(4/16) Meaning of Surrender (2)

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Temple inauguration programme, Hooghly
26 January 2020, noon, part 4
Translated from Bengali

I have told you about these four limbs of surrender:

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

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

"Humility, self-submission, accepting the Lord as your maintainer, keeping faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me.'"

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

The other two limbs are these:

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

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

"Engaging only what is favourable to devotion and rejecting what is unfavourable to devotion."

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

I tell you time after time: do what is favourable to devotion and reject what is unfavourable. Unfavourable means that which has no devotion. You cannot come to the Lord through any material activities, through any knowledge or mystic, esoteric practices. What do many people say? Listen carefully. They say, "Oof, there are so many problems at the temple! I want to stay in some quiet place." You will go to a quiet place, but your mind will go with you! You tell me what can you do without any difficulties? Even if you make a fence around your own house, there will always be some neighbour who will complain, "Hey, you have taken my land!" Is it true or not? Those who do not want any difficulties and problems are liberation-seekers. The Lord says about such people, "They will not get Me." Such people want to avoid all difficulties and stay in some quiet place.

This is not our mood. "I want problems! I want difficulties and disturbances! Prabhu, I want to face difficulties in Your service! If I try to do Your service and some problem comes, let it come! Come what may! Let as many problems come as possible! I will take everything on my shoulder. You are giving me problems, and I will tolerate all difficulties and patiently carry on serving You." You must remember this.

তোমার সেবায় দুঃখ হয় যত,
সেও ত' পরম সুখ ।

tomara sevaya duhkha haya yata,
seo ta' parama sukha

"No matter how much unhappiness comes when I try to serve You, even all unhappiness is a source of great happiness for me."

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

You cannot do anything without facing difficulties. Even when Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur preached, even when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu preached, was their preaching unobstructed? Did nobody oppose Mahaprabhu when He preached? Did nobody oppose Prabhupad when he preached? Everybody opposed and obstructed them! It is always like that. Problems will always come. There is always something constructive and something destructive. Both exist separately. There will always be thesis and antithesis. When some thesis comes, antithesis must come—just as when day comes, night must follow. If night does not come, what value will the day have?

You know, one time, I went to our temple in Russia. In the north, they have no nights! "What is this?!" I thought. "What country have I come to?!" They have daylight the whole day. The sun is in the sky the whole day, twenty-four hours a day—it sets for fifteen minutes and then rises again! However, when I went there in winter, I did not even see the sun—in winter, they have night the whole day! I thought, "Come on! How can they live here? Our India is so beautiful—we get everything everywhere." Once, I asked somebody there to get me some green chilli. They left in the morning to get it and came back in the evening—they brought a ten-inch(!) chilli, and when I tried it, it turned out that it is sweeter than sugar! What is this? Yet we get everything here in India. You have been born in this beautiful, pure land. This is the land where the Lord appeared time after time. He came here in Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapar-yuga, and Kali-yuga. Not only that, Mahaprabhu came right here to West Bengali, and you have had the fortune to be born in this very land. Despite that, if you live right here in this pure land but do not serve the Lord, do not think about the Lord, then your days will just pass in vain. How many days will you be alive in this world? You can leave this very moment. You can go to the cremation ghat on the bank of the Ganges this very moment! This life is not eternal, it will go away, but you are passing it in vain—you cannot call out to the Lord. Please call out to the Lord. Practise Krishna consciousness.

Everyone will have to give answer. When you come to cross the river, you will have to give answer. What will you say? Have you been doing service?

I was doing collection yesterday, and somebody told me, "Oh, they have given us ten kg less rice!" The owner of the mill gave us fifty kg, and the worker gave us only forty. That worker thought, "If I give them ten kg less, I will gain." You will see—you do not give ten kg here, then you will give twenty kg more in some other place. You think you make profit if you give less, but the Lord will take it away and give it to some other place—the Lord will have your rice wasted ten time more. As the result, that rice will not be used for the service of the Lord—it will be used for other purposes, but they think, "Oh, if I give Maharaj less rice, I will profit!" It does not work like this. It is not possible to do this. As Guru Maharaj said, nobody can make the Lord poor. The Lord is the owner of the entire universe, do you think anyone can cheat Him and give Him less? And if you give something to the Lord, do you think you will have less? Never.

Always remember this. Do not trade with the Lord. You must stop your shopkeeper's mentality. Do not think that you have taken initiation from Gurudev, so you will get something in lieu of that. On the other hand, somebody thinks, "I have made him my disciple, and he will offer me obeisance." A guru should never think like this. Those who think like this cannot be gurus—they have no right to take obeisances from anyone. Somebody can become a mendicant (parivrajak), somebody can become a great scholar (pandit) or anything else, but if they cannot rescue others from the jaws of birth and death, if they cannot show others the real path, if they cannot give others the right to serve the Lord in Goloka Vrindavan, then they have no right to take anyone's obeisances or donations and they can never be a guru. If somebody thinks, "Oh, I made him my disciple, but he is not offering obeisances to me," they can never be a guru.

তৃণাদপি সুনীচেন তরোরিব সহিষ্ণুনা ।
অমানিনা মানদেন কীর্ত্তনীয়ঃ সদা হরিঃ ॥

trnad api sunichena taror api sahisnuna
amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih

"One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree, who gives honour to others without desiring it for themselves, is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Krishna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.239)

Whether somebody treats me with respect or not, whether somebody offered me obeisance or not, I do not care—I will offer my obeisance to everyone. Even if you are a guru, you must offer obeisances to your disciples, even if they do not offer you obeisances—then you can be a guru. "He did not take initiation from me", "He did not do this for me", "He did not do that for me." No. Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said: do not make many disciples, do not read many scriptures, do not practise too many things. It is not necessary to do all this. You do not know all this, but a genuine guru has to carry all the sins, mistakes, wrong actions, all the afflictions of his disciples. So, the fewer disciples you make, the more benefit you will get. You must remember this.

People do not understand all this. Those who understand this have the right qualification. [His Divine Grace chants 'Kabe Sri Chaitanya more karibena daya'.]

— : • : —

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Length: 120 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Opening Temple—Opening Your Eyes
2) Live As a Member of Krishna's Family
3) Meaning of Surrender (1)
4) Meaning of Surrender (2)
5) How to Pray to Vaishnav Thakur
6) Orphaned and Blind
7) Satisfying Lord and Your Soul
8) Trade Secret of Krishna Consciousness
9) Taste for Hari-Katha
10) Eternal Nourishment
11) Align Your Life
12) Two Keys to Success
13) Ekadasi Vrata (1)
14) Ekadasi Vrata (2)
15) Practise Day and Night
16) If You Want, You Can