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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