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In Sriramayanam, there are 6 places in which different people have done saranagathi. To put it in simple words, "Saranagathi" is the act of recongizing that one does not have anything in himself, one has renounced everything and has taken the Lotus Feet of the Lord as the lone protector". Every alternate saranagathi is a success and so every other one is a failure. We shall see what those are and then delve into why some were successful and some were not. Here is the 6 saranagathis. This is entirely from Sri.U.Ve.Velukudi Krishnan's swami's Pasurapadi Ramayanam upanyasam. Anything wrong here is due to adiyen's ignorance in understanding and anything good is swami's and acharyan's krupai. 1) Devas perform to Lord Sriman Narayana: This is when all the Devas and other demi gods went to Lord Sriman Narayanan to protect them from the wrath of Ravana. This was successful as the Lord himself incarnated as Rama in Tretha Yugam.
2) Dasaratha performs to Parasurama: On the way back from Mithilapuri to Ayodhya, Parasurama threatened Rama that He had broken just the shiva dhanush and that He needs to break the Vishnu Dhanush. If only can Rama do it, Parasurama would allow them to go, otherwise a war was in the cards. Dasaratha did saranagathi to Parasurama, but that was not successful as Lord Rama Himself has to intervene as Parasurama did not pay any heed to Dasaratha's words.
3) Lakshmana performs to Rama: When Rama decided to go to the forest for 14 years, Lakshamana wanted to join them as well. But Rama initially refused it. Later Lakshmana did saranagathi under the Lotus feet of Rama. Rama yielded to his request and hence all 3 went to the forest. This saranagathi was successful.
4) Bharatha performs to Rama: On hearing the news that his brother Rama had gone to forest, Bharathat wanted to bring HIM back to Ayodhya and wanted to hand over the kingdom to Rama. In order to do that, Bharatha went to Chithrakootam, did saranagathi to Rama. However, still Rama refused. We shall see why later.
5) Vibishana performs to Rama: Vibishanan did saranagathi at Thirupullani Sethu karai in Southern Tamil Nadu. He abandoned everything and seeked refuge under Rama. Rama gladly accepted him, though he was from the opposite army.
6) Rama performs to Samudra Rajan: In the same Thirupullani shore, Rama did saranagathi to the King of Ocean (Samudra Rajan) for 3 days. It was not successful as Samudra Rajan did not yielded to Rama's request.
So, on what factor does the success of a saranagathi depend? There are three main factors that we need to understand to comprehend it. They are (a) Quality of the person who does saranagathi (b) Quality of the person to whom sarangathi was done and (c) Lord's discretion. We shall go in to each one of these in detail (a) Quality of the person who does saranagathi: In order to do saranagathi, a person who does it (saranagathan) should not have any qualification. In other words, "Lack of any qualification" is the only qualification of a saranagathan. He should not have anything left in him like a little bit of karma yogam, little bit of gyana yogam, little bit of bhakti yogam etc. He should not have anything with him and should reliquinsh everything he had. Our poorvacharyas have coined two terms to describe the lack of qualification. (1) Akinchanyam and (2) Ananya gadhithvam. Akinchinyam is the lack of any principal, lack of anything (kai mudhal illamai) that we can take it as a prerequisite for attaining moksham. Anaya Gadhithvam is the lack of a place where one can take refuge except Sriman Narayanan (veru pugal idam/ veru gathi illamal irupadhu). (b) Quality of the person who accepts saranagathi: This person is known as the "Saranyan". "Saranyan" should have 2 qualities for him to protect the person who does saranagathi. They are (a) Parathvam and (b) Sowlabhayam. "Par" is boundary and "Para" is transgressing or crossing boundaries. It signifes that there is no one greater than Him, nothing stronger than Him, nothing invincible for Him, nothing that is beyond His knowledge, nothing that He cannot create, nothing He cannot protect and nothing He cannot destroy. So these parathvam qualities talk about the highest and the infinite. The second category is "Sowlabhyam" qualities that glorifies the great qualities of making oneself available, approachable and to be able to easily mingle with one and all. To remember the word "Sowlabhyam" easily, remeber that it means "ease". We know that "sulabham" means easy in Thamizh. One who is easy or sulabham is known as "Sowlabhyan" and thus that quality of his is "Sowlabhyam". It is this quality that is of utmost importance to a saranagathan, because if not for this, there is no way a saranagathan can love a saranayan. If not for this, a sarangathan can, at the most have a respect for saranyan and may be a fear towards a saranyan, but certainly not love. However, the "Parathvam" qualities are also important because if not for it either, He cannot protect us in the first place.