India, Sept. 9 -- We live in a time that celebrates self-sufficiency, teaching us to solve every problem through our own effort, strategy, and willpower, often treating the need for help as a kind of failure. The story of Gajendra, king of elephants, offers a gentler truth.

Gajendra was bathing in a lake when a crocodile seized his leg, dragging him toward the depths. For years, he fought with all his strength, using every trick his herd and instincts offered. Nothing worked. Exhausted, defeated, and finally without any strategy left, he stopped struggling and called out to Vishnu in total surrender, not as a king, but as a being with nothing left to offer except his faith. Vishnu appeared instantly and freed him.

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