You are here: SriPedia - SriRangaSri - Archives - Feb 2002

SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00002 Feb 2002

 
Feb 2002 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


Dear Sri Kalaivani,

This question has been put an innumerable number of
times by people sometimes to themselves and sometimes
to others.

What I feel on this is as follows :

A person does prapatti to the Lord when he realizes
his utter helplessness to come out of the clutches of
his past karma and the 3 gunas. Also he/she doing
prapatti to the Lord indicates that he/she loves the
Lord to a good extent. Its only when you love him, you
want to do something for him, you want to be good in
his eyes, you want to create happiness in his heart
when he sees you and so on. So you realize that
somehow you want to elevate yourself from the position
you are in. But you keep failing again and again on
your self-efforts filled with ego ( I can protect
myself ). Its no doubt that effort is required from a
soul, but while doing that, the person should remember
that all these are being made possible by the Lord
himself. As Lord Krishna said, "What ever sacrifice
you do, do it as an offering to me". There should be
no ego that I am doing this. Otherwise, it can result
in a downfall.

Many people now a days do prapatti to the Lord
thinking that thats the end of it and the Lord will
protect them. Its not the case. Prapatti is the
acceptance of lack of ego and accepting the Lord as
the supreme everything for the soul and raising your
hands towards him like a fallen child, which is asking
its father to lift him up. But one cannot lift the
hands to the Lord once, say that he has done prapatti
and drop the hands. He need to keep that thought
constantly in his mind, that the Lord is the only one
who can deliver him from the clutches of this karma
and make the soul fit to enjoy serving HIM. Finally
its for the Lord to decide on the fate of the soul.

If Krishna lifts everyone who just says I am doing
prapatti, then there is no justice there. His grace on
a soul should be based on something. A person who does
prappati ( Accepts the Lord as the Supreme and the one
and only relation to Him ), Keeps loving the Lord
continuously in all adversities of life, tries to do
his small bit of service which is dear to the Lord
becomes dear to Krishna and then Krishna chooses him (
ye me vaisha vrunute tena labhyaha ).

So real prapatti is one in which the soul has accepted
its utter helplessness and is looking for the Lord's
grace, but at the same time, continues its efforts to
lead a life dear to the Lord. All this is automatic as
real prapatti is done by those who Love the Lord to
the core and so even after accepting his supremacy,
they cannot stop doing things which try to please him.
A child which is dear to its father, knows very well
that the father is taking lot of pains to save it and
also that the father will save it when the time comes.
But it also loves its father, when it realizes his
love towards it and so starts doing things which try
to please him.

Today many people say that we have done prapatti and
stop there. This is not the real prapatti. Its the
mental feeling of total surrender to the Lord, but as
the person who loves the Lord really only can do the
real prapatti, that person continues to do his small
bit to please the Lord and will not remain actionless
thinking that he has done prapatti and now its the
Lord's turn.

All this I said, because the word Prapatti is being
used very freely now a days. It is no doubt the easy
means to reach the Lord, but it is fruitful and has
real meaning when done by people who are in the real
exalted position and who have that intense love to the
Lord. All others escapists like me, say that we have
done prapatti and can forget and live with our worldly
selfish pleasures and since we are prapannas, the Lord
will some day come and deliver us.

Now coming to the worship of other deities,..A person
who has done real prapatti really loves the Lord. To
him the Lord is his only relative. He is like a pious
wife who is only devoted to her Husband and no 0thers.
When you have accepted the Lord as the supreme and the
only means to deliver you, you have accepted that all
others are inferior to him. If you have a doubt in the
supremacy of the Lord, then how can your bharanyaasam
help you. Personally, even though I am totally a bad
guy who is only interested in the worldly pleasures,
no other form pleases me except that of Lord Sri Hari.

Lord is the supreme one. All other deities are
definitely to be respected, but not to be worshipped.
So if this is really understood, this question will
never arise. Lord is everything. All other deities are
working for him and serving him and are parts of his
divine body. So all of them become automatically
respectable. There is no doubt or question about that.

If a person says that Lord Krishna is the only supreme
one to me and I have done bhakti or prapatti or what
ever to Krishna and I will not respect any other
lesser souls, it means that he has the ego that His
Lord is great, His family is great, His path is great,
His bhakti, prapatti is great etc. How can this be
called true Bhakti and Prapatti then?.

The person who really did prapatti, respects and loves
every being equally, but with the thought that all of
them are related to the Supreme Lord who is everything
for the person. He will not quarell with anybody about
the supremacy of the Lord as he is not egoistic in
thinking that he has to prove that his Lord, Path etc
are superior to others. He knows, that if the Lord had
to prove his supremacy, he can do it himself or make
this person as an instrument in that. Sri Periyaalwaar
was commanded by the Lord himself to establish his
supremacy in the pandya raja sabha and as a real
devotee to the Lord He did. Sri Periyaalwar was also
called Sri Vishnu Chitta. He had the Lord in his heart
forever. He loved the Lord as his son. But he was the
most humble person and lived all his life serving the
Lord out of love. There were no questions in the great
Alwar's minds about whoom to respect, whoom not and
how to preach about the supremacy of my Lord. They
loved the Lord to the core, served him to the core,
had automatic respect to everyother being in the world
and they were actual prapannas and deserved the
position they got in Srimad Vaikuntham.

Guys like me just say that we do Prapatti and do all
sorts of non-sense in this world. How can we be
eligible for the grace of the Lord?.

Its been a long mail, mainly due to my own frustration
of not being able to match the standards which will
please the Lord.

Your mails on Surdas poems ( especially the ones on
Little Kannan ) were excellent to me as I really love
the little form of the Lord. I wish that someday, he
will give me enough Love and strength which will bring
me to a position which will please the Lord and make
me the true father to my Loving little Lord. I pray to
my aacharya to protect me constantly and protect me
from falling into the trap created by my own bad
karma.

Kindly forgive me for any wrong things that I have
written.

Jai Sriman Narayana

Maruthi Ramanuja Das








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