(1/14) What Is Surrender?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, 12 January 2021, part 1
Translated from Bengali

শ্রীকৃষ্ণচৈতন্য প্রভু জীবে দয়া করি’ ।
স্বপার্ষদ স্বীয় ধাম সহ অবতরি ॥

sri-krsna-chaitanya prabhu jive daya kari’
svaparsada sviya dhama saha avatari’

‘Bestowing mercy on jiva souls, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu descends with His associates and abode.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Lord Sri Krishna accepted the heart and halo of Srimati Radharani and came in this Age of Kali together with all His associates who participated in His pastimes in Dvapar-yuga. In Dvapar-yuga Krishna took up weapons and destroyed demons, but in Kali-yuga He takes the heart and halo of Srimati Radharani (garbs Himself in the madhura-rasa mood) and appears in this world manifesting His audarya-lila, magnanimous pastimes.

কৃষ্ণবর্ণং ত্বিষাঽকৃষ্ণং সাঙ্গোপাঙ্গাস্ত্রপার্ষদম্ ।
যজ্ঞৈঃ সঙ্কীর্ত্তনপ্রায়ৈর্যজন্তি হি সুমেধসঃ ॥

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam sangopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prayair yajanti hi su-medhasah

‘Very intelligent people engage in sankirtana-yajna (congregational chanting of the Holy Name) to worship the Supreme Lord who always chants the Name of Krishna, who possesses non-black (golden) lustre, and who is surrounded by His various associates and weapons.’

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 11.5.32)

His associates are devotees, and His weapons are khol, karatal and mridanga. Armed with these weapons, the Lord wandered throughout this world:

শ্রীকৃষ্ণচৈতন্য প্রভু জীবে দয়া করি’ ।
স্বপার্ষদ স্বীয় ধাম সহ অবতরি ॥

sri-krsna-chaitanya prabhu jive daya kari’
svaparsada sviya dhama saha avatari’

‘Bestowing mercy on jiva souls, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu descends with His associates and abode.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

He made His advent in this world together with all His associates from Dvapar-yuga, and, going house to house, He told everyone:

জীব জাগ জীব জাগ গোরাচাঁদ বলে ।
কত নিদ্রা যাও মায়া পিশাচীর কোলে ॥

jiva jaga jiva jaga gorachanda bale
kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole

‘“Wake up, soul! Wake up, soul!” says Gorachad (Golden Moon). “How long are you going to sleep in the lap of this witch Maya?”’

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Out of compassionate kindness to all jiva souls, He went house to house, urging everyone, ‘Wake up! Stop sleeping! How much longer will you sleep in the lap of the witch Maya?’ Moreover, the Lord comes here bringing His own abode: Sri Nabadwip Dham, which is non-different from Sri Vrindavan Dham (Goloka Vrindavan). What does He give when He comes? He distributes to everyone, door to door, the rarest form of transcendental love for Lord Krishna (Krishna-prema) that even Lord Brahma and Lord Siva have not been able to get.

Despite this magnanimity, not everybody was able to get this transcendental love – only those who had the capacity to grasp it could get it. It is not possible to keep water in just any glass: if a glass has a hole in it or is full of other things, then no matter how much water you pour into it, it will not stay inside (all water will spill out). So, those who are proud, thinking, ‘I know everything’, ‘I have understood everything’, are not able to accept transcendental knowledge. If you have ego (‘I understand it better than others!’) and do not have humility, you will not be able to understand these things.

Srila Guru Maharaj sometimes told a story about a sadhu who stayed on his own in a small cottage – he would cook something, offer bhoga and take that prasadam. One day, some boy became curious to know what kind of knowledge that sadhu had…

When you come to a sadhu, what should be your mood?

tad viddhi pranipatena, pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam, jnaninas tattva-darsinah

‘You will be able to attain knowledge by satisfying the divine master with submission, relevant inquiry and sincere service. The enlightened souls who are learned in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will impart divine knowledge to you.’

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 4.34)

It is necessary to have surrender. There are six kinds of surrender (saranagati):

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana
‘avasya raksibe krsna’—visvasa palana
bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara
bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

‘(1) Humility, (2) self-submission, (3) accepting that the Lord is your maintainer, (4) keeping faith that “Krishna will certainly protect”, (5) engaging only in what is favourable to devotion, (6) rejecting what is unfavourable to devotion.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

‘Dainya’ means being humble, considering yourself lowly and bereft, poor. ‘Atma-nivedan’ means surrendering yourself, submitting yourself. ‘Goptritve-varan’ means to accept the Lord as your maintainer, your guardian. ‘Avasya-raksibe Krsna’ means to accept that Krishna is the protector. ‘Bhakti-anukula karyera svikara’ means to do what is favourable to devotion. And ‘bhakti-pratikula bhava varjanangikara’ means to reject what is not favourable to devotion.

You must accept what is favourable and, at the same time, reject what is not favourable.

When you drink milk, you get vitamins, but if at the same time you smoke tobacco or cigarettes, all the vitamins from milk will be destroyed. Suppose you are doing a fire sacrifice – if you put one spoon of ghee and then one spoon of water into the fire, you cannot make a fire sacrifice like this. When you do a fire sacrifice, you must put only ghee into the fire. If you do something that is good for your health and at the same time do something that is harmful for your health, you will not get any result.

Many people say, ‘I chant the Holy Name, so all difficulties and results of my actions are dissipated.’ This is called ‘sinning on the strength of the Holy Name’ (‘Nama bale papachara’), and it is one of the offences to the Holy Name. If you chant the Holy Name thinking that you can sin and when you chant the Holy Name all those sins will be removed, then it is an offence against the Holy Name. It can never be the Holy Name.

For example, shopkeepers at the market have to lie the whole day – they sell ghee mixed with dalda (vegetable oil) or mustard oil mixed with rice oil. You know, there is oil that costs 62 rupees a litre, and there is oil that costs 128 rupees a litre. I asked once at the market why there is a difference of 66 rupees, and I was told that half of the cheaper oil is rice bran oil, that is why it is cheaper. There are such mix-ups in this world – not everything is of the same purity. Actually, it is rare to find unalloyed things.

শুদ্ধ ভকত- চরণ-রেণু,
ভজন-অনুকূল ।
ভকত-সেবা, পরম সিদ্ধি,
প্রমলতিকার মূল ॥

suddha-bhakata-charana-renu,
bhajana-anukula
bhakata-seva, parama-siddhi,
prema-latikara mula

‘Pure devotees’ foot dust is favourable to devotion. Serving devotees is the supreme fulfilment and the root of the creeper of divine love.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

It is necessary to accept what is favourable and reject what is unfavourable. You cannot do what is unfavourable because it does not work like this. You think that you can chant the Holy Name and all sins will go away, but if you chant with this idea in mind, this is ‘Nama bale parachara’ (sinning on the strength of the Holy Name).

So, I have told you what surrender (saranagati) is: (1) humility, (2) self-submission, (3) accepting the Lord as your maintainer, (4) keeping faith that ‘Krishna will certainly protect’, (5) engaging only in what is favourable to devotion, (6) rejecting what is unfavourable to devotion.

— : • : —

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Length: 101 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) What Is Surrender?
2) Proper Recipient for Proper Taste
3) Highest Stance
4) Cry and Pray
5) Seeking Respite
6) Greatest Choice
7) Nityananda Prabhu's Mercy
8) Mahaprabhu's Mercy
9) His Things, For His Service
10) Faith Is Not Idle
11) Devotion or Display?
12) Example to Follow
13) Shelter of Sri Guru's Mercy
14) Service or Offence?