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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00076 May 2003

 
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Sri:
Srimathe Ramanujaya nama:
Dear Soundar,
My suggesion to you is to read Sri Parthasarathy Iyengar's 
posts on freewill,& nirhEtuka krpa. He is gifted with very good 
analytical reasoning and writes very lucidly quoting so much from 
TiruvAymozhi,SVB,AH etc that any fool(with no formal background in 
either methodology or sampradAyam) can understand. I have enormously 
benefitted through my interaction with him that I have no words to 
express my gratitude towards him. It is because of him,I am now 
happily sailing through SVB. 

Sriman Lakshmi Narasimhan quoting "some isolated one or 
two slokas" from AcArya Hrdhayam in no way supports sahEtukam(from 
the perspective of the Lord). AH,out and out only talks about 
paragata swIkAram(the unconditional grace of the Lord on His 
subjects). Sri Azhagiya MaNavALa PerumAL NAyanAr only highlights the 
greatness of the Lord's kalyANa guNas(Suthram 185 quoted by Lakshmi 
Narasimhan)and does not support the sahEtukam perspective from the 
Lord's side. Even when the jivAtma does utter the name of the Lord 
unintentionally,the Lord's "quality" is such that He thinks the 
jIvAtmA only referred to Him. The STRESS IS ON THE LORD'S QUALITY AND 
NOT ON THE EFFORT OF THE JIVATMA. Both the brothers(Sri PL and Sri 
AMPN)without any ambiguity,clearly explain their respective works. It 
is a very subtle point that you need to catch. 

> Meaning: Thus I have explained to you the most confidential of all 
> knowledge. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to 
> do.

First of all BG is a part of MahabhAratha and you should know the 
grand scheme behind it. Refer to 

SVB 5: ithihAsa srEshtamAna SrirAmAyaNaththAl siRai irundhavaL(sIta) 
ERRam sollugiRadhu; mahAbhArathaththAl thUdhu pOnavan(KrShNa) ERRam
sollugiRadhu.

SVB 14: aRiyAdha arThangaLai adaiya aRiviththu AcArya krthyaththaiyum
(role of an AcArya), puruShakAra krthyaththaiyum(role of Mahalakshmi 
as the mediatrix),upAya krthyaththaiyum thAnE ERittuk koLLugaiyAlE 
mahAbhArathaththil upAya vaibhavam solliRRAyiRRu.

[Lord KrShNa assumed all the three roles,namely,as the (i)AcArya
who imparts the spiritual knowledge unknown to the disciple,(ii)
recommendatory role of the Divine Mother,through whose grace the 
disciple is ushered at Lord's doorstep (iii)offering Himself as the 
sole refuge for the finale "salvation"[mAm Ekam sharaNam vraja...mA 
shuca:]

You seem to forget the point that it is the Lord who chose Arjuna and 
through Arjuna gave the Bhagavad Gita/mOksha Dharma to all
(sentient/non-sentient). Isn't this itself an indication of nirhEtuka 
krpa of the Lord??? If this is still not clear,let us go to 18:64

> Here Krishna gives the Choice to the Jeevatma, Arjuna being the 
> representation of the Jeevas. Kindly notice that this statement 
> totally contradicts the concept of Nirhetuka Kripa. If one quotes 
> the Charama Shloka, in which Lord Krishna asks the Jeevatma for
> total surrender and that is the concept of Prapatti, one should
> also realize that this Shloka is a prelude to the Charama Shloka,
> Krishna says, in the next verse (BG 18.64 ), "Because you are My
> very dear friend, I am speaking to you the most confidential part
> of knowledge. Hear this from Me, for it is for your benefit". And
> then goes on with the Charama Shloka.

It doesn't contradict. The Lord only first said that "you 
are My dear friend and hence I'm giving you this Supreme 
knowledge...". BTW,do you know how Arjuna treats SriKrShNa after the 
end of the first day during war? The Lord gave Arjuna(disciple) the 
Supreme knowledge and Arjuna treats the Lord(AcAryA)like a servant! 
Arjuna contradicted the fourth prakaraNa(of SVB)which details "carama 
upAyam"(AcAryA as the ultimate upAyam, which in no way contradicts 
the Lord being the upAyam,and "repayment to the AcArya" is possible 
ONLY IF THERE WERE TWO LORDS AND FOUR VIBHUTIS!!! This is the 
greatness of AcAryA(Cf BG 4:34). 

Even after listening to BG,Arjuna cries over abhimanyu's 
death and has some erroneous thoughts regarding his acts. Arjuna only 
got back the kingdom but didn't receive the full benefits of carama
(ultimate) slOkam(verse). Even if you assume that the jIvAtma has 
free will,who supplied the jIvAtma the body,mind,intellect etc? You 
can refer to Thathva thrayam(26-37). Although the doership belongs to 
the individual soul,the individual doership is dependent on the Lord 
because the states like thinking(j~nAna),desiring(cikIrsha),striving
(prayathna) are controlled by the Lord and not possible to blossom 
into action without His assent. KrShNa tells Arjuna[BG 11:33] 
that "bhIShma,DhrONa.. are all slain by Me already;you are only 
acting as an instrument". 

> So the crux of the issue is this: Perumal gives the choice to the
> Jeevatma, regarding what to do and what not to do. Meaning, the
> Jeevatma has free-will (definitely!!). How are we to understand
> that we don't have any freewill, and Moksha is 100% dependent on
> His will, without not even an iota of our effort??

As far redemption is concerned,the jIvAtmA has no 
freewill. To illustrate the Lord's greatness,I would like to share a 
personal example from my father's experience. My father used to teach 
Mathematics and would bring students exams papers. Sometimes He had 
asked me to correct their papers. Although I have a Master's degree 
in Math from IITM,my father would write down the rules of correction 
and would even tell me not to reflect my arrogant knowledge on the 
poor student while correcting[knowledge(comes first) is different 
from wisdom(comes second)!]. My father goes out of his way to give 
marks for the student who had done the exam so badly that he doesn't 
deserve to pass in the eyes of some people(who strictly go by 
knowledge). I myself know how many undeserving students had cleared
the final board/college exams. My father would say that "poor 
student,we don't know what his problems/difficulties are or his 
background and so wouldn't want to spoil his life by flunking him". I 
used to wonder "if my father(a mere mortal)worries so much about some 
student's life and takes the pain to pass him somehow,how much the 
Lord would worry about His subjects/possessions and would strive to 
liberate them or do anything for them". Many such experiences have 
only increased my faith in Him and also nirhEtuka krpa.

Don't read Bhagavad Gita as an isolated subject! Remember that it is 
the Lord who offered Himself to act as a messenger. Is not this an 
indication of nirhEtuka krpa??? 

Try to catch hold of the thathva thrayam of Sri PiLLai lOkAcAryAr. 
Any wrongly conveyed message is my error and seek forgiveness.

AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE sharaNam
NC Nappinnai







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