Nature of Prapatti - 2; Was: a small clarification

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SrI Lakshminrusimha ParabrahmaNE namaha

SrI Lakshminrusimha divya pAdukA sEvaka SrIvaN-

SatakOpa SrI nArAyaNa yateendra mahAdESIkAya namaha

 

Dear devotees,

namO nArAyaNa.

 

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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.

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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.

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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

[Guest guest]

Dear Anand,

 

You wrote:

> 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).

 

Perhaps it is best we agree to disagree. I do not agree

that a different *conception* of God makes one an "anya-devatA"

worshipper. I firmly believe such judgments should be left

up to the Lord and not to mortals.

 

With this note, let's bring this discussion to a conclusion.

 

Thanks,

Mani