no picture but he understands the lord is all pervading and essentially this prayer is an expression of his awareness that when he is offering prayers it is not that the lord has to be manifest in explicit devotional explicit form the lord is everywhere and the lord can hear our prayers from everywhere and that is what the lord is doing here so he is by contemplating on the philosophical truth the lord is all pervasive and is all accessible he is directing his prayers towards the lord and although he doesn’t ask mercy directly he is glorifying the lord and glorification is connecting him with Krishna and is enabling him to transcend the bodily pain and panic that he is feeling because of being trapped in the jaws of the crocodile and this will begin a series of profound philosophical glorification through which Gajendra transcends the miseries of material existence