Guest guest Posted February 2, 2008 Report Share Posted February 2, 2008 NOTE: Readers having difficulty in reading the text may need to change their encoding to UTF-8. -------------- srI: SrI upakAra sangraham – 73 --- adikAram – 1 poorva upakAra paramparai (The Foremost Series of Favours) --- SECTION – 5.1 (The favours conferred by the Lord are countless) ----- After listing out the 27 major favours conferred by the Lord leading the jIva towards the highest good, SwAmi Desikan says, the actual number is limitless as there are numerous favours in-between the major ones. These favours cannot be counted even by the Lord: “intha poorvOpakArangkaLai sarvEshvaran ceytha kAlangkaLilE nAm aRiyamAttAmaiyAlum, prathi-buddha-kAlatthil avaRRin avAntara-vishEShangkaL eNNi mudiyavoNNAmaiyAlum, “atthA nee ceithana adiyEn aRiyEn” enRu irukkap prAptam. Aj~nAta-sukrutam muthalAka kAla thattvamuLLathanaiyum iccEthanan ceyyum anukoola vyApArangkaL ellAm “yat kincit vartatE lOkE”, “ninRanar kidanthanar thirinthanar”, “ennAl adaippu neekkoNNAthu iRaiyavanE! ennAl ceyaRpAlathen?”, “en nAn ceykEn; yArE kaLaikaN?” ityAdikaLin-padiyE eeshvara-adheenangkaLAy, anantangkLAy, nadakkinRanavAkaiyAlE ivaRRukku eeshvara-bhuddhiyAlum eNNillaiyAyiRE iruppathu.” The favours conferred so far by the Lord are preliminary, says SwAmi Desikan: “intha poorvOpakArangkaLai sarvEshvaran ceytha kAlangkaLilE nAm aRiyamAttAmaiyAlum,” -- However, the jIva was not aware of the fact that the Lord was helping him at every stage. He did not even know why and when the Lord started doing these favours. Truly he would not have known, as the Lord took note of some unintentional good act done by this jIva. It is called, “aj~nAta- sukrutam”. This act of the jIva, even though it was committed unintentionally, moved the Lord’s heart which is full of compassion, as He was waiting for at least one among the countless jIvas to turn towards Him. The Lord took note of this unintentional good act seriously and started showing interest in this particular jIva. As far as He is concerned, it looked a very rare case deserving His compassion. So this series of favours started in this way. Still there was a long way to go for the Lord. He put all His attention on this particular jIva in order to shape him to fit for attaining His abode. He was in such a desperate condition, one must admit. And the jIva too is following the lead set by the Lord, but that too without any intention, as indicated by SwAmi Desikan. When the jIva realized that he had been helped by the Lord, he could not count the number of favours he had received from the Lord. He tells the Lord, “I don’t know how much You helped me, Oh Lord!” Thus quotes SwAmi Desikan from ThiruvAimozhi of SrI naMMAzhvAr: “prathi-buddha-kAlatthil avaRRin avAntara-vishEShangkaL eNNi mudiyavoNNAmaiyAlum, ‘atthA nee ceithana adiyEn aRiyEn’ enRu irukkap prAptam. Let us see the verse to which the quoted words belong: “otthAr mikkArai ilaiyAya mAmAyA ottAy epporutkum uyirAy ennaip peRRa atthAyAyt thanthaiyAy aRiyAthana aRivittha atthA! nee ceythana adiyEn aRiyEnE.” (ThiruvAimozhi, 2-3-2) (Oh Lord! You have neither an equal nor a superior! You are endowed with wonderful qualities! You took births like any ordinary person. You are the soul of all. You did favours to me as my mother, as my father and as my AchArya and taught me everything that was unknown to me earlier. I do not know how much You helped me.) Here, it would be worthwhile to recall the discussion that arose during the kAlakShEpam of SrIbhAshyakAra. When this verse came up for consideration, a question was raised as to who was the first guru for the Atma. Some replied that AchArya was the first guru. Some others said the person who had taken him to an AchArya was the first guru. At the end, SriEmbAr said that the Lord was the first guru as He, being the inner soul, prompted the jIvatmA to agree to approach an AchArya. The same fact is reflected by SwAmI Desikan thus: “Aj~nAta-sukrutam muthalAka kAla thattvamuLLathanaiyum ic-cEthanan ceyyum anukoola vyApArangkaL ellAm, “yat kincit vartatE lOkE”, “ninRanar kidanthanar thrinthanar”, “ennAl adaippu neekkoNNAthu iRaiyavanE! ennAl ceyaRpAlathen?”, “en nAn ceykEn; yArE kaLaikaN?” ityAdikaLin-padiyE eeshvara-adheenangkaLAy anantangkLAy nadakkinRana-vAkaiyAlE ivaRRukku eeshvara-bhuddhiyAlm eNNillaiyAyiRE iruppathu.” The essence of this sentence can put as follows by rearranging the words: “Aj~nAta-sukrutam muthalAka kAla