Poison, Wood, and Sugarcane

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
9 September 2011

Question: Could you please tell us something about saranagati?

Saranagati (শরণাগতি) is surrender, and saranagati is necessary.

ষড়ঙ্গ শরণাগতি হইবে যাঁহার ।
তাঁহার প্রার্থনা শুনে শ্রীনন্দকুমার ॥

sad-anga saranagati ha-ibe yahara
tahara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara

"Krishna, Sri Nanda Kumar, hears the prayers of those who surrender in this six-fold way."

(Saranagati, 1.5)

Surrender, or saranagati, must be sincere, not pretending: we pay our full obeisance to Gurudev and say, "You can cut me in any place," but when we get up we do whatever our mind wants to do and do not follow our Guru.

We always follow our mind, that is our problem: জানিয়া শুনিয়া বিষ খাইনু, janiya suniya visa khainu, we know something is poison, but still we drink it. You can sing this song:

অবতার সার গোরা অবতার
কেন না ভজিলি তাঁরে
'ইক্ষুদণ্ড' ভাবি' কাঠ চুষিলি (মন)
কেমনে পাইবি মিঠ

avatara sar gaura avatara
kena na bhajili tare
iksudanda bhavi' katha chusili (mana)
kemane paibe mitha

"Sri Gaura Avatar is the best of all Avatars. Why do you not serve Him? O mind, considering it sugarcane, you sucked dry wood. How will you taste sweetness in this way?"

(Avatara sara, 1,3)

Devotees should be always careful. Maya is always around us and can attack us at any time—Maya will always try to remove us from the service. Be careful about the illusory environment.

Be careful not to make seva aparadh, Nama aparadh, Vaishnav aparadh. If you are doing some service and some offence comes without you realising it, it can be excused; but if you know something is an offence and you do it, if you do service and make Vaishnav aparadh, that offence, aparadh, will go to your Guru and then will go to Krishna. Aparadh, offences will increase if you are not careful about it.

We make many offences, and we must always say, "Please forgive my offence, please forgive my offence, please forgive my offence," but we must say it without pretending. We must think, "Oh, I am making an offence! I cannot do anything, I cannot do any service, I have no quality or qualification..."

Also, when Gurudev chastises me, I must understand why he chastises me—he does it because it is good for me, but we cannot understand it, and that is our foolishness...

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