--- 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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