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From the Bhakti List Archives

Krishna Kalale • October 25, 1995 


jagannathan writes:

 THE CONCEPT OF PRAPATTI AS
USED IN THE POSTING OF SHRI DILEEPAN IS MUCH WIDER.  EVEN
SHANKARACHARYA HAS FINALLY SAID: "OH LORD, EVEN THOUGH I KNOW THAT
YOU AND I ARE ONE (THAT IS I AM NOT THIS MATERIAL BODY BUT THAT THE
JIVATMA IS MADE UP OF THE SAME SUBSTANCE THAT GOD IS MADE UP OF OR
SPIRIT) LET ME NOT FORGET THAT I BELONG TO YOU AND THAT YOU DO NOT
BELONG TO ME, JUST AS THE WAVES BELONG TO THE OCEAN AND THE OCEAN
DOES NOT BELONG TO THE WAVES."  ANYONE WHO UNDERSTANDS THIS STATEMENT
OF ADI SHANKARACHARYA AND ACTS IN THAT WAY TOWARDS SRIMAN NARAYANA
HAS ALSO DONE PRAPATTI.  PRAPATTI DOES NOT HAVE TO BE DONE BY AN
ACHARYA BUT CAN ALSO BE DONE BY THE INDIVIDUAL HIM/HER SELF.

JAGANATH.

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this does not seem to be the visistadvaitic view of prapatti. for both
tenkalai and vadakalai sects, acharyabhimana is absolutely necessary.
if acharya is not included in the prapatti then that format is known as
"svanishta".  for svanishta format of prapatti to work, one needs 
sambandha jnana - ie. the true realization of our relation to srimannarayana
and the 5 angas of prapatti should be very rigorously adhered to. if the
5 angas are not adhered to such "svanishta" prapatti may not work.
in general the need for an acharya should not be de-emphasized in reference to
vishistadvaitic concept of prapatti. 
to date in our sampradaya,  only people who have done svanishta are :
Sri Ramanuja, Sri Alavandar, Sri vedanta desika ( I will confirm this later)

note there is the concept of surrender in almost all religions including
christianity, islam, etc.  I would not mix them with the visistadvaitic concept
since, they do differ in one or more aspects.

for this I would suggest an aspirant to get information from an acharya and
let that person go through "kalakshepam" of works like : rahasya traya sara,
or srivachana bhusana etc. 

Even Shankaracharya's prapatti is not exactly same as the ones described in 
visistadvaitic works.  for example in bhaja govindam :  the issue of 
"bramha padam tvam pravisha viditvaa" - ie. "you attain the state of bramhan
after knowing (bramhan)" - does not concur with the visistadvaitic conception.

this one may be a close parallel to visistadvaitic view but not identical.
I feel that prapatti is a secret and powerful doctrine. one should never be
confident of what it is even after repeated contemplation. IT is very necessary
for an aspirant to directly study under an acharya : like how gita describes:

"pari prashnena sevaya" - by repeated questioning and service to acharyas.

krishna

PLEASE READ THE chapter on PRAPATTI in VAISHNAVISM or SMS CHARI. that gives
a concise overview of what it is with some clarity.


krishna