Giving up and the Bow Analogy

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------------------------------Begin Vijay's quote

 

This is during the Rama-RavaNa yudhdham. Fierce fighting is going

on

and Sri Rama was giving a very tough time to RavaNa who was

fighting

with his bow in his hand. He thought that the bow in his hand is a

saadhana (upaya?) to reach the objective which is protecting

himself from Sri Rama. But he obviously couldn't do that. The

moment ravaNa dropped his bow (or rather it fell down) Sri Rama

with

his abundant grace let him go!! So this act of "Giving up" those

so called saadhanaas (his bow) actually fetched him the fruit. So

the only upaya to get the fruit(mOksha) is to realise that the bow

in his hand is not the route and then to relinquish it in order to

achieve the intended objective.

 

One interesting observation is that the Lord with HIS abundant

grace

is fighting the tough war to actually get the soul drop the other

non-fruit-bearing saadhanaas and do paripoorNa saraNaagathi which

alone fetches mOksham.

 

------------------------------end quote

 

This scene of Ravana dropping his bow is referred to in Sutram 203,

which elaborates on "Sarvadharman parityaja" of Carama Sloka:

 

------------------------------begin Mumme's translation

 

Sutram 202: The gerund form states that we first have to completely

relinquish all other means and then surrender, as in the statement,

"having bathed, one should take food."

 

Sutram 203: It says that these (sadhanas and dharmas as elaborated

in Varadhan's posting) are not only non-upayas, but impediments, as

in the statement (from Sri Ramayana), "Shaking, Ravana dropped the

bow."

 

Manavalamanunigal's commentary: Ravana, overwhelmed by Rama's

archery, became agitated and tried to escape. But as long as he held

the bow, Rama did not allow him to leave. The bow which he

eventually dropped was not an effective means (sadhana) for

conquering his enemy while he was holding it. Not only that, but the

permission Rama gave him, saying "I will let you go," was not given

during the time he was holding the bow. Thus the bow can be said to

be an impediment which kept him from leaving. In the same way, if

there remains even the slightest involvement in these other upayas,

they will not only fail to be effective means to the Goal, they will

actually turn out to be obstructions to the ultimate attainment.

 

----------------------------end quote

 

 

Vijay makes a rather poignant observations that the Lord is fighting

with His Grace to remove the soul's dependence on other upayas and

turn to Him Alone. This would imply that our simple act of prapatti

is insignificant compared to the Lord's labor of bringing about this

acceptance in us. Which leads to a slight clarification. Pillai

Lokacharya and Manavalamamunigal maintain that the act of "giving up,

" i.e. prapatti, is really NOT the Upaya at all. Prapatti is merely

the humble acceptance of what is the True Upaya, the Lord Himself.

And in light of the Lord's efforts in bringing us to Him, our act of

Prapatti becomes meaningless and all is the result of His Grace Alone.

 

 

Daasanu Daasan,

 

Mohan