Purpose of Surrender

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh
3 January 2019, part 8

Are there any questions from you? Do not be shy. You can ask what you want, everybody can also learn something from your question.

Devotee: My mother's sister always phones me and complains, "When will my difficulties end?" What should I tell her?

When she surrenders to the Lord, then all difficulties will leave. It must be a proper surrender. When we live in the mundane world, we suffer from three-fold miseries (tritap-jvala): adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik (miseries caused by your body, by the nature, and other souls). Even if you think that you suffer because you are poor, you have no money, you can ask the richest people in the world who have a lot of money (like, multimillionaires Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani), "Do you suffer?" They actually suffer more than you! You can remember also when there was an earthquake in Gujrat and Nepal, when there are floods, heatwaves, etc.—people die and suffer so much from these adhibhautik-, adhidaivik-, adhyatmik-jvala. Sometimes mental problems also come. People suffer from so many material disease, and a doctor can give you some medicine, but they cannot stop the disease. No scientist can stop an earthquake. We cannot do anything—everything is in the hands of the Lord. Even when a calamity happens, they can give you some relief by giving some money if your house is broken or if somebody died, but how much benefit will you get from that? Not much. That is why Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Mahaprabhu tell: (Lord Krishna says,) "If you surrender to Me, if you come to Me, then you will be able to overcome all kinds of suffering, all kinds of problems."

But there is another thing you must think about. You think, "I am suffering from so many problems, so I must surrender to the Lord"—this is not the real way how to surrender. Thinking, "I will come to the lotus feet of Gurudev, to the lotus feet of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, then all my suffering will go away"—this is not devotion. You should surrender with heart and soul, with the devotion. If you get devotion and serve properly, then automatically everything will be set right. You should not think about yourself ("When will the problems leave?")—you do not surrender for that, you must surrender to the Lord to love the Lord.

Devotee: In Bhakti-ratnakar, it is written that if Krishna gives you enjoyment it means He gives you a great disease.

Yes, what you are saying is correct. If you are enjoying in the mundane world, if you are getting much money, this is a disease. Sometimes Krishna gives that disease also.

কৃষ্ণ যদি ছুটে ভক্তে ভুক্তি মুক্তি দিয়া ।
কভু ভক্তি না দেন রাখেন লুকাইয়া ॥

krsna yadi chhute bhakte bhukti mukti diya
kabhu prema-bhakti na dena rakhena lukaiya

"If you ask Krishna for anything except devotion, He can give you those things—bhukti, mukti, liberation, and so on—but He will hide devotion from you. You will not get devotion."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 8.18)

If you always disturb—always cry, always ask for something—this is what happens. Just like when a child cries to his parents, "Give me this!", "Give me this!", "Give me this!", sometimes his father can get annoyed and give the child some toy or something and leave. Sometimes the child says, "I want to go with you! I am coming with you!" But how will the father take the child with him if he is going to work? So, he gives the child something, some chocolate and leaves. Then, think about it.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told another thing also. Sometimes when people want to get a job, they bribe some minister. So, if you worship some God (Lord Krishna, Lord Ganesh, Kartik, Kali, Radharani, or anyone else) and you want to get something from Them, it means you give Them something and make Them ghuskhar (ঘুঁখোর, corrupt, lit. one who loves taking bribes)...

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