[Advaita-l] Gajendra moksham

[Vinodh]

Namaskaram,

I very much enjoy the stories of Srimad Bhagavatham that show Ishwara’s
kaarunyam. And more so the many advaitic teachings contained in the stories
of Bhagavatham.

However, it appears that Shankara Bhagavadpada never quoted anything from
these stories in his works. I am curious to know if this is indeed true and
if yes, why.

There was a similar question raised in the group about Yoga Vasishtam
earlier, for which one possible explanation was that the original text
(called “Mokshopaya”) had evolved quite a bit and is possibly lost in its
original form, and that the text that is available to us now is dated after
Shankara’s time period. Therefore, Yoga Vasishtam was not quoted by
Shankara.

Is there an explanation for why Srimad Bhagavatham is not referred to by
Shankara in his works (if indeed  he has not quoted anything from it)?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts on this 🙏

On Sun 8. Aug 2021 at 21:28, Kaushik Chevendra via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> In bagavatham, the gajendra moksham is well known. The following is the
> last stanza of the story from Pothanas translation of bagavatham.
>
> "As soon as he heard cries of Gajendra for help ,Lord Sri Hari started
> without a word,,with out taking his weapons.He did not waste time in
> getting ready , he didn't wait for his vahana Garuda,he didn't even release
> the cloth of his wife which he was holding,in the midst of an
> argument....resulting in instantaneous response to rescue his devotee from
> danger. The groups of heaven
> dwellers and celestial beings exclaimed," Look! Savior is coming, beside
> Him is his consort Devi Lakshmi, listen to the sound of conch, look at the
> disc in his hand, and His vahana
> Garuda flying, Praise the Lord!"!!
> Then the Sudarsana disc, released by the Lord, cut the head of crocodile.
> Then Sri Hari brought out Gajendra from the lake and with His touch wounds
> of the elephant disappeared. He offered lotus with his trunk to his saviour
> Sri Hari. The crocodile was relieved of his curse and got his original form
> as gandharva".
>
> The Lords daya is indeed endless.
> Om namo narayanaya.
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: https://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> https://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>