Significance of Gajendra's story

The Story of Gajendra (The king who was transformed into an elephant) has a deeper significance. In this story, Gajendra enters a lake and plays with his friends when he is trapped by a crocodile. He tries to free himself but is unsuccessful. None of his friends are able to help him. The elephant surrendered to God.  God alone was able to rescue him.

The significance in real life is - all of us (humans) are like Gajendra. The lake that he entered is like this world, where we live with other people (friends, family etc.). The grip of the crocodile symbolizes the calamities and troubles that we face.

The takeaway from this story is that - while we live in this world with our family, friends and society, when we face problems, the only one who can rescue us is God.

Mahabali

In the story of Mahabali, Even though Mahabali was a good person, he had forgotten humility when he became powerful. He underestimated the power of the little man who visited him, who was none other than Vishnu himself. We never know in what form God may appear before us and hence we should never forget to be humble.

With power comes responsibility

In Ramayana, we also see the sixth avatar of Vishnu, who was Parasurama. Vishnu took the Avatar as Parasurama to control the dominance of Kshatriyas. Parasurama even though born as a Brahmin, had great power by god's grace. After he taught a lesson to the Kings and the Kshatriya race, he did not stop. He continued destroying them. He forgot his true responsibility. Only after Rama defeated him in a combat, Parasurama realized his folly.

In the presence of God

Swami Vivekananda was a great Hindu saint and philosopher. When he was very young, he had several problems at home. He went to a saint called Ramakrishna. He told him about his problems. Ramakrishna advised Vivekananda to go to the nearby Kali (hindu goddess) temple and pray to her for help.

Vivekananda followed Ramakrishna's advice. When he reached the temple and saw the idol of goddess Kali, he forgot his troubles and just stood there as though mesmerized. He tried to go back to the temple several times, and each time he was unable to ask goddess Kali for help. He was just blissful to be in her presence.

The same thing happened when Sudama went to meet Krishna.

Everything happens for a good reason

Sage Vishwamitra requests Dasharatha to send his young sons' Rama and Lakshmana with him to help him slay the monsters in his Ashram.

This sounds like a dangerous expedition. It shocks Dasharatha and makes him worried. He does not see how this can be good for his sons' until Vasishta explains to him.

Similarly in a lot of instances we do not see the big picture and get worried about the immediate circumstances. We realize only until much later that whatever happened was for a good reason.

Shiva's boons

In many mythological stories Shiva is known to give boons to a lot of Asuras. Why is that so?

Shiva is known to be a compassionate lord in Hinduism. He grants wishes despite of knowing that people will misuse them. This is because he knows that in the end people will realize their mistake and change their ways.

Realizing our fault ourselves has a greater impact than being corrected by someone else. This is what happens to Kubera in this book.

Faith

The story - "Pillar" is all about faith. Sometimes faith in a God is more powerful than God himself. In Ramayana, Hanuman had faith in Rama and crossed the ocean effortlessly. Whereas Rama himself needed the bridge to cross the same ocean.