Clearly after the previous blog post, this topic needed more introspection.That does not take you anywhere. So I triggered a mail chain on Causeless Mercy which got some interesting answers with reference to a lot of traditional material.
In my humble opinion, the traditional materials along with the commentaries seem more accessible than lesser mortals ability to explain them in a simple language (clearly referring to folks like myself). So I started a little reading of Srivachana Bhushanam with Mamunigal's commetary. Needless to say there is a separate section by Swami Pillai Lokacharya titled "பகவந் நிர்ஹேதுக க்ருபா ப்ரபாவம்".
I was not trying to get to the bottom of this. What I wanted was to just highlight a few suthras that defined "how we interpreted our current state" and "how this works" as per Swami's work and commentary by Jeeyar.
First on "how the jeevathmaas interpret bhagavan's Krupa".
Fantastic and appropriate analogy. When a child is playing in the streets and gets hurt by falling down, he/she does not pause to think why it happened or how? The immediate act is run inside the home, crying and hit the mother thinking it was because of her and she did not protect!!! In Bhagavan's it appears more convincing as everything is part of him and he has the power to address this. It appears as if he himself causes suffering!!
When a child goes near an open well, the mother is expected to run and grab the child before he falls. If that does not happen and child falls, its as if mother herself pushed the child into the well. Replace mother with bhagavan, Child with jeevathmaas and well with this samsara.
So what actually happens? (I am skipping Suthras.. anyone interested should read thru in entirety..otherwise this may seem incomplete. I am only highlighting a few Suthraas).
Very simple... Karma causes suffering and Samsara and Grace causes relief/freedom from Samsara.
but how ... I dont see any grace. Atleast that is (was) my complaint. The next suthra addresses what happens if we misinterpret the above suthra. Two alternatives are given
(1) Freedom is due to my good deeds. My suffering is due to Bhagavan. - Will result in Bhagavan allowing you to get released due to your effort - And we know what happens next!!!
(2) Both suffering and freedom is due to Bhagavan. I have nothing to do here. Same results !! The next Sutra stresses this fact. When one is drowning and another is trying to help, it is as if the person helping is blamed for causing the drowning in the first place (just because he is in the right place/tme to help!!!!)
I want to include just one Suthra to highlight how Krupa works where Bhagavan picks random acts as Punya and triggers a chain of events to put us in the right path. ( Can you imagine what this means.. For lesser mortals like us who think of ourselves as superior just becoz we have spent some little money to do something in some temple or otherwise .... it is very likely due to such a trigger as defined below than anything we deserve )
Ulagariyan uses this to give instances of how Krupa works. Going to Jeeyar's commentary.....
First episode - Story of Lalitha - A Queen of King of Kasi.
King of Kasi had multiple wives and Lalitha was one of them. She was the most beautiful of all and was also the king's favorite. She was extremely smart and had a brilliance around her. In addition she was very devoted to bhagavan and spent her time lighting lamps in the temple regularly.
The other queens were obviously impressed and queried her on the reasons behind her position. She responds!
Concluding Suthra for this post.
Cause for fear - Thinking of all Karmas - both good and bad and worrying whats going to happen
Cause for getting out that fear - Thinking of Bhagavan's mercy - that irrespective of the Karma he is going to use just his grace to help us achieve Moksha.
In my humble opinion, the traditional materials along with the commentaries seem more accessible than lesser mortals ability to explain them in a simple language (clearly referring to folks like myself). So I started a little reading of Srivachana Bhushanam with Mamunigal's commetary. Needless to say there is a separate section by Swami Pillai Lokacharya titled "பகவந் நிர்ஹேதுக க்ருபா ப்ரபாவம்".
I was not trying to get to the bottom of this. What I wanted was to just highlight a few suthras that defined "how we interpreted our current state" and "how this works" as per Swami's work and commentary by Jeeyar.
First on "how the jeevathmaas interpret bhagavan's Krupa".
When a child goes near an open well, the mother is expected to run and grab the child before he falls. If that does not happen and child falls, its as if mother herself pushed the child into the well. Replace mother with bhagavan, Child with jeevathmaas and well with this samsara.
So what actually happens? (I am skipping Suthras.. anyone interested should read thru in entirety..otherwise this may seem incomplete. I am only highlighting a few Suthraas).
Very simple... Karma causes suffering and Samsara and Grace causes relief/freedom from Samsara.
but how ... I dont see any grace. Atleast that is (was) my complaint. The next suthra addresses what happens if we misinterpret the above suthra. Two alternatives are given
(1) Freedom is due to my good deeds. My suffering is due to Bhagavan. - Will result in Bhagavan allowing you to get released due to your effort - And we know what happens next!!!
(2) Both suffering and freedom is due to Bhagavan. I have nothing to do here. Same results !! The next Sutra stresses this fact. When one is drowning and another is trying to help, it is as if the person helping is blamed for causing the drowning in the first place (just because he is in the right place/tme to help!!!!)
I want to include just one Suthra to highlight how Krupa works where Bhagavan picks random acts as Punya and triggers a chain of events to put us in the right path. ( Can you imagine what this means.. For lesser mortals like us who think of ourselves as superior just becoz we have spent some little money to do something in some temple or otherwise .... it is very likely due to such a trigger as defined below than anything we deserve )
Ulagariyan uses this to give instances of how Krupa works. Going to Jeeyar's commentary.....
First episode - Story of Lalitha - A Queen of King of Kasi.
King of Kasi had multiple wives and Lalitha was one of them. She was the most beautiful of all and was also the king's favorite. She was extremely smart and had a brilliance around her. In addition she was very devoted to bhagavan and spent her time lighting lamps in the temple regularly.
The other queens were obviously impressed and queried her on the reasons behind her position. She responds!
- She was a small mouse in her previous birth
- She lived in a temple of Bhaghavan
- There was an oil lamp which was about to go out in the temple.
- The mouse wanted to grab the wick.
- At that moment, a cat came into the temple and made a sound
- Stunned by this danger, the mouse dies out of agitation
- Just before dying, the mouse triggers the flame in the lamp so that lamp continues burning
Bhagavan concluded that the mouse did a good deed and deserves help. So he made her born as a queen and more specifically with unique knowledge of her previous birth so that she can continue her path towards salvation!!
Concluding Suthra for this post.
Cause for fear - Thinking of all Karmas - both good and bad and worrying whats going to happen
Cause for getting out that fear - Thinking of Bhagavan's mercy - that irrespective of the Karma he is going to use just his grace to help us achieve Moksha.
A nicely analysed commentary.
ReplyDeleteYou have given enough correlative examples for layman to understand and follow your writing.
Well done n keep it up..
Both blogs are very well written...explaining the concept with examples. I am surely not at your level to comment. But here is my few cents.
ReplyDeleteThe beggar, act of begging (karma), the giver, the act of mercy to the beggar (Karma) is all Bhaghavan. The instrument, action, knowledge is all combined and is all Bhagavan's. The Alwars I believe saw Bhagavan in everything...unnum soru, parugum neer, thinnum vethalai ellam Kannane!!!!
I pray to Bhagavan and hopefully get the state of mind of Alwars when they wrote the Pasurams. My journey has just started...does not matter. My Perumal is there now and is waiting for me.