An Article of Faith

[Guest guest]

Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedantadesika Yatindra

Mahadesikaya Nama:

 

An Article of Faith

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Faith is what makes the world go around. If we really

think of it, all of us pin our faith on something or

the other, every living day. The hungry newborn child

believes that it would be fed, when it raises its tiny

voice. We believe, when we go to bed every night, that

the Sun would indeed rise the next morning. When we

board a train or drive a car, we believe earnestly

that we would arrive safely at the destination. Some

of these hopes are belied at times, but that doesn’t

shake our faith in the dawn of a morrow or of other

things that we often take for granted.

 

The faith we have talked about so far concerns matters

mundane. Shastras talk about a different sort of

faith, which they lay down as a prerequisite for an

aspirant to liberation-

“MahA VisvAsam”. The term “mahA” indicates that the

belief called for here is of a very high order, and of

an intensity hitherto unknown to us. What is this

MahAviswAsam, how does one attain this and what role

does it play in ensuring one’s place in Sri Vaikuntam?

 

Everybody knows that the easiest road to liberation,

which our Acharyas, in their infinite mercy, have

shown us, is Prapatti or Absolute Surrender to the

Lord. And we know too that Prapatti encompasses five

elements, namely MahAvisvAsam, Anukoolyasya Sankalpam

(the resolve to follow the Lord’s dicta),

PrAtikoolyasya Varjanam (the resolve to eschew

behaviour contrary to His wishes), KArpaNyam (the

realisation of one’s utter helplessness and total

dependence on the Almighty), GOptrutva VaraNam (the

soul’s plaintive cry to the Lord for succour). Armed

with these infallible weapons, one floors the Lord

with the ultimate missile of Saranagati, which makes

Him rush to our rescue, as He did in the case of Sri

Gajendrazhwan, Sri Droupati and innumerable others.

 

Of the five components of Prapatti mentioned above,

the most difficult to attain is perhaps MahA VisvAsam.

This is the abiding faith that once we perform

Saranagati, the Lord would indeed save us

(Rakshishyati iti VisvAsa:). This faith forms the

sheet anchor of BharanyAsam, without which Surrender

is just not possible or complete. If we do not believe

somebody is capable of saving us, would we at all

apply to him for protection? And it is this faith, in

all its intensity, that is as difficult to acquire, as

it is to sustain.

 

A story is in order here. A farmer was about to fell a

tree standing plumb in the middle of his field. At the

first stroke of his axe, a poltergeist that had made

the tree its abode beseeched the farmer not to cut

down the tree and render it homeless. In turn, it

promised to get him everyday a quintal of sesame

(eLLu). And to live up to its promise, the ghost had

to work throughout the day and for part of the night,

searching out fields (spread far and wide) planted

with sesame, harvesting the same and carting it to the

farmer’s abode. By the time the ghost finished its

daily quota of supply, it was bone-weary and

half-dead. This arrangement worked fine till the

farmer’s death. Thereafter, the farmer’s son insisted

on cutting down the tree, as it hindered cultivation.

When the ghost prayed to new cultivator to spare his

home, he agreed on the condition that the spirit get

him daily a quintal of sesame OIL, instead of the

quintal of sesame demanded by his father. The ghost

was dismayed at the thought of how much sesame he had

to arrange for, to obtain a quintal of sesame oil, and

thought ruefully of how simple the earlier contract

(though by itself difficult of performance) was,

vis-à-vis the new one.

 

Bhakti yoga, as a means to liberation, was thought

difficult due to the demand it placed on the aspirant,

for continuous and uninterrupted concentration on the

Almighty, and in comparison, Prapatti appeared to be a

much simpler affair: however, acquiring an

unquestioning and abiding faith in the Lord as the

Saviour, is so difficult as to be almost impossible

but for the most evolved souls.

It is in this context that Sri Embar remarked, “kala

eLLu kattu pOi kala eNNai Ayitru”, meaning that

performing Prapatti (with its emphasis on

MahAvisvAsam) was a much taller order than performing

Bhakti Yoga. The comparison here is of Bhakti with a

quintal of sesame and Prapatti with a quintal of

sesame oil. Thus, in Sri Embar’s opinion, true

Prapatti is more difficult of performance than Bhakti.

Why is this MahAvisvAsam hard to attain? The

following are cited as some of the reasons:

Would Emperuman grant us Mukti in view of our baggage

of sins accumulated over countless births, rendering

us incapable of and ineligible to perform karma,

gnAna, bhakti yOgAs as a means to rid ourselves of the

shackles of karma? To those weighed down by this

thought, abiding faith in the Lord as Saviour is hard

to attain.

 

The exalted nature of the goal sought to be attained,

viz., eternal bliss in Sri Vaikuntam in the uplifting

company of the Lord and His entourage, makes us baulk

at the very thought of Paramapadam, especially in view

of our current state of sinfulness and helplessness.

 

The very simplicity and facility of Prapatti as a

means to salvation, vis-à-vis the supremacy of the

goal to be attained, viz., Liberation, makes us

dubious whether such an easy and brief upAyA as

Saranagati could indeed take us to Sri Vaikutnam,

which is reported to be beyond the reach of even

accomplished souls like Brahma and Rudra.( “PeN ulAm

sadaiyinAnum Piramanum unnai kANbAn eNNilA oozhi

oozhi tavam seidAr veLgi nirpa”-Sri Tondaradippodi

Azhwar

”pinnitta sadayAnum Piramanum Indiranum tunnittu

pugalariya Vaikunta neeL vAsal”-Sri Kulasekhara

Azhwar).

It is but natural that the nature of the means to be

adopted to reach a particular goal gets more and more

difficult, depending upon the stature of the target.

Compared to Bhakti yoga, which prescribes

hard-to-practice yama, niyama, dhAraNa, pratyAhArA,

etc., and uninterrupted meditation on the Lord and His

swaroopa and gunAs, Prapatti appears ridiculously easy

and hence generates a doubt as to its efficacy. We

feel, would a man in the terminal stage of cancer be

offered a simple home remedy (“kai vaidyam”) as a

cure?

 

One who adopts Bhakti Yoga in all its elaborateness

may have to wait for ages, through several births, to

reach the Lord. Prapatti, which can be performed in a

second, promises the same fruit of Liberation at the

will of the aspirant- if he desires to leave for the

Lord’s abode immediately after performing Saranagati,

so can he. If, on the other hand, he prefers to wait

till the end of this birth, then immediately as he

sheds his mortal coils, Emperuman takes him to Sri

Vaikuntam and eternal bliss. This generates a doubt in

the minds of the uninitiated- while an elaborate upAyA

takes ages to act, how can an unbelievably easy means

take one to a distant goal at one’s will?

Swami Desikan offers comprehensive clarifications to

our doubts on the efficacy of Prapatti and about the

Lord’s inclinations, in the Parikara VibhAgAdhikArA of

Srimad Rahasyatrayasara, as he feels such doubts are

the biggest stumbling block in the way of our

acquiring MahA VisvAsam.

 

------------to be continued-----------

Srimate Sri LakshmiNrsimha divya paduka sevaka

SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya

Nama:

---dasan,sadagopan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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