Six Limbs of Surrender

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata, preaching programme,
16 January 2021, part 5
Translated from Bengali

Among the six limbs of surrender, the first one is humility (dainyata). I must feel that "I am poor and have no qualification," "I do not know anything." I must not think, "I am a good speaker," "I am good at singing," "I can sing kirtans well," etc. No. "I am very poor." What is my position? It is necessary to first know what your identity is.

'কৃষ্ণ-নিত্যদাস'—জীব তাহা ভুলি' গেল ।
এই দোষে মায়া তার গলায় বান্ধিল ॥

‘krsna-nitya-dasa’—jiva taha bhuli’ gela
ei dose maya tara galaya bandhila

‘The jiva soul forgot that it is an eternal servant of Krishna. Because of this mistake, illusion threw its ropes around the soul’s neck’.

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.24)

We forget that the jiva soul is an eternal servant of Krishna. We are eternal servants—we are not servants for one hour, one and a half hours, or only half a year. We are always servants; we are always menial workers of the Lord. We must remember this. Mahaprabhu Himself said, "I am not a sannyasi, I am not a brahmachari, I am not ksatriya, I am not a vaisya, I am not a sudra. Who am I? I am a servant of a servant of the Lord!" So, we are servants of the servants of the servants of devotees. Those of you who have been to Vrindavan know that there is a place on the bank of the Yamuna where Laksmi Devi (Mahalaksmi) is sitting and crying because she cannot enter Vrindavan. She feels, "I am the wife of Narayan, I am His potency. I have so much wealth at home!" Yes, Laksmi Devi may be very rich, but she did not have anugatya (chaste devotion or adherence). She thinks, "Why does Krishna love only Radharani? I am not any less beautiful than She is! What is so special about Her?" She does not understand that Her Name is Radha because She worships (aradhana) the Lord the most. That is why it is said in the scriptures:

রাধা-ভজনে যদি মতি নাহি ভেলা ।
কৃষ্ণ-ভজন তব অকারণ গেলা ॥

radha-bhajane yadi mati nahi bhela
krsna-bhajana tava akarana gela

‘If you did not become devoted to the worship of Srimati Radharani, your worship of Krishna was in vain’.

(Sri Gitavali, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

It is necessary to worship and serve Radharani. Moreover, Gauranga Mahaprabhu is the combined form of Sri Radha and Krishna: if we do not worship Gauranga and Nityananda Prabhu, then how can we ever hope to come to Radha-Krishna? We even sing in one of the kirtans: "Nitaiyer karuna habe Vraje Radha Krsna pabe, dhara Nitaiyer charan duhkhani (নিতাইয়ের করুণা হবে ব্রজে রাধাকৃষ্ণ পাবে, ধর নিতাইয়ের চরণ দুঃখানি). When Nitai bestows His mercy you will reach Radha-Krishna in Vraja. Grasp Nitai's feet!"

So, first comes humility. Then, there is self-submission (atma-nivedana). It means I submit myself completely, wholesale at the lotus feet of the Lord and Gurudev.

The third limb of surrender is goptritve-varan. It means I must realise that the Lord is my maintainer. We think our parents look after us and take care of us. Yes, they may give us some food and clothes, but neither they nor any doctors can protect or save us—only the Lord can do it. People like to say that some doctor or their parents saved them, but everyone's life duration is already written for them: everyone will live as long as they are destined to live. I told at Gaura Purnima also, when coronavirus had not come to this country yet that no matter how much medicine people invent, no matter how many vaccines doctors invent, Yamaraj will create new diseases. If one disease is treated today, Yamaraj will create another hundred diseases tomorrow. Must we stop speaking and preaching about the Lord then? Will you stop chanting the Holy Name? You never stop eating, you continue eating every day even during the lockdown, so why will you give up serving the Lord?

The problem is that people cannot serve the Lord from their childhood, they cannot think about the Lord. The Lord has given us so much facility—we have a place to stay, we can even sit in the room and chant the Holy Name, practise spiritual life, chant kirtans, read Bhagavatam. There are so many beautiful things in the scriptures and in spiritual life, but we forget about it. That is why sadhus and Gurus come to this world—to remind us about all these things. When you buy a mobile phone at the market, you have to charge it every day or every second day: unless you charge it, you cannot speak on the phone. In the same way, sadhus and gurus come to this world to give us this charge by telling us about the Lord.

So, "goptritve-varan" means understanding that the Lord is our maintainer. The fourth limb of surrender is keeping a strong faith that Krishna will certainly protect me (avasya raksibe Krsna visvasa palana). Krishna is our protector. "Marabi rakhabi, yo ichchha tohara (মারবি রাখবি—যো ইচ্ছা তোহার): You can kill me, You can keep me, You can protect me, that is Your matter, it is up to You." If He kills, He will kill; and if He saves, He will save. If Krishna does not save you, nobody can save you. You may have heard that when there was a flood, a one-year-old baby survived, but the child's adult relative died. Therefore, it is necessary to have faith that Krishna will certainly protect us. If I surrender to the Lord, He will certainly protect me.

The fifth limb of surrender is accepting only that which is favourable to devotion (bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara), and the sixth is rejecting everything that is unfavourable to devotion (bhakti-pratikula bhava varjan-angikara). Suppose you do a fire sacrifice—if you put one spoon of ghee and then one spoon of water, you will not be able to do a fire sacrifice like this—the fire will go out. In the same way, if we do what is favourable and at the same time sometimes do what is unfavourable, both cannot go together. If you drink milk and alcohol, then all the vitamins that there are in milk will be destroyed. That is why it is said that you must do what is favourable and avoid what is unfavourable. When Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave a lecture in Vrindavan, he also stressed this: it is necessary to accept that which is favourable (bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara) and reject that which is unfavourable (bhakti-pratikula bhava varjan-angikara).

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