PLATE THREE

Gajendra, the King of the elephants, had formerly been a Vaisnava
king of the country known as Pandya, which is in the province of Dra-
vida (South India). In his previous life he was known as Indradyumna
Maharaja. Indradyumna had retired from family life and gone to the
Malaya Hills, where he had a small cottage for his @srama. He wore mat-
ted locks on his head and always engaged in austerities. Once, while ob-
serving a vow of silence, he was fully engaged in the worship of the Lord
and absorbed in the ecstasy of love of Godhead when the great sage
Agastya Muni arrived, surrounded by his disciples. When the muni saw
that King Indradyumna remained silent and did not follow the etiquette
of offering him a reception, he became very angry and spoke this curse
against the King: “This King Indradyumna is not at all gentle. Being low
and uneducated, he has insulted a brahmana. May he therefore enter the
region of darkness and receive the dull, dumb body of an elephant.”
(pp. 127-130)
