Upaayam

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Mohan writes about 'giving up'

 

---------begin quote

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.

-------end quote

 

 

It is indeed true that Sriman NaaraayaNa alone is the Upaayam.

 

The second chapter of SriVachanaBhooshanam deals with Prapatti. I will

attempt a crude translation into English of the relevant commentaries of

our Achaaryas. My skills in translation are rudimentary at best. My

understanding of the commentary itself is nowhere near to complete by any

means.

I will try my best not to include any of my opinions & 'understanding'

in this attempt & make it a direct translation (however crude it might be)

of the commentaries.

 

Any mistakes that you may see here are a result of my attempt.

 

I am going to quote from sub-chapter 2.6.

 

 

2.6 : Prapatti uppaayamanRu

----------------------------

Prapatti is not the upaayam.

 

sutram 54:

'idhu thannaip paarththaal pithaavukkup putran ezhuththu vaangumaapolE

iruppadhonRu'

 

idhuthannaip paarththaal - If we consider the prapatti that is done by the

chetana to the Lord as the upaayam

 

ezhuthtu vaangumaapolE - is like the son getting in writing from his father

that he (the father) will protect him (the son).

 

Just as protection of his son is in the father's nature, protection of the

chetanas is in the Lord's nature. So, thinking that the protection that

the Lord grants us is because of the prapatti that we do to Him is like

undermining the relationship between the Lord & the chetana.

 

sutram 55:

'idhu thanakku svaroopam thannaip poRaathozhigai'

 

idhu thanakku svaroopam - the nature of prapatti

thannaip - considering prapatti as the upaaya

poRaathozhigai - does not include in it

 

i.e the nature of prapatti is such that it does not lend itself to

considering it as the upaaya.

 

prapatti is basically surrendering to the Lord and the Lord alone.

If we consider that performing prapatti is the upaayam, then we are

not really understanding what prapatti is & we are surrendering to

the 'act of performing the prapatti' rather than the Lord himself -

i.e. we are going against what prapatti essentially is.

 

sutram 56:

'angam thannai ozhiNdhavaRRaip poRaathozhigai'

 

angam - something that is an essential part - in this case something that

is an essential part of the act of prapatti.

 

thannai ozhiNdhavaRRai - something that is other than prapatti

 

Not following anything other that prapatti ('veRu edhaiyum paRRaamai' in

tamizh)

itself is like an anga to prapatti.

So, if we follow something else that is not prapatti, then we do not

derive anything from prapatti.

 

sutram 57:

'upaayam thannaip poRukkum'

 

upaayam - The Lord, who is the upaayam

 

It is appropriate to consider the Lord as the upaayam.

 

sutram 58:

'upaayaanthram iraNdaiyum poRukkum'

upaayaanthram - saadhya upaayam that is contrary to siddha upaayam

(siddha upaayam is the Lord)

 

iRanDaiyum - two things are mentioned here

the first is performing the saadhanaas prescribed by various

srutismritis as mokshapalasaadhanaas

the second is the belief that the mokshapalasaadhanaas that

are mentioned in the srutismritis will lead to the goal

 

i.e saadhya upaayam includes the two things mentioned above

 

 

sutram 59:

'idhu iRaNdaiyum poRaadhu'

 

idhu - prapatti

iRaNdaiyum - the two things mentioned above - i.e. performing the

mokshapalasaadhanaas

& the having the belief that the performing them will lead to the

goal.

 

The two things mentioned above are against the essence of prapatti.

 

 

 

Daasaanu daasan,

Varadhan