Surrender. Faith. Practice.

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Russia
16 June 2001

We are all disciples of Srila Guru Maharaj, Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Srila Guru Maharaj has given us the seed of devotion and we should know how to protect it.

You know that if you plant a seed of some tree, you must then water it, give it some fertiliser, some sun, and so on. Similarly, we must take care of our devotional seed—every day we must come to the arati, join the programme, must get some good association. Good association is necessary for our devotional life. If we do not get good association, then there will be a big problem in our devotional life, so every day we must read some devotional books—Srila Sridhar Maharaj and Srila Guru Maharaj wrote so many books, scriptures, we should read them and know what is written in them. Also, we should sing some songs.

We must continue our practising life in this way every day. Even if you live in your own house, you can turn your house into an ashram, a temple. What do we do at the temple? We do arati, we have an altar, and you too can have an altar with Srila Guru Maharaj's photograph, or the Deities, and every day do arati, offer worship, and offer whatever food you take to the Deities. We must continue our life in this way.

We should all understand who I am and what I should do.

জীবের 'স্বরূপ' হয়—কৃষ্ণের 'নিত্যদাস' ।
কৃষ্ণের 'তটস্থা-শক্তি', 'ভেদাভেদ-প্রকাশ' ॥

jivera 'svarupa' haya—krsnera 'nitya-dasa'
krsnera 'tatastha-sakti' 'bhedabheda-prakasa'

"By its intrinsic nature, the soul is an eternal servant of Krishna; souls come from the marginal energy of Krishna and are simultaneously one with and different from the Lord."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.108)

I am not my name. Where did I get my name? When I was born, I got my name, but you should think where you were before, where you are now, and where you will go after that. We are not this body. We have come from Krishna and we must go "back to God, back to home"—we must go to Krishna. To get there, we must do something. What will we do? We must do something for Krishna.

Before I was born, Krishna asked me, "I will give you eyes, what will you do with them? Will you see My Deity form with your eyes?" We promised, "Yes, I will do that." Krishna asked, "I am giving you hands, will you do My service with these hands?" We promised, "Yes, I will." Krishna asked, "I am giving you legs, will you do parikrama of My Holy Dham with these legs?" We answered, "Yes, I will." We had promised all this, but when we were born we forgot it. Why do we forget it? Because we are covered by illusion.

দৈবী হ্যেষা গুণময়ী মম মায়া দুরত্যয়া ।
মামেব যে প্রপদ্যন্তে মায়ামেতাং তরন্তি তে ॥

daivi hy esa gunamayi, mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante, mayam etam taranti te

"My alluring, 'trimodal,' illusory potency is practically insurmountable. However, those who take shelter in Me can overcome this powerful obstacle."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 7.14)

Krishna Himself says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, "I created illusion, and unless you take shelter in Me this illusion will not be removed."

We do not know Krishna, we do not know Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but we know our Gurudev—we have got a good Divine Master, and we must follow him. What is the definition of a disciple? To be a disciple means to obey the Master's rules, obey his instruction. So, we must always follow our Gurudev, his instruction, and always see his destination. What is called bhajan? Bhajan means pleasing all Vaishnavs and Gurudev, it means I must follow whatever instruction Gurudev gives.

We must all fully surrender to our Gurudev, to Krishna, but it is actually very hard to do that. We say it with our mouth, "Oh, I am fully surrendered to Gurudev," but it is actually not so—we must fully surrender to our Gurudev mentally also.

You know there is one story in Sri Mahabharat. One day, Draupadi asked Sri Krishna, "Why did You not protect me when Duhsasan and others dragged me by my hair, when they were beating me?" Krishna answered with a question, "Did you remember Me at that time? You did not. You have five husbands, and when they caught you, you were thinking about Bhim, Arjuna, and others. You thought that nobody was there to protect you now, but when your husbands would come, they would punish them."

Duhsasan threw Draupadi on the floor in front of everybody—Bhisma, Drona, Yudhisthir, and others were sitting there. Draupadi began to cry, "Bhim, why are you not doing anything? You are my husband, and in front of you they are abusing me so much, but you are not even looking at me!" Bhim saw what was going on, but he had no power because the Pandavs had been defeated in a game of pasa: they were helpless and could not do anything. Draupadi was crying, but all they could do is sit and look.

Finally, Duhsasan became very angry and said, "If you want to say something, you must say it to me. They are all my servants now!" When Bhimsen heard this, he became very angry and said, "If I get any power in future, I will kill him!" Duhsasan became even angrier and ordered to his soldiers, "Take off her clothes!"

When they started pulling her clothes off, Draupadi thought, "I must hold my clothes! I can protect myself..." Then, she began to call to Krishna with one hand, and she was still trying to pull her clothes back with the other hand. She still thought she could protect herself. When her clothes were almost all taken off, at that time she thought, "I have no hope! I am helpless!" Then with both hands she cried, "O Krishna! Please protect me!"

From this example you see that we cannot do anything—Krishna does everything. If we cannot believe it, we can see that He always says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita,

মন্মনা ভব মদ্ভক্তো মদ্­যাজী মাং নমস্কুরু ।
মামেবৈষ্যসি যুক্ত্বৈবমাত্মানং মৎপরায়ণঃ ॥

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto, mad-yaji mam namaskuru
mam evaisyasi yuktvaivam, atmanam mat-parayanah

"Always think of Me, be My devotee, always worship Me and offer obeisances to Me. Thus offering yourself to Me and taking refuge in Me, you will come to Me."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 9.34)

সর্ব্বধর্ম্মান্ পরিত্যজ্য মামেকং শরণং ব্রজ ।
অহং ত্বাং সর্ব্বপাপেভ্যো মোক্ষয়িষ্যামি মা শুচঃ ॥

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

"Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

Krishna said, "I will protect my devotee," He said everything in these verses.

অনন্যাশ্চিন্তয়ন্তো মাং যে জনাঃ পর্য্যুপাসতে ।
তেষাং নিত্যাভিযুক্তানাং যোগক্ষেমং বহাম্যহম্ ॥

ananyas chintayanto mam, ye janah paryupasate
tesam nityabhiyuktanam, yoga-ksemam vahamy aham

"I bear the responsibility of acquiring and protecting the necessities of My fully dependent devotees who are always absorbed in thought of Me, and who worship Me in every way."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 9.22)

He said, "If anybody takes shelter in Me, I Myself will carry their food."

So, if I take shelter of Krishna, then Krishna will help me...

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