Shloka 23
Gajendra's Deliverance — Gajendra’s Deliverance and the Protective Power of Remembrance (Japa)
गृहीतस्तेन रौद्रेण ग्राहेणाव्यक्तमूर्तिना पश्यन्तीनां करेणूनां क्रोशन्तीनां च दारुणम्
gṛhītastena raudreṇa grāheṇāvyaktamūrtinā paśyantīnāṃ kareṇūnāṃ krośantīnāṃ ca dāruṇam
[{"question": "Are these names referring to the famous asura Hiraṇyākṣa?", "answer": "Not necessarily. While Hiraṇyākṣa is widely known as an asura in other Purāṇic narratives, here the construction and immediate context suggest a triad of named sacred points (sub-tīrthas) produced by the cakra’s division. The Vāmana Purāṇa often reuses mythic names as toponyms within pilgrimage geography."}, {"question": "Does ‘Virūpākṣa’ imply a Śaiva presence?", "answer": "Virūpākṣa is indeed a well-known epithet associated with Śiva in broader Sanskrit tradition. In this verse, however, it functions primarily as the third name in a local triad of merit-giving places. Even so, such naming can signal layered sanctity where Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava associations overlap in a single landscape."}, {"question": "What does ‘puṇyadā nṛṇām’ indicate in practical terms?", "answer": "It marks these three as efficacious pilgrimage nodes: visiting, bathing, offering, or performing vows there is understood to generate religious merit (puṇya) for human practitioners, a standard claim in tīrtha-māhātmya sections."}]
{ "primaryRasa": "bhayanaka", "secondaryRasa": "karuna", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }
FAQs
The context is aquatic attack and seizure; thus grāha is the ‘seizer’ in water—typically a crocodile/alligator or water-monster—distinct from graha ‘planet’.
It reflects the realism of an underwater predator—its body obscured by water, plants, or depth—and also adds a numinous tone, making the threat feel uncanny and fated within a sacred-site narrative.
The kareṇūs’ cries intensify the scene’s ‘dāruṇatā’ (horror) and prepare for a didactic or salvific turn typical of māhātmya episodes—where distress at a tīrtha becomes the occasion for revealing the site’s power or a deity’s grace.