What Is Proper Surrender?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
16 October 2018, Dum Dum Park, part 2

...You cannot conquer, or defeat, maya unless you surrender to your Guru properly. We should understand what is proper surrender.

ষড়ঙ্গ শরণাগতি হইবে যাঁহার ।
তাঁহার প্রার্থনা শুনে শ্রীনন্দকুমার ॥

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

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

(Saranagati, 1.5, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

We know that there is sadanga saranagati, six types of surrender; we should know what they are.

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

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

"Being merciful to the souls, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu descends with His associates and abode."

অন্ত্যন্ত দুর্লভ প্রেম করিবারে দান ।
শিখায় শরণাগতি ভকতের প্রাণ ॥

atyanta durlabha prema karibare dana
sikhaya saranagati bhakatera prana

"To distribute the most rare form of divine love, He teaches surrender, which is the life of the devotees."

The Lord teaches us,

দৈন্য, দয়া, অন্যে মান, প্রতিষ্ঠা বর্জ্জন ।
চারিগুণে গুণী হই করহ কীর্ত্তন ॥

dainya, daya anye mana, pratistha-varjana
chari gune guni hai karaha kirtana

Humility, compassion, honouring others, and giving up prestige—become qualified with these four qualities and chant the Name.

(Sri Siksastakam Giti)

These qualities (humility, kindness, giving honour to others, leaving desire for name and fame) are very important for proper surrender. The six types of surrender are these:

দৈন্য, আত্মনিবেদন, গোপ্তৃত্বে বরণ ॥
'অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ'—বিশ্বাস পালন ॥

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana
'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana

"Humility, self-submission, embracing the Lord’s guardianship, maintaining the faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me'..."

ভক্তি-অনুকূল মাত্র কার্য্যের স্বীকার ।
ভক্তি-প্রতিকূল ভাব—বর্জ্জনাঙ্গীকার ॥

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara
bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

"Engaging only in activities that are favourable to devotion, rejecting everything unfavourable to devotion ..."

ষড়ঙ্গ শরণাগতি হইবে যাঁহার ।
তাঁহার প্রার্থনা শুনে শ্রীনন্দকুমার ॥

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

"Sri Krishna hears the prayers of those who surrender to Him in the six-fold way."

(Saranagati, 1, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

We must understand clearly what these six types of saranagati are and how we must surrender to our Gurudev, to the Lord. This is the main thing for our spiritual life. We should also know what are the bad elements in our spiritual life, what is the source of the bondage in our spiritual life, what are the main difficulties in our spiritual life. That is called chhaya-vega (six urges), chhaya dosa (six faults) and pancha-roga (five diseases). We sing every day,

ছয় বেগ দমি' ছয় দোষ শোধি
ছয় গুণ দেহ দাসে ।
ছয় সৎসঙ্গ দেহ হে আমারে
বসেছি সঙ্গের আশে ॥

chhaya vega dami' chhaya dosa sodhi'
chhaya guna deha' dase
chhaya sat-sanga deha' he amare
basechhi sangera ase

"Subjugate the six urges, rectify the six defects, and bestow the six good qualities upon this servant. Grant me the six kinds of good association. I have sat at your feet, desiring that association."

It is all written and explained in the Bengali panjika (calendar). You can read it and see what is the chhaya-vega (six urges), what is chhaya-dosa (six faults), and what is the pancha-rog (five diseases). We must understand it.

The six urges (chhaya-vega) are vakya-vega, mana-vega, krodha-vega, jihva vega, uddhara-vega, and upastha-vega. We must control these urges:

And there are also five diseases (pancha-rog)—avidya (ignorance), asmita (false identification), raga (misdirected love), dvesa (aversion to anything that goes against one's enjoyment), and abhinivesa (being unable to give up unfavourable habits).

We should read what the scriptures say about this and understand it. These are the basic things.

Gurudev said that the main thing is that you must follow the rules and regulations—accept what is favourable to devotion and reject what is not favourable to devotion. He told it many times. And there is also Mahaprabhu's teaching—be humble, tolerant and give honour to others.

