(3) Solid Surrender

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bhanjipur, 2 December 2019, noon, part 3
Translated from Bengali

অত্যন্ত দুর্ল্লভ প্রম করিবারে দান ।
শিখায় শরণাগতি ভকতের প্রাণ ॥

atyanta durlabha prema karibare dana
sikhaya saranagati bhakatera prana

‘To distribute the rarest form of divine love, He teaches surrender, which is the life and soul of devotees.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

This divine love is very rare.

There are six kinds of surrender. You must remember them by heart, and if somebody asks you about it, you must be able to explain it. The first limb of surrender is humility, dainya. Humility is a symptom of a devotee. Why do you think we call each other 'Prabhu'? So that we can develop humility in our hearts. 'Prabhu' means 'master': 'He is my master, and I am his lowly servant.' Humility means being very meek, destitute. This is a symptom of a devotee. There must be no pride, no ego.

Atma-nivedana means you must submit yourselves at the holy feet of your gurudev. That is why there is a rule that we offer sastanga-dandavats (full, prostrate obeisances): men offer chhayanga obeisances (touching the ground with six limbs), and women offer panchanga obeisances (touching the ground with five limbs). We touch our heads and limbs to the ground offering full obeisance to our gurudev. It is necessary to offer obeisances genuinely, with heart and soul. Heart is the main thing. If you want to have a share of gurudev's wealth – if you want to earn such a right – you must give your heart. Gurudev's wealth is not temples, great buildings, houses or cars. His wealth is love, affection, mercy. So, if you want to get all this, you must serve your guru genuinely, sincerely – you must throw yourselves at your guru's holy feet.

Avasya raksibe krsna visvasa palana. Krishna is the protector. We always think, 'If I leave my family, how will my children live? They will have to become beggars and live on the street.' We do not consider ourselves anybody's protectors; we are not masters. He who takes care of everybody and everything will take care of everything. We are not anybody's guardians or masters. You must completely remove this conception from your minds. He who looks after everything will look after everything. If He kills, He will kill; and if He saves, He will save.

দৈন্য, আত্মনিবেদন, গোপ্তৃত্বে বরণ ।
‘অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ’—বিশ্বাস পালন ॥
ভক্তি-অনুকূল মাত্র কার্য্যের স্বীকার ।
ভক্তি-প্রতিকূল ভাব-বর্জ্জনাঙ্গীকার ॥

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana
‘avasya raksibe krsna’—visvasa palana
bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara
bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

‘(1) Humility, (2) self-submission, (3) accepting that the Lord is your maintainer, (4) keeping faith that “Krishna will certainly protect”, (5) engaging only in what is favourable to devotion, (6) rejecting what is unfavourable to devotion.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We must do what is favourable to devotion, and at the same time we must also reject that which is unfavourable to devotion. If you do something that is good for devotion and then do something that is bad for devotion, it will not take you anywhere. Suppose you do a fire sacrifice. Everybody puts ghee into fire, but if you put one spoon of ghee and then one spoon of water, then again one spoon of ghee and then one spoon of water, is it possible to do a fire sacrifice like that? If you drink milk and at the same time also smoke, you will not get any nutrients from the milk – milk has six kidns of vitamins, but all these vitamins will be destroyed by tobacco. So, do what is good for devotion and stay far away from anything that is bad for devotion. If you do not throw such bad activities far away from your lives, you will not get devotion. You think, 'Oh, I have done some sravan and kirtan, and now I have time, I will do something else, something bad.' You will not get anywhere like this. You must do what is favourable to devotion and reject everything that is unfavourable.

ষড়ঙ্গ শরণাগতি হইবে যাঁহার ।
তাঁহার প্রার্থনা শুনে শ্রীনন্দকুমার ॥

sad-anga saranagati haibe yanhara
tanhara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara

‘Lord Krishna hears the prayers of those who surrender to Him in these six ways.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

If somebody surrenders in this way, Krishna becomes overpowered by them. Krishna will immediately perk His ears and listen to them. You can see that Mother Yasoda could twist Krishna's ear and make Him sit, she could beat Him, she could scold Him, she could tie Him, and Krishna tolerated everything. Mother Yasoda could do anything with Krishna because she had that kind of right to do that.

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