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vibIshaNa saraNAgati

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T.V.Venkatesh • October 16, 1998 


                                     Srimathe nArAyaNAya namaha

Sri Mani wrote:-
------------------------------Quote----------------------------------
This point is well taken; the only reason the question came up
in the first place, however, is that our acharyas emphatically
say that without Sita, Rama punishes, and with Sita, Rama is
gracious. My friend, who has a very soft spot for his dear
Rama, feels that Rama is inherently gracious, even without the
constant presence of Sita, and cites as his evidence Vibhishana
Saranagati. Knowing my friend, this is not a case of reason for
reason's sake! He is asking for a convincing explanation, given
the proposition that has been set forth.
---------------------------Unquote----------------------------------

In my opinion one can never deny the fact that pirATTi is always 
present in perumAL's thirumArbu. Now if the question arises because 
all the kAlakshEba adhikhArIs say that with Sita, Rama was gracious 
but without Sita, He punishes, then this gives rise to a serious 
doubt whether pirATTi is always present in perumAL's thirumArbu.

If Sri Mani's friend's doubt is whether really Rama is not gracious 
enough without the presence of SIta, then I can ask this as a 
separate question with our elders and clarify it.

But one should understand clearly that the question was, how did our 
pirATTi do purushakAram for vibhIshaNA. For that question I believe 
Dr. Venkatakrishnan's reply was suitable. Also many members have 
expressed their opinions on the same ground.

One more interesting point which I heard in Dr. Venkatakrishnan's 
upanyAsam is 

PurushakAratvam is one of the gunas prescribed for pirATTi. In the 
15th and the 16th sutram in Sri Vachana BhooshaNam, Sri Pillai 
LOkAcharyAr describes what are the attributes for PurushakArA and the 
upAyA.

PurushakAra here is pirATTi who pleads to perumAL for accepting the 
saraNAgati of His fellow bhaktA. upAyA is perumAL Himself, who is 
granting the mOkshA for His bhaktA who has done the saraNAgati.

Now Pillai LOkAchAryAr explains two things here. They are 
1) dhOsham and 2) guNa hAni.

dhOsham is nothing but" doing things that we are not supposed to do"
guNa hAni is nothing but " not doing the things that we are supposed 
to do". The first is called as "akritya karaNam" and the second is 
called as "krtya akaraNam".

The duty of PurushakAra is to plead to upAyA for His/Her bhakta even 
when the bhaktA just thinks of doing the saraNAgati. If this is not 
done by the purushakAra then he/she will get guNa hAni (krtya 
akaraNam). Also if the purushakAra says I will do the purushakAram 
for you only when you really get rid of all the bad deeds, even after 
the bhaktA feels for it and does saraNAgati, then this amounts to 
doing what is not to be done - dhosham (akrtya karaNam).

Coming to our vibhIshaNa saraNAgati case, when vibhIshaNa pleads in 
front of RAvaNA for releasing pirATTi, she comes to know of it. This 
is the case where the bhaktA is doing good deed. When he comes to 
surrender before rAmA, then pirATTi, probably by the third way from 
the ThirumArbu of RAmA does the purushakAratvam or else she will 
incurr dhOsham and guNa hAni. Also if She wouldn't have done it from 
within the ThirumArbu of Sri RAmA then the very dangerous question of 
existence of pirATTi in perumAL's thirumAbu arises. No one, 
irrespective of kalai bEdham in Sri Vaishnavites will say that 
pirATTi is not existing in perumAL's thirumArbu.

Hope I have added my two cents worth and probably Sri Mani's friend 
is convinced. Before I finish I will also add some interesting thing.

Pillai LOkAchAryAr says that dhOsham and guNa hAni can be incurred 
by emberumAn also. How? The duty of emberumAn is to accept the 
purushakAratvam done by pirAtti. If for some reason He fails to do it 
then He incurs guNa hAni. Also if He says that He will accept the 
saraNAgati only after His bhaktA renounces all his bad deeds even 
after pirATTi has done purshakAratvam, then this is similar to doing  
what is not to be done and thus incurs dhOsham.

This itself proves that our emberumAn is such a kAruNyan, that He 
accepts all the bad deeds of His bhaktA with bhOgyam and gives Him 
the mOksha. This is also beautifully explained by Swami Desikan in 
his dayA sathakam in SlokA 97 starting "outsukhyam...". AdiyEn do not 
know the exact slokA and so does AruLALap PerumAL emberumAnAr in his 
gnAna sAram. I don't remember the pAsuram. Shall write about it 
shortly.

adiyEn RAmAnuja dAsan

Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh
Regards

T.V.Venkatesh
E-mail : TVV@SANMARGROUP.COM
Phone: 91-44-4960455 extn. 5218
Fax      : 91-44-4960913
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