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Sri:
Srimathe Ramanujaya nama:
Srimad Vara Vara Munaye nama:
Dear Soundar,

> According to Smt. Sumithra, it is the will of the person who gives
> food or alms to the beggar. Well, but still the beggar still has to
> beg for food, right?? Only since the beggar made calls for alms,
> did the owner decides or does't not decide to give alms. So, the
> act of the beggar becomes the main cause of food. Considering this
> example alone, Moksha then becomes Sahetukam (Beggar first makes
> call for alms, which means Jeevatma surrenders first)

By the above analogy,it is the Will of the Lord that matters in 
granting or not granting mOskha to His subjects. So,it is "IMMATERIAL 
and IRRELEVANT" whether or not the Subjects/jIvATmA begs/surrenders!

jIvATmA seeks alms/refuge;the Lord grants or denies.
jIvAtmA doesn't seek;the Lord grants or denies.

The only commonality is the Lord granting or denying. So jIvATmA's 
role/action is disregarded. BTW,you haven't seen the Lord in person 
and do not know His mind/actions! But w/o all the tips provided by 
our AcAryAs,we have the audacity to shake the beauty of His kalyANa 
guNAs(questioning the nirhEthuka krpa),to judge Him and if possible 
even overthrow Him:-) 

> If person A is God and person B is the jeeva. A controls B totally.
> B is totally dependent on A. B cannot do any activites on his own
> (meaning no free will). This is the scenario. Suppose if B performs
> something sinful, it is understand that actually it is person A who
> is actually the doer. Given this, how can person A tell person 

For example I(jIvAtmA/sentient) invent/discover TV(acit/non-sentient).
TV exists "solely" for "my enjoyment" and not for its own! TV does 
not jump and scream "Hey,I'm working great and enjoy myself,and 
infact I entertain you. Hence I deserve the doership. What have you 
gotta say, Man?". Imagine,when you reach home this evening,your TV 
questions "where the hell have you been? why are you so late?" I can 
bet the expression on your face would not be a "happy one". Or is it 
going to say "hey soundar I felt lonely while you were away and I'm 
so excited that you're back home!". When non-sentient starts 
speaking/acting,that is the end of the world for jIvAtmA!!!

Due to my own discovery,once I switch "on" the button,TV starts 
performing a set of operations. Otherwise it's going to remain 
idle,dumb and an idiot box. It it doesn't work,it's entirely 
upto "me" to repair or not to repair it. Out of "my nirhEthuka 
krpa",I repair it(TV doesn't say: "will you work on me?")and make it 
work again. If I need to replace some faulty parts,I may do so or may 
not. If it's not worth repairing it(if the repairing costs exceed the 
original cost of the TV!),I may break it into pieces with "my own 
hands" and give it "vimOcanam/mOksha". WHatever be the situation,the 
TV is under " my mercy". Without "my intervention",the TV is not 
going to do "ANYTHING". It is not going to and capable of repairing 
itself. TV is my property,my baby,my invention and what I do with it 
is "entirely and solely" depends on me ALONE. TV has no business or 
rights to have any claims over it. Apply this analogy to paramAtmA 
and jIvAtmA. Replace jIvAtmA by paramAtmA and acit by jIvAtmA!
Yes,this may spur the ego of the jIvAtmA and it hardly takes 
nanoseconds to rub the ego of a person. But this is the truth and 
truth is "ALWAYS" bitter.

> With respect to Nirhetukam which means, "Causeless Mercy". Well,
> the same Bhagavad Gita, which speaks about Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga,
> Bhakti Yoga and finally Prapatti, somehow fails to talk about
> the "Causeless Mercy" of the lord. Perumal only says, "surrender,
> do this, do that". Not in a single verse has he said, "Just
> surrender unto me mentally and remain a vegetable physically". No. 

There are hundreds of books on relativity but every boook is not a 
bible. Similarly there are thousands of books on BG by various 
authors but not all of them are "CLASSIC". In many places in BG,the 
Lord says "EXPLICITLY" that it is "ONLY" out of His grace
(BG 11:47) that the puppet Arjuna is receiving "such such a thing". 
Be it knowledge or vishvarUpa dharshanam. I'm dead sure that whatever 
explanation you give for the BG slokas is not your own and surely 
must have referred to some book. It matters "a lot" whose and which 
book you refer to!


> Can I surrender to an Acarya, have Samashrayanam done and
> mentally pray to Perumal, "I am yours. I have surrendered unto You.
> Whatver I do, You are the Karta", and then end up watching a nice
> episode of Seinfeld?? Meaning, does it reflect the traits of a
> prapanna??

