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Slokam 14
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Today , adiyEn will cover the Fourteenth slOkam
of Sri SaraNAgathi DhIpikai , where Swamy Desikan
touches on the Parama DaayALuthvam (most merciful
nature )of SrIman NaarAyaNan and His patient waiting
for a small vyAjam ( prapatthi anushtAnam that is
done in a small time frame )to rush to the rescue of
the Prapannan for granting the boon of the greatest of
fruits(Moksham):
karmasvanAdhi vishamEshu samO DayALu:
svEnaiva kluptham apadesam avEkshamANa:
svaprApathayE tanu-bhruthAm thvarasE Mukundha
svAbhAvikam Tava suhrutthvam idham gruNanthi
--SrI SaraNAgathi DhIpikai: SlOkam 14
(Meaning): Oh ViLakkoLi PerumALE! Oh MOksha-DhAyaka
MukundhA ! The JeevAthmA acquires a sarIram (body)
because of its previous karmAs. Its karma vinais
are timeless and anAdhi. Those poorva karmAs yield
the jeevan many kinds of fruits.
Oh Lord! You have no natural likes or dislikes
about anyone. You are equanimous in Your
conduct towards all of the chEthanams. Even then,
You can only grant the fruits to each jeevAthmA
according to their karmAs. Your dayA guNam is
matchless. Inspite of that abundant compassion ,
You will be accused of partiality if You grant
mOksham to a ChEthanam that has not used the means
(upAyam ) to seek Your grace. If You do that for one
jeevan , then You have to grant the mOksham to all jeevans
independent of whether they have performed any
UpAya anushtAnam or not . Theredore , You await the performance
of the easiest to practise upAyam of Prapatthi.Even that
performance of Prapatthi by the Jeevan is caused by You.
You facilitate the performance of that UpAyam and
immediately after rush to the side of the ChEthanam
to grant him the parama gathi of Moksham. This generous
and compassionate act of Yours has been described by sages
as a proof of Your innate deep affection and friendship
towards the Jeevans.
Additional Comments :
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adiyEn will follow the treatment of Vaikunta Vaasi
Sri U.Ve. MadhurAnthakam E. VeerarAghavAcchAr Swamy
in assembling the arguments for the need to perform
Prapatthi for sva-rakshaNam.His grantham is known as
SampradhAya SudhA.
PerumAL's Vaathsalyam (affection )for the erring jeevans
is limitless .Therefore at the very moment of observance of
the difficult to execute Bhakthi yOgam Or easy-to-observe
Prapathti Yogam (KshaNa Karthavyam :performed in a trice) ,
Our Supreme Lord Mukundhan forgives the previous trespasses
against His SaasthrAs. The earlier anger of the Lord subsides
and disappears altogether. If the prapannan unconsciously
does transgress, our Lord does not have the inclination
to punish the prapannan for those trespasses. If the prapannan
committs consciously apachArams ( transgrssions ), then
our Lord gives a light punishment or is satisfied when
the contrite prapannan performs prAyascchitthams ( atonement
rites).This disposition of the Lord is standing proof of
His MahA GuNam , Vaathsalyam towards the Jeevans.
Swamy Desikan refers to this innate Vaathsalyam of
the Lord as : " idham Tava svabhAvikam suhrutthvam
gruNanthi". The learned ones say that display of
Vaathsalyam to the Jeevans on the part of the Lord
is innate (svAbhAvikam ) .He is equipoised in His
adjudication of the effects of karmAs of the Jeeva
Kotis ( Tanu-bhruthAm anAdhi vishamEshu karmasu Sama:).
He is however a Parama DayALu. His KaaruNyam is
also matchless like His Vaathsalyam.He can not
bear the suffering of the erring jeevans. He looks
therefore for a miniscule excuse to come to the
jeevan's rescue ,while making sure that his impartiality
is strictly maintained in the matter of responding to
the poorva-karmAs of the jeevans appropriately . Once
the jeevan performs that prapatthi induced by Himself
(svEna yEva kluptham apadEsam ) , our Lord rushes to
the side of suffering jeevan in unparalleled haste
to grant the jeevan Moksham ( svEna yEva kluptham
apadesam avakshEmaNa: sva-prApthayE thvarasE).
In his commnetary on Brahma Soothram (3.3.56),
" naanA SabdhAdhi bhEdhAth " , Srutha PrakAsikAcchAr
instructs us about the view of AchArya RaamAnujA:
" aadhi sabdhEna nyAsO vivakshitha:" . Bhakthi ,
prapatthi yOgams are means for mOksham as implied
by the invocation of Aadhi sabdham .
AchArya RaamAnujA performed prapatthi Himself
on a Panguni Uttharam day at SrIrangam for Moksham;
Maharishis undertook Bhakthi yOgam to the same effect.
Swamy Desikan instructed us that it is the sampradhAyam.
Swamy Desikan created many SrI Sookthis (NikshEpa Rakshai,
SaadhyOpAya sOdhanAdhikAram and charama SlOka adhikArams
of SrImath Rahasya Thraya Saaram ) to establish Prapatthi
as one of the easy-to-practise and unfailing UpAyam
to secure Moksham .
In SaraNAgathy Gadhyam , AchArya RaamAnujA performed
SaraNAgathy this way: " ananya saraNa: Thvath
PaadhAravindha yugaLam SaraNamaham prapadhyE ".In SrIranga
Gadhyam , AchArya RaamAnujA performed clear SaraNAgathy:
" SriMan NaarAyaNa ! Tava CharaNAravindha yugaLam SaraNam
aham prapadhyE ". In SrI Vaikunta Gadhyam , AchArya
RaamAnujA performed upadEsam to His disciples to perform
SaraNAgathi( Prapatthi) to the Lord: " Tath prApthayE
cha Tath PaadhAmbhOja dhvaya praptthE: anyath na mE
kalpakOti sahasrENOpi saadhanam asthIthi manvAna:....
SrImatha: CharaNAravindha yugaLamananyAthma sajjEvanEna
tathgadha sarvabhAvEna SARANAM ANUVRAJETH". EmperumAnAr's
upadesam is that every one has to perform Prapatthi as
MokshOpaayam (UpAyam fr Moksham) for sva-rakshaNam
(one's own protection).Swamy Desikan summed it all up
this way: " yEthayO: svAnushtAnOkthi mukhEna Sishya
sikshaNam krutham; tasmimsthu upadesa mukhEnaEthi
visEsha:". Among the two instnaces , through His own
SaraNAgathi utterances at SrIrangam on a Panguni Uttharam
day and upadEsam to his disciples , latter is to be
specially noted.This is Swamy Desika SampradhAyam
and PoorvAchArya SampradhAyam . AchArya RaamAnujA
has clearly stated , " SaraNam anuvrajEth ", "aathmAnam
Bhagavathi nivEdhayEth" in SrI Vaikunta Gadhyam. In his
Nithya grantham , AchArya RaamAnujA has pointd out
unambigously : "TamEva SaraNam upagacchEth
akhilahEyathyAdhinA "; hence , we can not escape by
thinking that EmperumAnAr has already performed
saraNAgathy for us and therefore we do not need to observe
Prapatthi. This is the apadesam ( small excuse, vyAjam)
that Swamy Desikan refers to in this slOkam:" DayALu:
svEna yEva kluptham avEkshamANa: Sva-prApthayE
thvarasE ".This is the upadEsam of Sawmy Desikan
in the 14th slOkam of SaranAgathi DhIpikai.
In the Charama SlOkAdhikAram , Swamy Desikan elaborates
brilliantly these tathtvams relating to Prapathti
as instructed by GeethAchAryan.