The doctrine of Sharanagathi/prapatthi constitutes the most important subject of Sri Vaishnava sampradhayam. But Sharanagathi by itself is not the upayam, the final decision regarding the liberation of the soul solely rests with the lord (it is his “thiruvullam”)
Upaayam( Adaivippavan) & Upeyam(Adaiyak koodiyavan) is emberumaan always. Sharanagthi alone cannot give the desired, fruits only Emperumaan can give us the Mokshanubhavam
In the previous article, we saw the pre-requisites of a Prappanan similarly they are certain factors which are mandatory for a charanyan, in other words, the following are the characters which must be possessed by the Charanyan/Praapagan
1)Parathvam (being the supreme one or the authority of unparalleled superiority)
)Sharanyathvam (which means compassion/mercy/daya along with the character of saulabhyam which means easily accessible even by the commons)
3)Rakshakathvam (shakthi or strength to protect)
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Sharanagathi fails where any one of the qualities is missing.
Sharanagathi Sastram
Srimad Ramayanam which is also called sharangathi shastram in each and every kanda speaks of sharangathi
Bala Kandam – the celestials/devas surrendered to the Lord Maha Vishnu for protection of the innocents who were being terrorized by the Rakshasas especially Ravana. And Dasaratha’s sharangathi to Parashurama
Ayodhya kandam – highlights Bharata’s surrender to Rama when he pleaded Him to return to Ayodhya.
The Aranya Kandam describes the surrender of the sages to Lord in the forest to protect them from the demons.
The next Kiskinda kandam describes Sugriva’s submission/sharanagathi to Rama to protect him from his brother Vali who had inflicted untold suffering on him and lord Rama’s sharanagathi to samudra rajan
The Sundara Kanda of the epic which focuses on the exploits
of Hanuman also brings out his total surrender to Rama and his exemplary devotion to Him.and SitA devi advises Ravana to surrender to Lord Rama
The Yuddha kandam describes Vibishana’s sharanagathi to Lord Rama after Ravana failed to be convinced by his advice and persuasion to return Sita to Rama. It was in this context that the Lord assured His protection to anyone who surrendered to Him.
Not all Sharanagathis give us the desired results, they are certain examples where sharangathi/prapathhi has failed,from the above let us take few examples and discuss why Sharanagathi failed?
Example No 1
In Bala Kandam, after Sita Kalyanam When Dasaratha and family returns to Ayodhaya, on the way meets “Parashurama”. Dasaratha who feared threat to his son Sri Rama did Sharanagathi to Parashurama saying “paalanam mama puthranaam abhayam thathu marhatheehee”, But here sharanagathi failed, and Parashurama asked Rama to string the bow of Maha Vishnu and of course our Sri Rama made his garva bhangam, but here why did Sharanagathi fail?
Because even though Parashuram had the qualities of and Rakshathvam, the quality of sharanyathvam was absent which means the qualities of compassion, mercy and grace along with saulabhyam were absent.Thus any number of pleadings to a person who is without mercy is not heard by him,if there is no compassion,naturally sharangathi fails
Example No 2
In Sundara Kandam, when Sri Hanuman asks Sita to quote an episode of identity to recite to Sri Rama,then Sita speaks about Kakasura Sharanagathi the incident involving Kakasura, (the vile crow that pecked at Piratti’s breast and was duly chastised by Sri Rama) . We come to know of this only from the words of Sita Devi, when She narrates it to Sri Hanuman in the Asoka Vanam, guarded day and night by Ravana’s rakshashis
Lord Rama invoked mantra of bramhastram on a darbha, and threw it after the crow. The crow ran flew, jumped did all thantras when his self efforts failed, he lamented ” Is there any to save me?” and flew to its parents thinking they might help him but they threw him out, then it surrendered to birds (since he was also a bird) sought their help, they also refused then it sought refuge with Maharishis, who rejected its plea, Thus it flew to all the bhoo, bhuvar and swarga lokas, searching for “Charyan” to save its life. Then at last he understood that no other that “Sri Rama” is the charanyan for all jeevas, fell on the lotus feet of Sri Rama and begged forgiveness, goes the story
(In this context, there is an explanation that when Kakasura fell on the lotus feet of Sri Rama, it fell on the reverse, that is usually when we prostrate we put our head towards the Thiruvadi of the charanyan, but here the crow in its tension and willingness to save its life, put his feet towards the Thiruvadi of Sri Rama, immediately Sita Piratti reversed its body, making it to prostrate in right posture and take sharangathi at the thiruvadi of Sri Rama. Thus even when Kakasura had done so much aparadham/apacharam to piratti, she who is full of mercy (she being the mother of all jeevas) forgave him,(and being Purushakaram recommends to HIM to save all jeevas)
In the above example, even though, the parents and others, may even had mercy or daya, they did not have the qualities of Parathvam and Rakshkathvam that is supremacy or strength to face Rama Bhana (arrow)to save kakasura from the bramhastram of the Lord, thus sharnagathi failed
Example No 3
Yuddha Kandam of Srimad Ramayanam describes, the Lord Sri Rama’s sharanagathi to Samudra Rajan, heeding to the advice of Vibeeshana, Sri Rama, took a dip, spreading the darbha asana, facing east, surrendered to samudra rajan with out food and sleep, for 3 days & nights, Samudra Rajan did not come out, Rama got angered. whole world came to standstill, he decided to punish samudra rajan, & started preparations for the same,then came up samdura rajan who fell at the lord’s feet begged forgiveness, Even though here the lord himself is prapannan, even then sharnagathi failed,why?
because,Samudra Rajan does not have the characteristics of Parathvam and Rakashakthvam, and even a better reason may be noted that A CHARANYAN CANNOT BECOME A PRAPANNA (Vice-Versa)AND A PRAPANNAN CANNOT BECOME A CHARANYAN it can be explained that Sri Rama being a charanyan does not have the qualities of prapnnan and similarly Samudra Rajan who is prapannan does not have the qualities of charanyan
In this context adiyen would like to quote an explanation as received from Sri Embar Jeeyar Swamy, Here it is said, that if Samudra Rajan would have come out hearing Sri Rama’s request, he would have lost his swapooram of Parathanthreeyam (Parathanthreeyam is subservience devoid of swthanthreeyam). Mahans consider the qualities of sehsatvam and parthanthreeyam as their great assets. so Samudra rajan decided, that he would face the anger of the lord, instead of losing his swaroopam of parathanthreeyam
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