Prapatti

 

My brother and I were blessed with samasrayanam and bharanyasam anugraham by HH Prakrutham Srimath Azhjagiyasingar  on Sri Jayanthi day In 2013. I wanted to write a short post on Sri Jayanthi day this year, but due to lack of time, I could not do so. I Am posting my write-up now because I feel it is better late than never.

As per shastras, a person can obtain mukthi only by performing bakthi or prapatti. Many people think that devotional acts like going to the temple is the bakthi mentioned by the shastras. This is not true. The bakthi stated by shastras is one of the 32 Brahmma Vidhya; i.e bakthi yogam. This bakthi cannot be performed by ordinary people like us. This involves difficult yogas like panchagni vidhya. For example, in the panchagni vidhya bakthi yogin uninterruptedly meditates upon Perumal in summer while sitting amidst 4 burning fires under the scorching sun! So, we cannot perform the bakthi mentioned by shastras, and the only option left for us is prapatti. Prapatti is one of the 32 Brahma Vidhyas as well and is called Nyasa Vidhya. This is the only feasible option for us.

Many people argue that one need not perform prapatti at a young age and that one can wait till they are old. Does anyone know what our lifespan is? We do not even know what is going to happen in the next few seconds and hence, how can we assume that we will live long enough and will have time to perform prapatti in our old age? Shouldn’t this same logic of waiting till one's old age apply while taking life insurance too? Why keep paying hefty fees now? Why not start paying policy fees in our old age just before our life comes to an end? As uncertainty is the only certainty of life, one must not waste time and should perform prapatti as soon as possible.

The next confusion people have is prohibition involving ahara niyamam. My acharyan has said that yes not following proper ahara niyamam and eating in restaurants make a person incur sins. This is true whether a person has performed prapatti or not. A person who does not follow ahara niyamam after performing prapatti has to endure minor punishments in this life whereas those people who have not performed prapatti and do prohibited activities like eating at restaurants also incur sins, but instead of minor punishments here, they have to undergo severe punishments in hell. Now, which option is better?

Yet another factor that prevents people from performing prapatti is the devotion they feel for other devathas. Now other devathas including Sivan, Brahmma or Durga cannot offer mukthi. When Gantakarna wanted mukthi, Lord Siva advised him to perform saranagathi at the lotus feet of Lord Sriman Narayana only. There is a beautiful symbolism in Krishnavataram. As soon as Lord Krishna incarnated, by being closer to Perumal, the shackles of Vasudeva and Devaki came undone. Later when they swapped Krishna with Durga, as soon as they brought her into the prison, they were once again shackled. Those who wish to be freed from samsara can only get freed by performing saranagathi at the lotus feet of Perumal. Worshipping other devas will only keep us here. The names Siva, Brahmma, Indra etc represent posts and in each creation cycle, a new jeevatma is appointed to these posts. The current Brahmma, Siva, and Indra are also performing Bakthi Yogam and will attain mukthi when they finish spending their prarabhdha karma.

A person may think that as they are doing only good deeds in this janma, the next janma will only be better. The karma we have started experiencing in this janma is called prarabhdha karma. We withdraw this prarabhdha karma from the big bank called sanchita karma. Now our karma bank includes both punyas and papas. To attain moksham, both our punyam and papam must come down to zero. We cannot use punyam to cancel papams as each is from a separate bank. Let us say that the prarabhdha karma we have started enjoying in this life has a mixture of punyam (gold coins) and papam (iron coins). This prarabhdha karma can continue over many births. We have good gnanam in this birth because of the punyam we had performed earlier and we have withdrawn this punyam into our prarabhdha karma account. If we fail to make use of this opportunity now, we may not get this opportunity again for many many many births. In this janma, a person may be enjoying punyam. In the next janma, they may have to spend iron coins from their prarabhdha karma account and because they take birth to spend papam, they may not retain the gnanam about prapatti. Now, they have to undergo many many cycles of birth पुनरपि जननं पुनरपि मरणं புனரபி ஜனனம் புனரபி மரணம் punarapi jananam punrapi maranam and no one can estimate how many such births one must endure before once again getting the opportunity to learn about prapatti.

When Sri Adi Sankaracharyar’s mother was about to breathe her last, Sri Adi Sankaracharya showed the different worlds to her and after explaining the importance of breaking free from samsara, made sure that she went to Sri Vaikuntha only!

 People think punyam is accumulated through charitable acts, but this will not grant moksham.