SamAshrayaNam is not the criterion/means for attaining mOskham. 
Whether or not you realize that you're His,you're already His 
property and you belong to Him only(read Tirumantra 
prakaraNam,Mumukshuppadi by TCA Venkatesan). If you realize it,it's 
well and great and if you don't it is well and great again! You 
write "dasan" sometimes and at other times the full signature. If you 
are crazy about your own "freewill" and "sahEthukam",the word "dAsan" 
loses its beauty. That's why elders normally advise that one should 
not write that without undergoing the samAshrayaNam. AcAryan will 
explain all those things at the time of samAshrayaNam. I do know the 
meaning but I have taken an oath and have drawn a LakshmaNa 
line/kOdu/rEkhA for myself that I should put that stamp/signature 
ONLY after I undergo the samAshrayaNam because nothing like receiving 
the knowledge from the right AcAryan! It's an unparalleled moment 
that I'm patiently waiting for it!

Most of us would forfeit to claim ourselves as prapanna in "strict 
sense" because we are living in the 21st century and the society is 
corrupted by science and technology. Do whatever you want,but give up 
the doership! Here comes the tricky part!!! You had already asked "I 
can committ crimes,robbery etc" and still say that it is the Lord who 
did that. But when the mental realization happens,surely the person 
would stop committing negative acts of all kinds. In today's world 
you can'say that watching Seinfeld is a crime. It's just an 
entertainment. But the question is "are you going to sit in front of 
that idiot box all the 24 hrs" after realizing that "I'm Yours". I 
don't think it's possible because "knowledge and ignorance do not co-
exist". Sometimes when I get bored I do watch animal planet(I adore 
animals) or Seinfeld or some Sitcom apart from the academics and 
learning about our sampradAyam. Did the Lord grant the j~nAnam and 
bhakthi to NammAzhvAr in one-go? NO. I will quote AH in the next 
post. 

> Based on what has appealed to my logic (which is totally inferior
> and flawed), I am of the opinion that we do have a bare minimum of
> free will. Based on that free will, we exercise options, we choose.
> We choose to surrender or not surrender. If we don't surrender,
> then again we get lost in this cycle of samsara.

If you think you have "limited free will",you're entitled to stick to 
your views. But then you can not claim yourself as TK! If I hold the 
views of Christianity and follow the tenets of the same,only then can 
I claim myself as Christian,otherwise I can not. It is as simple as 
that. EVen if you don't surrender,you can get liberated. Even if you 
surrender,you may not get liberated:-) That's the TK view! Because,We 
don't know our past and future births. With fairly good 
accuracy,astrologers can predict the past,present to some extent and 
future little in the current birth. 

Your actions CAN NOT become a "cause" for His actions. If so,you're 
superior to Him! That is, there is one cause which supercedes the 
First cause. He is the First Cause and hence there can not be any 
further "causes"(prior to Him) for Him to grant anything/everything/ 
nothing(effect based on your actions/cause). That's why it is 
called "nirhEthuka krpa". 


> The third idea that is suggested is this: We surrender, but still
> perumal chooses to grant moksha or not, based on his will. I think
> it is a very dangerous, demotivating point. Historically, there has
> never been a case in which Perumal had failed to offer Moksha to
> somebody who had surrendered. He might have tested them, like Sri
> Thondaradippodi AzhwAr, but had never failed to offer to them
> Moksha.

The POINT is thondaradippodi AzhvAr did not surrender on his own. 
It's only after His grace(and the mediation of thAyAr),he surrenders. 
It's He who chooses the "muhUrtham" for that to happen! You're 
dragged into His court and He is the Judge(of karma). The default 
lawyer for jIvAtmA is thAyAr/mahAlakshmi. The jIvATmA has piled up 
mountains of sins and how is it going to defend itself(by freewill & 
sahEthukam) without any "mediator/referee" in front of the Judge? 
JivAtmA's good deeds are so small that the jIvAtmA only deserves to 
be thrown back into this samsAra and suffer for ever! 

> So, the crux of the matter is this: Instead of just relying on
> the "Nirhetuka Kripa" of perumal, it is a good idea for us to
> follow His instructions. Accept an AcAryan. Surrender unto Him.
> And follow the spiritual practices as laid down by him. Why??
> Because Perumal says so.

Would you go for conditional love with your parents/brother/sister/ 
wife or whatever relation? There is some natural love between the 
parents and children or brothers and sisters,friends-friends,husband-
wife etc. So is the natural love/relation is to serve The Divine 
Couple and the bhAgavathAs unconditionally forever and eternally!
Without His green signal,no one can change oneself or others!!! 

AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE sharaNam
NC Nappinnai





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