Sincere Surrender

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj,
18 December 2010

Gurudev told one time that somebody may have one foot already in the door of Vaikuntha, inside, and the other foot outside, but still that person may not enter Vaikuntha—they may still go to the illusory environment...

তদ্­বিদ্ধি প্রণিপাতেন পরিপ্রশ্নেন সেবয়া ।
উপদেক্ষ্যন্তি তে জ্ঞানং জ্ঞানিনস্তত্ত্বদর্শিনঃ ॥

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."

Bhagavad-gita, 4.34

Surrender, honest enquiry, and service temper, seva viddhi, are necessary...

ভজিব বলিয়া এসে সংসার-ভিতরে ।
ভুলিয়া রহিলে তুমি অবিদ্যার ভরে ॥

bhajibo boliya ese samsara-bhitare
bhuliya rohile tumi avidyara bhare

"You came into this world saying, 'O Lord, I will serve You', but, having forgotten this promise, you have remained in ignorance."

'Jiva Jago Jiva Jago' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

You promised that you would serve the Lord, but you have forgotten it. That is called illusory environment. How is it possible to come out? Only by surrender to the Lord. Then it is easy. Surrender means not pretending to surrender—we surrender fully (দীক্ষাকালে ভক্ত করে আত্মসমর্পণ, diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana), but after that when Gurudev tells us, "You can do this", we say, "Oh, Gurudev, I am tired..." What is the surrendered mood? It means you surrender fully, you give a full obeisance, sastanga pranam. A full obeisance means the disciple tells their Gurudev, "I am giving you a sword—you can cut my head, you can cut my legs, you can cut my body, that is your matter because I cannot see anything. I am surrendering my everything to you." But then, when you get up, you immediately forget everything... Is what I am saying correct or not?

Mahaprabhu said to Sanatan Goswami, "Are you not shy? You want to use My property, want to spoil My property! This is My property, it is not your property. You surrendered to Me, it means you have given this body to Me. And I told you to keep it safe, not to spoil it." When a devotee surrenders, they cannot spoil anything—they cannot use their mind, intelligence, ego, eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, ears for any other purpose. They have to use everything for the service to the Lord, their Guru. Do you understand? It is very hard—it is easy to say, but it is necessary to practise it. You cannot do without practising it.

Impaled by Illusion

I told this story once before. There was a guru who was walking with his disciple to some place. That time there were no cars, so they had to walk. They had been walking for a long time, and the disciple said, "Gurudev, I cannot walk any further, I am very hungry!" Gurudev is merciful, and he immediately gave him one rupee coin and said, "OK, bring some chana (চানা), chickpea dahl."

The disciple took Gurudev's coin and happily went to the market. Gurudev told him to bring some chana, but instead he began looking around, "Oh, such a big market, such big shops..." He started asking the price of everything—fruit, apples, oranges, paneer, sweets, etc. He bargained about everything.

Gurudev says, "Bring some chana," so you must go to the chana place immediately, but he began bargaining, and that is our mood—our mind is always disturbing, always going everywhere...

So, he asked the price of so many things, and the shopkeeper said, "Everything is the same price: one rupee. One rupee per one kilo." The disciple was impressed, "What a nice area! Everything is the same price here!" Everything is the same: you worship Durga, Kali, Ganesh, or Kartik, you go to Rama Krishna mission, to Bharat Sevashram, or to Sat Sangha... He thought, "It is a very nice area. I do not want to leave this place. Here is my own interest, my own enjoyment."

He bought one kilo chhana (ছানা), paneer, and came back to his Gurudev.

"Give me what you have bought—give me the chana."

"Oh, no, Gurudev, it is a very nice area, and the market is very nice. Everything is the same price..."

"What?! Everything is the same?! We cannot stay here any longer. We have to leave at once!" Then he saw that the disciple had brought paneer instead of chana, and he became angry that the disciple had not listened to him, "You eat it, I will not take it." The disciple ate everything—a whole kilo of paneer.

"Have you finished your food? Let's go. We have to go to our destination, Vaikuntha, Goloka Vrindavan."

"Gurudev, I will not go... It is a very nice area, there are so many good things here." The disciple became attached. "I have never seen such kind of enjoyment... I will not go from here."

"Tsk, bad karma... Please, go with me." Gurudev asked him many times to come with him, but the disciple refused:

"No, Gurudev, you go, I am tired now. I have just eaten 1 kg of paneer, I have to sleep now..."

"OK, stay here. I am going."

(Sanatan Goswami also left his disciple, Isan. How is it possible? It is the same thing—the disciple's bad karma...)

When he was leaving, he said to his disciple, "You do not want to go with me now, what can I do? Illusory environment can attack you... But Krishna is merciful, so when you are in danger, you will remember me." He gave this boon to him and left for his own place.

