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Sri Sudarshan has provided a very enlightening
information/discussion on "the roles of Fate, Free
Will, and Bhagavadsankalpam." Let me express my
ignorance by adding few comments.

Without Bhagavath Sanklpam, No action or result can
take place. The actions are two fold: (1) those
dictated by Fate (Karma) and (2) those by Free Will. 
Bhagavth Sanklpam consists of three components, each
superceeding the other: (1) Fate (Past Karma),
(2)Bhavath kataksham toward prapanna as a result of
Saranagathi, and (3) Nirhethuka Krupa (Causeless
Mercy) of Sri Bhagavan. 

First, the Fate (results of past Karma) is
preprogrammed into an automated system, and the
results are bound to appear unless Sri Bhagavan
interveins. Now, it is up to the Free Will of the
individual to seek God's help and perform Saranagathi.
If one seeks His help, He remove some of the unwanted
results and then He shows the path toward Saranagathi.
He interveins in the delivery of Fate (Karma) and
reprograms it so as to lead the prapanna toward
Mukthi. However, in some cases (at His will), He
showers His Nirhethuka Krupa (causeless mercy) and
gives Gnana (reveals Himself) to perform saranagathi
without the individual seeking His Help. He could
erase all his (athma's) karma or part of it. It is His
Will. He is Sri Hari(Stealer of sins), and He is Sri
Venkateswara (burner of sins or karmas). Ven means
Sin, Kata means to burn, Iswara means Controller.
Therefore, He can erase karma at His will. While #2
i.e. seeking His help may require previous samskara or
the comapnay of good devotees, #3 does not require
any.

In conclusion, (1) Any action/result is due to
Bhagavth Sankalpam, (2) Certain ctions may be
warranted by previous Karma, (3) we can act by Free
Will but beyond what is dectated by karma, (4) Results
are dictated by Fate (Karma), (5) but Bhagavan
overrules the preprogramed Fate if we seek His help,
and (6) Bhagavan over rules the Fate of some
individuals as a causeless mercy (Nirhethuka Krupa).

In the service of Lord Sri Venkateswara, I remain,

Sincerely
Narender Reddy 



--- "Sudarshan M.K." <sampathkumar_2000@xxxx>
wrote:
> --- 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 
=== message truncated ===


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