(5/6) Meaning of Surrender

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
12 March 2020, evening, Sri Nrisingha Palli
Part 5

দীক্ষাকালে ভক্ত করে আত্মসমর্পণ ।

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana

'Devotees surrender at the time of initiation.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.4.192)

But we are doing false surrender. We surrender, but then we stand up, Gurudev tells us to go this way, but we go in our own way – our surrender finished. Surrender must be complete! 'Gurudev, you can cut my head, I do not mind it.' But when I tell you to go this way, you go in the opposite direction! I wrote about what surrender means here in Guidance 4. Surrender means I pay my dandavat, saying, 'Gurudev, I surrender to you completely. I am your goat, you can cut my head or tail, no problem.' But we pay our obeisance, stand up, and Gurudev tells us, 'Go this way,' but we say, 'Oh, Gurudev, I have some job, I need to go that way.' This is not surrender.

Srila Gurudev said, 'From Gobe I became Govinda,' but this Prabhu here has become Gobe from Govinda. During the festival, we give garlands to all Prabhus, but he was giving a rose garland to a girl... Who did you buy those roses for?

Devotee: For the Deities.

You brought roses for the Deities? Again you are lying! Tell me the truth. Which girl did you bring them for? You do not know me! I know everything. I can know who does what, I know everything about you – what you do right and what you do wrong, I know everything. It is written here in Guidance 4 also, 'Sri Gurudev is the center of the disciple’s heart.' Your mother has some weakness for you, but I do not have such weakness. If I want to bring you up as a proper man, I will chastise you strictly. You are here to practise Krishna consciousness – you are here to please the Lord and to please Sri Guru, not anybody else! You have joined this mission to make your Guru happy and to make the Lord happy, nothing else. This is your only siddhanta. Who is called a disciple? Disciples are those who make their Guru happy and those who please the Lord. You can see that *** Prabhu buys all garlands. He is a householder, but you are a brahmachari staying at the temple, and your mind is busy with girls. Go back to your home and find yourself a wife, or your mother can get you married. And if you want to become a serious man, then you must practise here. You must listen to Hari-katha, you must speak Hari-katha, you must practise Hari-katha. This is what I have brought you here for. You must listen and practise Hari-katha.

You are not a small child. If a small child keeps eating soil, what will the child's mother do? When Gopal ate soil and Balaram told about it to Mother Yasoda, Gopal became afraid and denied it, 'I have not eaten any soil!', 'I have not eaten any soil!' And when He opened His mouth, Mother Yasoda saw the entire universe within it. What did Govinda Das write?

বজ হুঁরে মন শ্রীনন্দনন্দন
অভয় চরণারবিন্দ রে ।

bhajahu re mana sri-nanda-nandana
abhaya-charanaravinda re

'O mind, serve the son of Nanda's lotus feet, which make one fearless.'

এ ধন যৌবন পুত্র পরিজন
ইথে কি আছে পরতীতি রে ।

e dhana, yauvana, putra, parijana
ithe ki achhe paratiti re

'What is there in having wealth, youth, sons, and family?'

শ্রবণ, কীর্ত্তন, স্মরণ, বন্দন,
পাদসেবন দাস্যরে ।
পূজন, সখীজন, আত্মনিবেদন
গোবিন্দ দাস অভিলাষ রে ॥

sravana, kirtana, smarana, vandana
pada-sevana, dasya re
pujana, sakhi-jana, atma-nivedana
govinda-dasa-abhilasare

Govinda Das desires to engage in the nine practices of devotion: hearing about, glorifying, remembering, praying to, attending to, serving, worshipping, befriending, and surrendering to the Lord.

This is the aspiration of Govinda Das.

I chastise and scold, but those who can tolerate my chastisement become grownup and good men. This is Gurudev's desire also. He told me, 'You must try, try and try, and if the person still does not listen, then leave them.' There is still time for you – I have told you one time, two times, ten times, fifty times, one hundred times, ten thousand times, a hundred thousand times, but my patience has its limit too. You think that you can do something bad, Gurudev is not saying anything, so you can carrying on doing it. Gurudev can understand everything but he is not saying anything. For example, somebody goes shopping and steals some money every day. Gurudev can understand it, but he is not saying anything, so they continue stealing. But one day Krishna will arrange something and that person will have to leave their service. If you do something wrong, you must understand that it is wrong and try to correct yourself. You have to try. It is very important. You have some bad habit, you are doing something wrong, but you must gradually reduce it and give it up. For example, somebody likes to always drink tea. Tea is not good – we do not offer tea to the Lord, then why are you taking it? You must slowly remove this habit. It is a problem sometimes, but we must still try to avoid bad things. Somebody came to me and said, 'Maharaj, you told me not to drink tea, but I saw some foreign devotees at the tea shop!' Even on the Gaura Purnima day, somebody took paratha at the shop! If you are hungry, you can take some fruit, it is not a problem, but why do you go to the sweets' shop and take paratha?! It is a fasting day in honour of Mahaprabhu's appearance! Even if you have some problem, some stomach problem, you must still follow the rules. Sometimes, you go out for some job or service, you can take some things outside, but in general, we must always avoid doing this. Try to avoid this. For example, I took some prasad outside yesterday, but it does not mean that I make it a habit. Try to avoid doing what is not right. Practise everything properly.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Love Your Service
2) Service Foundation
3) Guru–Disciple Relationship
4) Preaching Guidance
5) Meaning of Surrender
6) Demons Among Devotees