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Re: Nature of Prapatti - 2; Was: a small clarification

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Anand Karalapakkam • December 1, 1999 


SrI Lakshminrusimha ParabrahmaNE namaha
SrI Lakshminrusimha divya pAdukA sEvaka SrIvaN-
SatakOpa SrI nArAyaNa yateendra mahAdESIkAya namaha

 Dear devotees,
 namO nArAyaNa.

-----------
SrI Mani wrote :

Even the poor beggar in Indonesia who falls in all abandon
before his idea of God *may* be given moksha by Emberumaan,
because He takes this abandonment as the beggar's prapatti.
-------------------
Sri Mani wrote :-
> Now, my usage of the term "nirankusa svaatantryam" (unfettered
> independence) with reference to Emberumaan is not as you indicate
> above. I am not claiming that prapatti is not an upAya. Rather,
> I am saying that we cannot envision what Emberumaan will *consider*
> as prapatti in an aspirant, especially one who shows all signs of
> sincerity but who fails because of lack of knowledge, lack of
> adequate time or place, etc.  In this respect, I am arguing that
> Emberumaan may possibly use even "unconventional" prapattis as
> vyAjas or pretexts for showering His grace. We just cannot limit
> Him in this aspect.
---------------

 SrI Mani is of the view that (if adiyEn understands correctly),
 though the nature of Prapatti is present in sAstrAs, PerumAL
 because of His overflowing mercy towards the jIvAtmAs and His
 unfettered independency _may_ consider some act of a jIvAtma
 by itself as "Prapatti".

 Infact, hypothetically speaking, everyone (not even some sincere
 devotees) _may_ be granted moksham by PerumAL. Many such
 hypothetical cases can always be thought of. Though PerumAL
 has every independency and rights, to consider any act of a
 jIvAtma as Prapatti and grant moksham, He will not do it
 by violating His own words/commands/rules/sAstrAs.

 Hypothetically, if PerumAL considers some "unconventional"
 pretexts for granting moksham, it can't be held as some
 "unconventional prapatti" ie. it can't be categorized as
 prapatti. The nature of prapatti is well defined in sAstrAs
 ie. that "unconventional" pretext will not be in accordance
 with the nature of prapatti and thus would become a third
 sAdhyOpAyam. But, there are only two sAdhyOpAyams.

 Further, PerumAL being extremly merciful, would certainly
 have further added in sAstrAs as to whatelse He takes as a
 pretext for granting moksham apart from bhakti and prapatti.
 This is because, it would aid many more jIvAtmAs to know
 His intentions and adopt such sAdhyOpAyams, however
 unconventional it may be.

 Also, it is to be noted that, the likes of Dasaratha and
 PAndavAs who were extremly close with PerumAL Himself,
 were not granted moksham by Him, because they didn't
 fulfil His criterion of completing a sAdhyOpAyam. PerumAL
 could have considered any one of their thousands of  acts as
 a pretext  to grant moksham. Neverthless, He didn't !

 From the existing pramAnams, SwAmi dESikan has firmly
 established the nature of prapatti. One should not simply
 look into a particular pramAnam and jump off to conclusions
 as if that pramAnam /SwAmi dESikan asserts some pretexts
 by itself as prapatti etc. Its pretty clear that such
 interpretations will violate other pramAnams (some of which
 are given above). The purport of such slokas of SwAmi
 dESIkan and other pramAnams has to be understood
 with the background of the whole doctrine of prapatti.
 Some pramAnams and slokas of AchAryAs emphasize either
 certain anga Or angi of prapatti, and these pramAnams,
 when stripped off individually, independent of other
 pramAnams, may seem to advocate as if even faith in
 the saving grace of PerumAL is prapatti etc. One
 shouldn't conclude something different, violating some
 pramAnams. It is very amply clear that Prapatti performed
 for moksham has five angAs and three angIs, alongwith the
 sAtvIka tyAga (counted as the sixth angA for those
 Prapattis which are performed with the aim of attaining
 moksham).

 The bottomline is that, though PerumAL has every
 independency to consider any act of us as Prapatti, He
 will not consider that way since it will be in violation
 with sAstrAs, which are His own commands. Ofcourse,
 hypothetically, if PerumAL chooses suddenly to violate the
 sAstrAs and grant moksham to someone who hasn't completed
 either bhakti Or Prapatti (Or consider some pretexts by
 themselves as Prapatti, as said by SrI Mani), no one can
 question His act, since He is nirAnkusa svatantra.

 So far, the discussion was regarding the exact nature
 of Prapatti. Lets consider that, the Indonesian Beggar
 referred to by SrI Mani is a SrI Vaishnava, knows about
 SrIman nArAyaNa etc. adiyEn will write later as to what
 would be the case when that Indonesian Beggar has "his
 own conception of God" (which infact was the original
 question/issue raised by SrI SEshAdri, if adiyEn's memory
 is right). Based on the pramAnams :

 a. First of all, AchArya Sambandham is important.

 b. Also, if one performs Prapatti on his own as svanishta
    prapatti, he should be someone like NammAzhwAr
    and Bhagavad RAmAnuja, with great knowledge on sAtrAs
    (esp. Prapatti sAstrA), apart from devotion etc. For more
    information on this issue, please refer SrImad Rahasya Traya
    SAram.

 c. ananya gatitvam is a pre-requisite for Prapatti and
    thus, one can't worship anya dEvatAs (ie. demi-gods
    like Brahma, Sivan and others shouldn't be worshipped.
    If one chooses to worship them also, prapatti will not
    be accepted by PerumAL in the first place. Since this
    is the case for worshipping dEvatAs who are mentioned
    in vEdAs, its obvious that those who worship any dEvata
    not mentioned in vEdAs as Supreme God, based on one's
    own conception of God, won't be granted moksham by SrIman
    nArAyaNa (since it is anya dEvata worship).

 d. First of all, no further endeavour for moksham has to be
    done after prapatti, which is an one time act. One is not at
    all a prapanna if one does such endeavours.

  PerumAL will not make the already existing prapatti sAstra
  meaningless. If one hypothetically wants to imagine something,
  there is no limit to it. Also, sincere devotees, in accordance with
  their sukrudams will certainly be guided by PerumAL towards the
  performance of either bhakti Or prapatti.
-------
  adiyEn will post sometime soon regarding the carAcaram muttrum
  of adOdya, raised in this thread. In short, Uttara RAmAyanam,
   KooratAzhwAn's SundarabhAhoostavam, SwAmi dESIkan's
   pAdukA Sahasram etc clearly say that all those jIvAtmAs of
   ayOdya reached SAntAnika lOkam and not SrI VaikuNTam.
   But, it is krama mukti and thus, they attained moksham 
   afterwards. As pointed out by SrI Sampathkumar, the prapatti 
   of BharatAzhwAn included the prapatti of all the ayOdyA vAsis
    ( from grass Or even ant onwards). This is explained by SwAmi
    dESIkan in His chillarai rahasyam abhaya pradhAna sAram.
    
 adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan
 ananthapadmanAbha dAsan
 krishNArpaNam