The disciple remained under the banyan tree. Later, he thought, "What am I going to eat?" He put the tilak, and whenever he saw anybody was coming down the road he shouted loudly, "Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!" The people had never seen anybody chanting, and they thought, "Oh, such a good devotee, such a big sadhu," and they would give him a coin. In this way, he got some money. He went to the market and again brought some chhana, paneer. Gradually, he grew a big fat belly.

Soon some problem came to that area. Every day somebody went house to house stealing, and all villagers went to the local leader, like the mayor, or the king, and complained that there was so much stealing going on in the area, and there was no police, no security... In the end, one night a big rich and powerful man's house was burgled. That rich man went to the mayor. The mayor asked him,

"Did you see the thief?"

"Yes! I was sleeping, but then I thought I heard some noise, and I saw him."

"What does he look like?"

"Very fat."

"Very fat?"

"Yes, he is very fat."

The mayor sent some policeman to search the area for a fat man. Finally, the policeman saw a stranger, a new person in the area, sitting under the banyan tree—and he was fat. "This is the fat man!" The policeman ordered his men to take that disciple to the mayor's house. Then the trial happened and he was unanimously found guilty. The disciple thought, "Oh, Gurudev told me not to stay in this area... All are equal... I am not a thief, and they are saying I am a thief. They are making a thief out of me..."

Then the sentence was announced. In those days there was no microphone, no megaphone, so they would come out and give a public announcement of the sentence. The sentence was death. In those days they killed people by means of 'shul' (শূল), impalement. Shul is a kind of a wooden pole that would, from bottom to head, pierce all body of the man placed on it. So, they announced that the thief had been caught and would be executed.

The disciple of the sadhu was crying in the jail, "Oh, why did I not listen to my Gurudev? But Gurudev told me when I am in danger I will remember him..." He began to pray and call out to his Gurudev. All night he had been praying and begging for help—he knew the next day he would be dead. In the end, his Gurudev appeared in front of him and said, "I had told you before that in this area all were equal, and I had told you that you could not stay here, but you did not go with me. Now listen to what I am going to tell you, and you have to follow this instruction. When people will be taking you to the shul, I will also go with you. I will tell everybody that I want to die instead of you."

"No, no, Gurudev, you have not made any problem, I have made all the problem. It was me who did wrong, so I will die!"

"Hey! গুরুমুখ-পদ্মবাক্য চিত্তেতে করিয়া ঐক্য, guru-mukha-padma-vakya, chittete kariya aikya! [Make the teachings from Sri Guru's lotus mouth one with your heart!] Now is your time. Listen to what I am telling you now, then you will be OK."

"I will, I will."

The next day the disciple was escorted to the shul. Everybody assembled there—the mayor, his wife, and thousands and thousands of people. They saw there was some old bearded man also walking with the thief. The old man, Gurudev, cried out, "Hey! I want to go there instead!" The mayor asked, "Who is this man? Why does he want to go to the shul?"

"You do not know me. I am Janak Raja's astrologer."

"An astrologer? What have you come here for?"

"You made this platform and the shul at a very good time—it is amrita yoga [effective accomplishment] and mahendra yoga [success]. One who goes to this shul will go to Vaikuntha!"

The mayor thought, "I made this shul, and why should they go to Vaikuntha? My father is so sick and suffering so much. I'd rather send my father there. I did not make this shul and spend all the money to send them to Vaikuntha!" Finally, he said, "My father will go to Vaikuntha! Hey, get out of there!"

At this moment, Gurudev told his disciple, "Now is the time to run!" And the mayor put his father in that "Vaikuntha". Do you understand?

Guru's Protection

সে ছল সেকালে কৃষ্ণ স্ফুরাবে তোমারে ।
কৃষ্ণকৃপা যাঁরে, তাঁরে কে রাখিতে পারে ॥

se chhala se-kale krsna sphurabe tomare
krsna-krpa yanre, tare ke rakhite pare

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 16.241

Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu asked Mahaprabhu, "Prabhu, how can I come out of this kind of illusory environment? I have eleven security men..." Mahaprabhu said to him, "That is not your concern. It is not your concern how Krishna will rescue you—if you surrender, He can save you any time; but it is necessary to surrender first."

Do you understand now the protection of Gurudev?

দুর্দ্দৈবে সেবক যদি যায় অন্য-স্থানে ।
সেই ঠাকুর ধন্য তারে চুলে ধরি' আনে ॥

durdaive sevaka yadi yaya anya sthane
sei thakura dhanya tare chule dhari' ane

If a servant somehow falls down and goes to some other place, glorious is the master who grabs him and brings him back by his hair.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.47

Gurudev takes his disciple by the sikha and throws him at the lotus feet of their Divine Master, or Deity.

This is how you must practise...

Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

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