Dear Shri Sudharsan
swAmi,
I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptin on
draupadi's will-power and ultimate compassion in condoning
aswathAmA.
However, this made to ponder over the
larger issue of saraNAgathi. The question "Does one's basic
character change after saraNAgathi?" came up to my
mind.
The basic character appears to remain so
before and after the saraNAgathi.
Let us take a case. In case of sri
sugrEvA, who surrenders to sri rAmA, sri rAmA even forgetting His grief,
retrieves the kingdom from vAli after vAli vadham. What happens later? sugrEvA
completely forgets the presence of his saviour and spends his time with thArA.
It is another matter that iLaya-perumAL goes and reminds sugrEvA his duty.
The point here is, sugrEvA requested for
kingdom from sri rAmA and he got it. At that point he should have been a
reformed one. ONce, the purpose of the saraNAgathi was over, his character did
not change.
Let us take the case of sri vibhEshanA. He
also surrendered to the Lord. However, in tune with his inherent character, his
love, affection and devotion towards the Lord did not
change.
Let us see another case, though not
directly in the context of saraNAgathi. sri gOvindhaswAmy had the divine vision
of sri thiru-vENkatamudaiyAn.What happened, all his desires in this world should
have become naught at that point of time. However, the Lord observing that he
has still some lingering desires grants him guarantee of mukthi after he
fulfills those desires in this world.
I think it would not be out of context to
see that the basic character and saraNAgathi do not have any
nexus.
The serpant sumukan surrenders at
the feet of Lord. Sri thirumangai mannan describes this : "nanju sOrvadhOAr
venjina aravam" periya thiru-mzohi 5-8-4;
When a devotee approaches the Lord,
he should be worshpping HIm. Instead, the serpant spitting venom with vengance
is specified here.
Sri periyavAchAn piLLai mentions that "
The finer print here is that nobody is ineligible for saraNAgathi'--idhil
palithadhu ennavenRAl saraNAgathikku arhar illAdhAr illai
engaikkAga.
Sri kAcnhi PBA swAmi in his dhivyArtha
dhEpikai "nanu" "venjinam" pAmbin iyaRkai kodumaiyai viLakkuvana. idhanAl
saraNAgadhikku adhigArigaL AgAdhArillai enbadhu thOnRum.
Thus, having seen all these, on notices
that the basic character need not necessarily change before and after the
saraNagathi.
This is my humble
understanding.
dAsan
vanamamalai
padmanabhan
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