দৈন্য, দয়া, অন্যে মান, প্রতিষ্ঠা বর্জ্জন ।
চারিগুণে গুণী হই করহ কীর্ত্তন ॥

dainya, daya anye mana, pratistha-varjana
chari gune guni hai karaha kirtana

Humility, compassion, honouring others, and giving up prestige—become qualified with these four qualities and chant the Name.

তৃণাধিক হীন দীন অকিঞ্চন ছার ।
আপনে মানবি সদা ছাড়ি অহঙ্কার ॥

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara
apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankara

"Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean."

(Sri Siksastakam Giti)

We have so much ego. Gurudev said that the sun rises in the east, but the sun light cannot come through because there is a big wall in the middle—because of that wall you cannot focus. Ego is like a wall because of which we cannot see anything. Sometimes you cannot understand the mercy of Gurudev, you cannot understand what Gurudev says—that is because of your ego, because there are so many bad elements within you, because you are not surrendered fully.

We say, "Avasya raksibe Krsna visvasa palana (অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ বিশ্বাস পালন): we must believe that Krishna will certainly protect me," but do we really believe it?

When Duhsasan started to remove Draupadi's clothes, she thought, "He cannot do anything!" because she was depending upon her husbands—she had Bhima, who was very strong, Arjuna, Yudhisthir, Nakul, Sahadev. She depended upon them, "You are my husbands, you are big fighters—they are insulting and harassing me, why are you not doing anything?" They could not do anything—Krishna gave them power and by His will He took that power back. After that, Draupadi tried to keep her clothes on herself, but she could not do that. Then she called out to Lord Krishna with one hand and she kept the other hand on her clothes, trying to protect herself. When she realised that she could not do anything, then she finally fully surrendered to the Lord, and you can see that Krishna protected her.

So, avasya raksibe Krsna: Krishna will protect us. We think that Krishna will protect us, but sometimes we depend on ourselves—we want to protect ourselves. It is impossible to do that. We cannot protect ourselves from anything. That is why when anything happens, any problem comes up, you must depend on the Lord.

I remember one story. When I just came to the temple and started my temple life, I asked Gurudev what service I could do, and Gurudev gave me a service, he said, "I know it is a difficult job for you, but I think you can do this service—you will be the night guard." He gave me a big torchlight—it must have had six-eight batteries, I cannot remember the exact number now. With that torchlight, I would go around the temple at night—I would go to the goshala and other buildings. At that time, there were not so many buildings—the centenary building construction had not started, and Govinda Kunda was dark, it was not necessary to provide security there. Anyhow, I did what Gurudev told me to do. One day, maybe after midnight, I suddenly saw someone standing in front of the samadhi mandir of Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, someone who looked like Gurudev. I saw him from far and could not understand if it was really him because it was very dark. I came up quietly without disturbing him with the torchlight and asked, "Guru Maharaj?" Gurudev put his finger to his mouth and showed that I must not speak. I stood a little far and after some time Gurudev went back to his room. The next day I asked Gurudev, "Guru Maharaj, I saw you yesterday..." and Gurudev explained, "I am facing some problem, that is why I came to ask my Guru Maharaj for the solution. I was talking to Guru Maharaj at that time." I was surprised to see what a strong connection Gurudev has with Guru Maharaj and what kind of relation Gurudev and Guru Maharaj have. I could realise it at that time.

When my Gurudev went to foreign countries, he would sometimes call me, or sometimes I would call him also if there were some works going on and it was necessary to ask him something. I did not call very often because I did not want to disturb him, maybe two-three times every two months. He would also call me—he would want to know how Chaitanya Saraswat Math temple in Nabadwip was running. Sometimes, when I was doing some works, I would want to hide something from Gurudev, but he could understand it easily. He would say to me, "I know that you are doing this!" I was surprised how Gurudev could know it. At that time I could understand that Gurudev is not martya-buddi, he is not an ordinary material man of this world—he is aprakrita, transcendental. He is not an ordinary person, somebody's brother or somebody's son. It may look like this, but it is not the same. Gurudev is non-different from Krishna, non-different from the Lord. I could realise it at that time.

Now I understand very clearly what is Gurudev's mercy, and I know well what Gurudev wanted and what Gurudev wants. It is his mercy that I am preaching, that so many temples have happened, so many Deity installations have happened, so many things have happened. It all happens only because of his mercy—he is doing everything. And this happens not only here, this happens all over the world also.

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