Among the many ways in which people express their devotion to God, the way of life of a prapanna, that is, one who has surrendered to God, is deemed to represent the highest form of penance. All the azhwars are steeped in this experience and as Periazhwar’s daughter, this bhava is ingrained in Andal, pointed out Sri P. T. Seshadri in a discourse. It blossoms in due course in the form of her hymns which like the Vedas showcase the Lord and also the ways to reach Him. The prapanna considers his entire being as the Lord’s possession and never forgets that this truth is revealed to him through God’s grace alone. He understands that owing to past karma and samskara he lives distanced from Him through countless births. When this truth is internalised in him, he longs to be united with the Lord. So what is to be done?
He just prays to God, worships Him and leads every moment of his life thinking of His glories and waits for the reunion. This also can happen only by God’s Sankalpa. Just as the onus of retrieving a lost object lies with the owner, the prapanna knows that at some point of time the Lord will take him into His fold. Sita exemplifies this bhava. As the divine mother she has unlimited powers on a par with the Lord and had she wanted she could have come out of captivity. She tells Ravana that she could easily reduce him to ashes in a trice. But she is not a swatantra and has no independence and accepts her captive state with the strong faith that only Rama has the right to relieve her. Total absence of ego sense is the basic qualification of prapanna. All other forms of penance are subsumed in this bhava that incorporates intense love, bhakti and longing to serve the Lord and be united with Him.