thattvam-uLLathanaiyum iccEthanan ceyyum anukoola vyApArangkaL ellAm, eeshvara-adheenangkaLAy, anantangkLAy, nadakkinRana-vAkaiyAlE ivaRRukku eeshvara-bhuddhiyAlm eNNillaiyAyiRE iruppathu.” -- Right from the good act done unintentionally, all the good actions of the jIva during his existence in this world, have been numerous; and though they were under the sway of the Lord, even He cannot count them. That is, even the Lord who was the cause for all these favours done to the jIva cannot know how many they are. In support of this, SwAmi Desikan gives a number of quotations. We shall see the first quote: “yata kincit vartatE lOkE” -- this is from a MahAbhArata sloka: “yat kincit vartatE lOkE sarvam tanmad-vicEShtitam / anyO hyanyaccintayati svacchaNdam vidadhAmyaham //” (MahAbhArata, shAnti Parva 359-56) (This is spoken by the Lord: “All happenings in the world are mine. Others think something else. I alone act according to what I think.”) Now, there may be a query: The Lord’s role is just prompting the jIvas to act, but the actual execution of the acts desired by Him was done by the jIvas, is it not? So, the jIvas are free to act or not, isn’t it? The answer is “No”, says SwAmi Desikan. He explains that the jIvas’ actions are also under His control. Without His consent, no one can act. In support of this, he gives the next quote: “ninRanar irunthinar kidanthanar thirinthanar”. This quote is from a verse in SrI naMMAzhvAr’s ThiruvAimozhi: “ninRanar irunthanar kidanthanar thirinthanar ninRilar irunthilar kidanthilar thirinthilar enRumor-iyalvinar ena ninaivariyavar enRumor-iyalvodu ninRa venthidarE.” (ThiruvAimozhi, 1-1-6) In this verse, the AzhvAr asserts that all activities and inactions are also under His control. (Those who stand, sit, lie down or move about here and there, as well as they remain inactive - all are under His control. All actions and inactions are subject to His Will (sankalpa). It cannot be said that He is of a particular nature, but at the same time He is unchangeable and beyond all observed changes of the world. So declare the scriptural authorities.) SrI nammAzhvAr himself says, we are not at all fit to determine Your nature. What else can we do? The next quote is again from this AzhvAr’s verse only: “ennAl adaippu neekkoNNAthu iRaiyavanE ennAl ceyaRpAlathen?” -- Let us see the full verse: “ivaiyanRE nalla ivaiyanRE theeya ivaiyenRivai aRivanElum --- ivaiyellAm ennAl adaippu neekkoNNAthu iRaiyavanE! ennAl ceyaRpAlathu en?” (Periya ThiruvanthAthi - 3) (Even though I know that what is not good and what is good, I am unfit to observe this in practice. Oh Lord, You are the real controller. What is there for me to do?) Even if one is sure of what is to be done and what is not, that is, if he has discriminatory knowledge, he cannot bring it into practice as he himself is under the will of the Lord. Hence, everything is to be left to Him. The only thing we can do is, to place ourselves at His feet, that is, to adopt prapatti. There is no alternative. This is expressed by the AzhvAr himself in another verse, as quoted by SwAmi Desikan, “en nAn ceykEn; yArE kaLaikaN?”. Let us see the full verse: “en nAn ceykEn? yArE kaLaikaN? Ennai en ceikinRAi? unnAlallAl yAvarAlum onRum kuRai vENdEn! kannAr mathiLcoozh kudanthaik kidanthAi! adiyEnaruvANAL cennAL ennAL? annAL unathAL piditthE celakkANE.” (ThiruvAimozhi, 5-8-3) (Oh Lord reclining at Thirukkudanthai! I am not in a fit position to resort to any means to attain You. What can I do? Who can save me? Why do You compel me to do impossible rites? Please listen. I do not need any procedure or a person except You to attain You. Hence, however long it may be, I will cling only to Your feet as a refuge. I am firm in this.) Thus, whether we are aware or not, all our activities are as per His will. We cannot keep a count of these good activities which led us to near Him, since we acted according to His Will. He also cannot keep an account of them, because they are countless. With this statement, SwAmi Desikan ends this Chapter. --- Thus Ends Chapter I of SrI UpakAra Sangraham of SrI NigamAnta MahA Desikan --- // SrImathE NigamAnta MahAdesikAya Namah // // SrImathE Sri LakShmI Nrsimha Divya PadukA SEvaka SrI NArAyaNa Yatheendra MahAdEsikAya Namah // --- (To continue) dAsan Anbil S.SrInivAsan --------- ______________________________\ ____ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile./;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.