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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00152 Apr 2003

 
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Dear All,
The thread on nirhEthuka krupa is interesting. Like Sri TCA venkatesan 
pointed out, this is a rather delicate subject and one has to tread very 
carefully, lest it results in a big misunderstandings...

This series of discussion reminded me of something. Don't know if this 
has already been discussed. Anyway, the one concept about nirhEthuka krupa
that caught my attention rightaway is "vilakkAmai" (loosely translated as 
non-denial). This is how it is described:

On the one hand our dear parama kAruNIga, sarva swathanthra perumAL is 
trying in every possible way to reach us (n^ammai adaiya avan krushI
paNRAn!). 
Being a sarva swathanthran (the one with unfettered independence and
limitless 
power), why can't he just go ahead and do good to us? What stops him from
doing
that to us? Is there really anything that can stop him from doing
something 
good to us? 

At this point, we have to realize that, He created us the souls and gave 
us the knowledge and gave us the freedom of choice (avar avar thama
thamadhu
aRivaRi vagai vagai...). It is up to us to use this freedom to make the
right
choce or not. We, having got this newfound freedom, develop an ahankAram
and 
"assume and strongly believe" that we can take care of ourselves and so 
subconsciously "DENY" His efforts to do good to us. He respects our freedom
and
if there is one thing that kinda stops Him, it would be this choice that
we 
subconsciously (in some cases conscisouly) make to Deny Him. He has the
greatest
unquenchable desire to have us (... chUzhn^dhadhan^il periya en avA aRa
chUzhn^dhAyE!)
And He is trying to do everything He can to interpret even our
unintentional
acts and use that as an excuse (vyAjam) to reach and save us. (Long
while 
back there was a discussion on the SVB 4'th prakaraNam, first choorNai.
Will 
post the old write up if I have them... It is the most interesting part in
SVB, IMHO)

So, it is us who Deny His abundant flow of grace. If at all there is
anything
that we could do as an "effort" it is this "vilakkAmai". Once we realize
that
all along we have been denying His overflowig grace, and we undo it, thats
it.
The floodgates are open. He, like a child jumping into the hands of his
father,
would readily sweep you away with His grace. 

The ONLY thing that we could do is Not do anything. If you look at this
carefully,
we don't absolutely drop everything. We do one little thing and that is we
don't 
deny. Naturally this non-denial is not done as an effort to reach Him. It
is done
out of the sheer realization of utter helplessness AND the realization not
to deny
His flow of grace which is the only thing that can save us. This is
exactly how
draupadhi, kAkAsuran, gajEndran ... were saved. For a while, she was
holding on
to her dress, pulling it from him and trying to save herself. Then the
moment she
realizes that she is totally helpless, she leaves everything and raises
her arms
and performs prapaththi. Thats what happened in Gajendra mOksham and with

kAkAsuran as well. 

Continuing on the "vilakkAmai", While explaining the meaning of
gOvin^dhA, sri vELukkudi swAmi says that sri krishNA went behind
the cows protecting them NOT because they asked him to do so, but
just because they didn't ask Him not to follow. (He would 
humourously say, "andha mAdu saRRu ninnu, thirumbi pAththu, "onna
yAr en pinnAdi vara chonnA?" enRu kEttAl avanAla oNNum paNNa
mudiyAma poyidum. adhugaL oNNum kEkkAdhadhAla adhugaL pinnAdi pOy
samrakshaNam paNRAn.) That is more than enough reason for Him,
being the embodiment of overflowing grace, to go behind them and
offering protection.


Desikar in his munivAhana bhOgam, at the beginning, says, 
"bhagavat kataakshaththaalE ... ayathna labdhamaana ... " meaning
that thiruppaaN, without any effort whatsoever received the 
kataaksham of bhagavaan and received a vision of what previously
the great rishis only experienced in parama padham. The only yathnam 
that thiruppANar did was that he did not deny His grace and let Him
sweep AzhvAr away. And look what happened!

Out of sheer joy of discussing this, I may have misquoted or 
misunderstood some things. Please correct me. 

AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE SaraNam.
adiyEn
Vijay Triplicane




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