You are here: SriPedia - Oppiliappan - Archives - Nov 1995

Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00027 Nov 1995

Nov 1995 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


Dear Members of the Prapatti Group:

Among the source documents for Prapatti , Lord Krishna"s Gita occupies a very
special place. It is generally recognized that the Bhagavat Gita is one of the
greatest "spiritual and metaphysical scriptures " of the world.It comments on
abstruse Vedantic principles in a lucid and satisfactory manner. It is
structured in the form of a dialog between Lord Krishna and Arjuna prior to the
start of the great war at Kurukshetram between Pandavas and Kauravas. There
are 700 verses in Gita that are enshrined in 18 chapters. Among the 700 verses,
Lord Krishna accounts for 572 of them; the remaining 128 are associated with
Arjuna (85) ,Sanjaya(42) and King Drithirashtra (1).

The Message of Lord Krishna
**********************************
The illustrious message thatr Lord Krishna as Parthasarathy gave to Arjuna in
the battlefield teaches us clearly and completely all that is needed to lead a
throroughly fulfilled and righteous life.The message expounded by Geethaachryan
contains invaluble teachings relevant to overcome the various crisis and
dilemmas associated with all stages of Human spiritual development. Lord Krishna
used Arjuna as a medium to bless us all with His teachings,that are global in
scope and all -encompassing in content to obtain practical solutions for our
every day problems. Through His short discourse enshrined in Gita, Our Lord
taught us in a quintessential manner ,the Universal Science of Life. He analyzed
for us brilliantly and convincingly the nature of Human life and its recurring
problems ; He did not stop only with an analysis of the problems of Life,but
also as a compassionate Acharyan taught us an elegant way to overcome the
powerful problems that we encounter in all stages of our life on this Earth.

Prapatti Message 
*********************
The powerful message of Lord Krishna comes at the very end of Gita and is found
as the 688th verse among the 700 verses of the Bhagavad Gita:

SARVA DHARMAN PARITYAJYA MAAMEKAM CHARANAM VRAJA I
AHAM TVAM SARVA PAPEPYOH MOKSHISHAYAMI MAA SUCHA: II

The Lord's message contained in the above profound verse is the Charanagathi
method, which is also known as Prapatti Dharma, Bhara Nyaasam, Atma Nikshepanam
or Self-Surrender.

Up to the 688th verse, Lord Krishna explained to Arjuna the different concepts,
that lead to God Realization and liberation for the cycles of Births and
Deaths.These concepts relate to Karma Yoga, Gyana Yoga and Bhakthi Yoga as
sound routes to attain Moksham or liberation form the cycles of Births and
deaths. Arjuna listened carefully and realized his incompetence and powerlesness
to practise any of the above three Yogas to attain Moksha siddhi and despaired
about his inadequacies as a practioner. Lord Krishna out of His infinite mercy
for Arjuna and all of us, then taught the secret of the easy -to-practise
Prapatti Yoga thru the 688th verse.After that Lord Krishna assured Arjuna that
there was no reason for Arjuna to despair over the enormous difficulties in
practising Karma or Gyana or Bhakthi Yoga to receive His blessings. Our
compassionate Lord asured Arjuna that the boons of Moksham are assured ,when
latter followed the Prapatti margam. He asked Arjuna to discard all his sorrows
resulting from his anxieties about the certainity of salvation.Sri Krishna
reveals to Arjuna that the full responsibility of saving him AFTER Prapatti is
HIS ,befitting His duties as the supreme Lord of the Universe(Sarveswaran). He
asks Arjuna to perform the Prapatti and then cast aside ALL of his doubts and
to become possessed by unshakablle and complete faith
(Maha Viswasam) in HIM as Sarveswaran to save him. Lord Krishna points out that
Prapatti is an instantaneous act (Kshana Kartavyam) and is totally different
from the other three routes of reaching Him.He states that the Karma, Gyana and
Bhakti Yoga routes are ardous to practise and it takes too long to realize the
desired goals of Moksham.

Sri Geethaacharyan asks Arjuna to cast away ALL doubts about
realizing the FULL fruits of
Prapatti and assures him that there is nothing to worry anymore about his status
as Mukta Prapanna thru the last paadam of His sacred Charama slokam(Maa Sucha:).
We have thus the quintessence of Gita"s message in the Charama Slokam.

The Visishtadvaita intrepretation of Bhagavad Gita 
**********************************************************
Inview of the sacred and the timeless nature of the profound message of Lord
Krishna enshrined in the Gita , the Acharyas of the three different
philosophies of Vedantha--Sri Adi Sankara, Sri Ramanuja and Sri Madhvacharya--
and the other teachers that followed them have written commentaries on Gita.
Sri Sankara"s commentary follows the Advitic doctrine,which holds that Brahman
is the "only true really-existing being and all the rest are illusory." Sri
Ramanuja"s commentary is based on the Visishtadvaita philosophy ,which teaches
that "the sentient souls(Jeevas) and the nonsentient objects (Achetana) are as
real as Brahman", but the Jevans and the Achetana are attributes or Viseshana
of the Parabrahman and are not independent of the Parabrahman as the Dvaitins
believe. Sri Ananda Teertha (Sri Madhvaacharya) has intrepreted Gita in the
light of Dvaita philosophy ,which teaches that Sri Krishna(Hari) is the supreme
being and that the Jeevas are real and absolutely distinct from HIM , the
Parabrahman.

It is amazing that the terse message outlined in Gita could be used by
the three Acharyas of three distinctly different Vedic philosophies to find
support for their individual points of view and to establish their
siddhanthams.We will not attempt any comparitive evaluation of the three
intrepretations here.In this essay, we shall focus on the Visishtadvaita
approach . The predecessor of Ramanuja by the name of Sri Alavandaar was the
first one to condens the profound messages of the 18 chapters of Gita. He used
THIRTY TWO Verses to accomplish htis task. His work is known as GITAARTHA
SANGRAHAM(GS). Ramanuja wrote a commentary on Gita along the lines established
by Alavandaar. Swami Desikan continued that tradition.His commentary on Gita
is known as Taatparya Chandrikai. This was a comparitive, critical evaluation
to establish that Ramanuja's exposition in the Visishtadvaita tradition was the
most consistent one with the true message of Lord Krishna in Gita.Swami
Desikan also blessed us with a commentary in Sanskrit on Alavandar"s GS and
named it " GS Raksha". For the benefit of the Tamil speaking followers, Swami
Desikan created yet another commentary on GS . This Tamil version has 21 verses
to summarize the 32 verses that Alavandaar used to summarize the essence of the
18 chapters of Gita .

We shall quote the individual verses of Alavandaar"s GS and elaborate on them in
the light of Swami Desikan's Tamil work on GS ,which is a part of his Desika
Prabhandam compendium.

V.Sadagopan 




[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index ] [Thread Index ] [Author Index ]
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia
oppiliappan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list