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--- In tiruvengadam@xxxx, "Sudarshan M.K." <sampathkumar_2000@xxxx> 
wrote:
--- In tiruvengadam@xxxx, "Malolan Cadambi" <mcadambi@xxxx> wrote:
> sri:
> Dear Bhaktas,
> On a jiiva, what "roles" do Fate, Free will and Bhagavad Sankalpam 
mean? Does Bhagavad Sankalpam alone rule a jiiva or does the jiiva 
have some free will? Does the jiiva have ability to think rationally 
or does even thinking require bhagavad sankalpam? Does the power of 
bhagavad sankalpam superseed everything else?

> My apologies if the questions sound irreverent.
Adiyen Ramanuja Daasan,
> Malolan Cadambi
********************


Dear Sri.Malolan,

It is a very important, not irreverent, question that you ask. In 
fact, everyone of us should seek answers to such questions in our own 
lives. It is part of 'atma-vIchAram' or what is known in Vedantic 
parlance as inquiry into Self.

Fate, Free Will and 'bhagavath-sankalpam' (The Supreme Will of God) 
--- what "roles" do they play in an individual's (jIvA) life?

Adiyane too has asked himself such questions at many times in life. 
Apart from finding some useful clues in the Vedantic treatises of 
SriVaishnava 'achAryA-s' (FYI, e.g. in "yatindra-mata-deepikA"), in 
adiyane's view one can get the best possible and most illuminating 
answers more easily from a deep study of the character of Kunti-devi 
in the Mahabharata.

Kunti's whole life is a magnificent canvass on which Fate, Free-will 
and 'bhagavath-sankalpam' all freely painted their own motifs. The 
final result was that Kunti evolved as a person into an exceptionally 
noble soul, a supreme 'gnyAni' in her own right and into an
especially beloved one of God, comparable only to the 'gopeekA-s' of 
Brindavan for whom Krishna had a very special place in His heart. 

At a very early age Fate dealt Kunti a rather cruel hand. Factors and 
forces beyond her control or comprehension turned her into a young, 
un-wed mother (of Karna). Kunti secretly and silently bore that 
supreme shame of womanhood to almost the very end of her life.

Kunti married early but equally soon she also became an unfortuante 
widow. Thereafter, although she was a Queen in the royal house she 
actually lived anything but a Queen's life. Like any widow in those 
times she was nothing but what they call, in Tamil, a woe-begone 
"vAzhAvatti". She and her 5 children were maltreated by the Kauravas. 
She bore insults, barbs, oppression and humiliation at every stage of 
her early motherhood. Even within her own home she lived in constant 
fear of her and her children's lives. The Kauravas tried to poison
her sons; their house was set afire, there were spies and enemies all 
around them...

When her children, the Pandavas, grew up Kunti watched them being 
slowly dispossessed of all that was their royal right. She lived to 
see her daughter-in-law's modesty outraged under full public gaze 
amidst family members and venerable elders. She witnessed them 
then being expelled from their homes and banished into exile from 
Hastinapur. In old age and disease, Kunti too shared the rigours and 
discomfort of life in exile with her hapless sons for 12 long 
and painful years.

In the evening of her life, Kunti next witnessed a fratricidal war of 
unprecedented savagery that was fought by her own kith and kin. Right 
before her eyes, hundreds of young men like Abhimanyu... all of whom 
she had probably even seen in their cradles or perhaps being suckled 
by their mothers... she watched them all, one by one, die the most 
horrific of deaths on the bloody battlefields of Kurukshetra.

Grief, tribulation and unmitigated tragedy were indeed thus the
first, maiden and surnames of Kunti.

As we further read the story of the Mahabharatha and closely analyse 
the character of Kunti, we are sometimes forced to ask the question: 
Did not Kunti possess the power to avert the great tragedy that
befell the Kauravas and Pandavas? If only she had exercised her "free 
will" at a crucial juncture in the troubled history of Hastinapur, 
could she not have brought the two warring families together? If only 
she had come out openly in public, coming clean about her secret
shame with the rest of the world, might she not have possibly saved 
the thousands of young lives that were so cruelly laid down at 
Kurukshetra? If only Kunti had "chosen" (by free will) to acknowledge 
to the whole world that Karna was indeed her own son... if she had 
revealed that dark secret of her life... might she not have changed 
the whole story of the Mahabharata?

But we know that Kunti did no such thing! And we know too that she
did no such thing even against her own "free-will"! Much as her 
mother's heart wrenched and melted at the sight of Karna at every 
moment she saw him while he lived, Kunti came forward to claim him as 
her own son only on his death-bed! Why? Where was her "free-will"?

******** ********* ************

So we see in the Mahabharata how both Fate and Free-will indeed truly 
conspired to bring about the extremely sad and distressing events in 
Kunti's life. If for a moment we were to each put ourselves in her 
place, we would realize that we would be simply unable to bear, even 
for a moment, the pain of all those burdens she bore so stoically all 
her life.

And yet the story of the Mahabharatha tells us that one day in 
Hastinapur, Kunti while entertaining Lord Krishna in her chambers, 
told Him:

"O Krishna, in my long life I have had only two constant companions. 
One has been Grief... grief of every conceivable kind. And the other 
has been You. It is you two who have been by my side all my life. 
Sometimes, O Krishna, I'm tempted to believe that You are always by
my side only because Grief also happens to be my inseparable 
companion! But if that were truly so, my dear Krishna, if all it will 
take to make You never leave my side is only Grief, then I shall 
welcome grief a thousand times more painful to enter into my heart
and drown it! O Krishna, I pray to Thee! Give me a thousand more
great causes for distress in life, but please promise me You will 
never leave me for a moment!".

Those were Kunti's poignant words! Words that showed what a great and 
truly noble soul she was! Words that show us too how, in the ultimate 
analysis, both Fate and Free-will must and will finally submit to 
"bhagavath-sankalpam"! 

I hope, Sri.Malolan, I have succeeded in conveying the essential 
message of the Mahabharatha, and of Kunti's life-story in it, to you 
and trust that it will also throw light on the question of "fate,
free-will and bhagavath-sankalpam" you have raised.

"krishnAya vAsudevAya devaki nandAnAya cha
nandagOpa kumArAya gOvindAya namO namaha
nama: pankaja-nAbhAya, nama: pankaja-mAlinay
nama: panakaja-nEtrAya, namastE pankajAnghrayE!"
(Kunti-stuti)

Regards,
dAsan,
Sudarshan
--- End forwarded message ---






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