Re: Independence of divine mercy

When the Lord descends to this world and gives everyone a chance to directly engage in devotion to him, do the conditioned souls in the universe get that chance by the sukrti they have accumulated or does the Lord show his mercy only by the sole factor of his own will regardless of how much sukrti the conditioned jivas may have?

Both. Some souls attain His association by kripa-siddhi also. The specific sukriti which earns the direct association of the Lord during His pastimes is service to pure devotees, which we may have performed in the past.

The same thing for a Vaisnava's mercy also. Do we get the mercy of devotees only by their own will regardless of how much sukrti we may have, or does that also depend on the sukrti that we have accumulated?

It depends on our past spiritual sukriti of vaishnava sevaa (service to the pure devotees), dhaama vaasa (residence or visit to the Holy Abodes), shravana and kirtana (hearing and chanting), tulasi sevaa, ekaadashi vrata etc.

My doubt is that have I done anything to deserve a Vaisnava's mercy or is it that whenever the Vaisnava appears, he distributes his mercy by his own independent will regardless of what our spiritual qualifications are (which can be called a manual override of our own free will and qualifications)?

It is a combination of both. Shrila Prabhupada states in Shrimad Bhagavatam that the pure devotees are given full independence by the Lord to distribute their causeless mercy.

Do we get more devotional sukrti from whatever sukrti committed earlier (If that is so, then getting enough sukrti to come all the way to where we are is a completely beginningless process beyond time). Or is it because the Lord and the devotees make so many so-called 'accidental' arrangements by which we get sukrti?

Again both. Spiritual sukriti does lead to more spiritual sukriti. And there are special arrangements also which may not actually deserve via our sukriti.

If the second case is true, then it means that we can never be liberated and achieve devotional service without the mercy of the devotees. It must mean that any chance of liberation for any soul in the material world is possible only because the Lord and the Vaisnavas only and never by our ourselves. The activities of the conditioned soul are all material, and to get spiritual mercy is not possible by materialistic activites. Then that means we get the qualification only from the influence of higher authorities (the Lord and the Vaisnavas) and their various arrangements by which we unknowingly accumulate sukrti. Then we must just be open to the Lord and the Vaisnavas whenever they appear and it does not even require us to accept voluntarily, but only we must not reject it.

Yes, exactly. The only way to the King is via his ministers or those who know him already.

Even when Vaisnavas give their mercy to the souls, some do not accept it even when it is forced into their mouths. Is this because of their previous karma which is stopping them or is because simply that they are misusing their own independence out of their own choice? For that matter, how can material karma interfere with acquiring spiritual sukrti?

Again both. It is specifically that karma we have done in the past of offending or criticizing or not accepting the devotees and the Lord which tries to create an big obstacle for us. Thanks for the nice questions Srinath. Please keep them coming.

Daaso'smi, Swami Gaurangapada.

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