OHM:Prapatt

Thursday, August 27, 2009

BG 18.26

Saranagati is to think His Divine feet are the means and asylum, for obtaining Moksham for us.

Charanam + iti + Aagati = Saranagati. Person, who comes to the Lord and states that He is the

only means and He is the destination, is called Saranagata. Saranagati is unconditional surrender.

If we understand the meaning of Tirumantram [Ashtaksharam], then we have to perform

saranagati. It is called Dwaya Maha Mntram, or shortly Dwayam []. It is with Two lines. By

the First line we state that through the Divine Feet of Sri Maha Lakshmi Thayar, we seek the

Divine Feet of Sri Narayana, as asylum. By the next line, we pray for reward for seeking asylum,

and that is serving the Divine Couple, always. Tirumangai Alwar in his Periya Tirumozhi,

described the meaning of Tirumantram, in the First Five decades [padikam ], and then in

the Sixth decade he surrendered [perform saranagati] to the Lord of the Divya Desam, we are

visiting now. It is one of the wonderful Divyadesams. It is Naimisharanyam [

]. Alwar says that trusting Him, he has surrendered at His feet. Where was

he all these days, the Lord asked. Alwar says that before that, he abandoned his beautiful wife,

and started grabbing others' property and wives. He came to know that for all these attrocities, he

would be taken to hell after death. There, in Naraka, the servants of Yama, would drag the departed

soul and give a temporary body to experience the tortures that were to follow. They would make

a copper idol of a beautiful woman and would heat in fire and the idol, with golden color, radiating

heat would be placed near this person. Yama's servants would giggle at the soul with the new body

and comment that the person was after women and so let him enjoy a full embrace of the woman
idol. So saying, they would push the person on the idol! Alwar says that one day he would be

subjected to such tortures. Fearing such an experience, Alwar says that he had come to

Naimisharanyam, to surrender at the Divine feet of the Lord! Naimisharanyam is a beautiful place.

The Lord is here in the form of forest [Aaranyam ]. In Pushkar, the Lord appears in the

form of water. Today's lecture is from the banks of river Gomati [it is more known as Gomti].