Saranagati (Surrender) – Story
Parasara Bhattar was the son of Koorathazhvan, the chief disciple of Sri Ramanuja.
Ranganayaki’s mother and Thiruvaranganathan raised him as their own son.
He was once walking on a forest path.
Suddenly he saw a scene there and fainted.
As Butter did not return home after a long time, the disciples went to look for him and found him lying unconscious in the forest.
They picked him up and slowly brought him home.
“What happened in the forest when Butter woke up from his fainting spell? Are some deadly beasts coming to attack you? Are you in any danger from the forest dwellers? Were there any natural disasters?”
His disciples asked all these questions.
Butter said: “I saw a scene so I fainted”.
“What scene?” The disciples asked nervously.
A raven caught a baby rabbit.
He packed it in a sack and carried it away.
Seeing this, the baby rabbit’s mother rabbit chased the boy and begged him by his feet.
Begged to leave her cub.
Seeing that, the saddened man released the rabbit from the sack.
Butter said, “I fainted when I saw this scene.”
“What is so mesmerizing about this scene?” asked the disciples.
“What did you say? Has anyone taught the rabbit how to surrender?”
No.
“Has anyone ever taught that person the justice of giving them what they ask for if they surrender?”
No.
“But when the rabbit surrendered, the raven recognized the rabbit’s Saranagati (Surrender) and immediately gave it what it asked for.”
Though being ignorant of surrender, etc., if a common hunter shows such a level of mercy to a rabbit, how much mercy will he give to us who have surrendered the Lotus feet of the lord with the conviction that God is the only asylum?”
“Will he abandon us thinking that it is destiny?”
“I regretted that I had wasted so much time without realizing such incomparable mercy of the Lord, the assurance that God will never abandon us and save us. That is why I have fainted,” answered Bhattar.
The disciples were astonished to hear Butter’s explanation.
(Lord Jagannath’s Mercy! – Story! READ HERE!)