Kainkaryam and Bhagavath preeti

[Guest guest]

Sri:

Sri Lakshmi nrisimha parabrahmaNE nama:

Sri Lakshmi nrisimha divya paduka sevaka

srivan satakopa sri narayana yatindra mahadesikaya nama:

 

adiyEn would like to share my understanding about

kainkaryam. Please feel free to comment upon it.

This is based on what adiyEn can recall about

what Srimad Azhagiyasingar wrote about phala

samarpaNam a few months back and what adiyEn

can remember from the tele-upanyasams. Any

error in my presentation is purely adiyEn's

responsibility.

 

As we all know, baranyAsam constitutes (1) swaroopa

samarpaNam, (2) bara samarpaNam, and (3) phala

samrpaNam. Swaroopa samarapaNam is the realization

that we belong to perumaaL and surrendering our self.

Bara samarpaNam refers to surrendering the burden of

saving us from our anAthikAla karma and granting us

mOksham. Phala samarpaNam refers to surrendering

the fruit of prapatti also at the lotus feet of

the Lord.

 

It is not difficult to understand swaroopa samarpaNam

and bara samarpaNam. But phala samarpaNam is not

easy to understand. If we are to surrender even the

fruit of prapatti why would anyone be interested

in prapatti or life in Sri Vaikuntam? This is a

legitimate question. Srimad Azhagiya Singar answers

this question with an example about how a chaste wife

conducts herself.

 

A chaste wife dedicates herself for pleasing her

husband. She prepares tasty dishes, dresses herself up,

and eagerly awaits her husband from work. She does

all this not for her pleasure, but for pleasing her

husband. That is, the fruit of all her actions are

dedicated to her husband. This is clear because

she would do none of these if her husband is on

tour and will not come home in the evening.

Similarly, our action of prapatti also is for

pleasing the Lord. As an incidental outcome

we also experience pleasure. But this pleasure is

not because we are pleased with our actions in

Sri Vaikuntam, but only because we see the Lord

pleased. Just as the chaste wife derives pleasure

in seeing her husband pleased, and not because

she is pleased with her cooking or the way she

looks, our pleasure is a consequence of seeing

the Lord pleased. Thus in phala samarpaNam we

dedicate the fruit of our action to the Lord and

derive pleasure in seeing our Lord pleased.

 

This brings us to the topic of kainkaryam.

Kainkaryam is action that pleases the Lord.

It is important to note that Bhagavath preethi

is our objective. If we do not remind ourselves

of this and simply concentrate on kainkaryam

we may end up placing more importance to our

actions than pleasing the Lord. Have we not

seen some argue that in case of a clash between

performing sandhya vandhanam and bhagavath

kainkaryam, bhagavath kainkaryam must take

precedence. This is vibarItha understanding.

First of all, we must understand that kainkaryam

is action that is pleasing to the Lord,

primarily, not something that is primarily pleasing

to us. In this context, we must understand

that nithyAnushtAnam is part of Lord's commandments.

If we abandon it the Lord will be displeased

with us. In such a state nothing we do will

be pleasing to the Lord. First and foremost,

we must remove the cause of the displeasure.

If this is not done there is no hope of pleasing

the Lord with any of our actions, i.e. there is

no hope of doing any kainkaryam. In other words,

nithAnushtAnam is a prerequisite before we can

do any other bhagavath kainkaryam. We cannot

abandon nithyAnushtAnam and hope to engage in

action that can be bhagavath kainkaryam.

 

Further, there cannot be a clash between

sandhyavandhanam and bhagavath kainkarayam.

A clash between two alternatives can occur

only when the choices are independent. But

in this case nithyAnushtAnam is a prerequisite

for bhagavath kainkaryam. Thus, where is the

question of a clash between these two.

 

Srimad Azhagiya Singar gave an excellent example

to illustrate this point. Ordinarily, a factory

worker is paid regular wages and time-and-a-half

for overtime work (OT). But before he is paid

OT he must have completed his regular

required work. No management will agree to

let the worker take off during regular time

and work only during OT and claim OT wages.

Similarly, before we can claim our right to

perform bhagavath kainkaryam (OT) we must

first complete our nithyAnushtAnam (RT).

 

srimad azhagiya singar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

 

-- adiyEn ramanuja dasan

 

 

p.s. It is understood that a husband has

duties commensurate with the actions of

his chaste wife. Please do not read this

from a narrow perspective.