Ānukūlya-saṃkalpaṃ — The Positive Resolve of the Surrendered Soul
Ānukūlya-saṃkalpaṃ is the first of the five angas of Prapatti (Śaraṇāgati) in the Teṅkalai tradition as taught by Pillai Lokāchārya in the Mumukṣuppadi. The compound means 'the resolve (saṃkalpaṃ) toward what is favorable/agreeable (ānukūlya)' — specifically, favorable to Bhagavān's will and pleasure. It is the positive, affirmative wing of the complete Prapatti discipline: the prapanna (one who has surrendered) vows, with full deliberateness, to align every action, word, and thought with what is anukūla (pleasing, aligned with, agreeable to) Bhagavān. This is not a passive attitude but an active daily commitment to reorient one's entire life.
Rāmānuja's Gadya Trayam — the three prose prayers of surrender — embodies ānukūlya-saṃkalpaṃ most directly in the Śaraṇāgati Gadyam, where Rāmānuja places himself as one whose every activity (kāyika, vācika, mānasika — bodily, verbal, and mental) is henceforth an expression of Bhagavān's pleasure. The Śrī Vaiṣṇava Āchāryas, particularly Periyavāccāṉ Piḷḷai and Maṇavāḷa Māmunigaḷ, explain that ānukūlya-saṃkalpaṃ is not merely the avoidance of sin but a proactive transformation: the prapanna no longer asks 'what is permissible?' but 'what would please Bhagavān?' Every act of kaiṅkarya (loving service) in the prapanna's daily life is a concrete expression of ānukūlya-saṃkalpaṃ.
Ānukūlya-saṃkalpaṃ must be understood in tandem with its complementary limb, Prātikūlya-varjanam (the renunciation of what displeases Bhagavān). Together they form the complete volitional orientation of the surrendered life: everything that supports Bhagavān's will is to be actively embraced (ānukūlya-saṃkalpaṃ), and everything that opposes it is to be steadfastly renounced (prātikūlya-varjanam). The Śrī Vaiṣṇava tradition holds that a prapanna's post-surrender life is characterized precisely by this two-sided orientation — not merely 'not sinning' but living toward Bhagavān's pleasure at every moment. This is the foundation of the transformed inner life that Prapatti initiates.