Translated by Sri Ramanan Rajagopalan

In and Out of Protection Zone

As we saw in the earleir posting, Swamy Pillai Lokacharyar refers to Prapanna ParithrAnam in his other work Mumukshuppadi:
"Iswaranai Ozhinthavargal rakshagargal allar enbathai Prapanna ParithrAnathil sonnOm" mumUkshuppadi 39.

Two reasons to fall into the protection Zone:
As a mumukshu, one needs to develop two qualities that Nammazhwar talks about while surrendering to Perumal.

1. Akincanyatvam (known as KaimudalillAimai in sampradhAyam) - Inadequecy and incapability of the soul in samsara to follow the path of karma, jnAna and bhakti yOgam.

Azhwar explains this aspect and hence surrenders to Vanamamalai Perumal in the following manner:
"nOtra nOnbilEn nun arivilEn...." (ThiruvAymozhi 5.7.1)

The same aspect is dealt with by Swamy Alavandar in his Stotra Ratnam as below:
"na dharma nistOsmi, na ca AtmavEdi, na bhaktimAn ...."

2. Ananyagatitvam (known as vEroru pugalidam illAmai in sampradhAyam) - No other source to surrender other than Sriman Narayanan.

In this aspect Azhwar surrender to ArAvamudan of Thirukkudanthai:
"kaLaivaay thunbam kaLaiyaathozhivaay kaLaikaN maRRilEn..." (ThiruvAymozhi 5.8.8)

Azhwar pleads to ArAvamudan that he would surrender only to Him even if ArAvamudan fails to wipe out the distress/fails to protect.

This is wonderfully summed as a single line in ThiruvAymozhi:
"ThAlum thadaikkayiyum kUppi paNIyum avar kaNDIr" 3-7-2.

thadak kaiyum refers to Akinchanyam - The folded hands representing that nothing is with us.
thALum - The legs approaching Him establishing He is the only saviour.

Three reasons to fall out of Protection Zone:

Our PurvAchAryas in the vYakyAnam have done a deep analysis of why Perumal will not protect us in some cases (souls in samsara), and also have given explanantion to the same. They attributed 3 reasons for that:

1. When we think that we can protect ourselves
2. If we need to attain some prerequisite quality so that Perumal will protect us
3. When we look out to other sources of protection

The first case scenario is equivalent to grabbing a baby from the hands of its parents and giving it to a butcher. Hence this case can be easily eliminated.

The second case scenario is well explained by Azhwars and Acharyas in exhibiting Akincanyatvam and ananya-gadhithvam - falling into the protection zone.

The third case scenario is what Swamy Pillai Lokacharyar deals with in Prapanna ParithrAnam in showing the inadequecy of various relationships and anya devatas to protect us.

Hence Pillai Lokacharyar clearly prescribes this work to only who are seeking mOksham and so quotes this when describing the aspects to be followed by a mumukshu in his other grantham Mumukshuppadi.

He starts Prapanna ParitranAm with "MumukshuvAy...".

We will look into his explanantion of how others cannot protect us in the order starting from brother from the next posting.