A Hole In Surrender

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bankura Anniversary Festival,
26 January 2021, part 4
Translated from Bengali

You can see how nicely Sevak Bhavan has turned out here, there is a goshala here also. You have everything arranged here, by the will of the Lord everything is good, but there is one shortage. There is a lack of service with firm determination (nistha).

We are doing so much service, but instead of devotion our efforts come to karma-misra-bhakti. Everybody has devotion, but our devotion is karma-misra-bhakti (devotion mixed with material desires). It means we serve the Lord, but inside we expect to get something in return. For example, many like to speak about the glory of ekadasi—they hear what result one can get by following each particular ekadasis, and they follow it to get something. This is also a material desire. But according to our line, we follow ekadasi because Mahaprabhu, Gurudev, and Guru Maharaj told to follow it. If you follow ekadasi hoping to get something, it is not what ekadasi is for. Ekadasi is not for your pleasure.

Vraja-gopis' service is niskama (selfless). There is niskam-bhakti and sakam-bhakti. Niskam means you have no desire for anything, and sakam means you want to get something. We worship the demigods, but instead of worshipping them we turn them into bribe-takers. Suppose you work somewhere, if you take a bribe, then both the bribe-giver and you, the bribe-taker, are criminals. If you come to the Lord and giving Him some rice or money think, "I am giving one kg rice, and in lieu of that I will get two kg." Somebody has a coconut tree at home and when they offer coconut to the Lord, they think, "If I offer the coconut to the Lord, I will get more coconut!" The same about jackfruit, etc. "If I give a jackfruit to the Lord, then there will grow more jackfruits on the tree!" Such desires mean that you turn the Lord into a bribe-taker and make Him your menial servant. People pray, "Lord, give my son a good job," "Lord, please let my daughter marry well," "Lord, please keep me in good health." This all is karma-misra-bhakti.

People pray, "O Lord, please keep me in good health," but it is the Lord's duty, the Lord's matter to keep your body well because this body is His. You can see Srila Sanatan Goswami's example. He is a great pandit, an extremely educated person, but even he said, "I will commit suicide. I have come to this world to serve the Lord, but my health is very bad—I have this bad skin disease and cannot serve the Lord with this body, so better I throw myself under the wheels of Lord Jagannath's chariot during the Ratha-yatra procession." He came all the way from Vrindavan to Puri with this idea in his mind. What did Mahaprabhu say? "Are you not ashamed of yourself?! How can you spoil others' property?! Do you think this body is yours?"

দীক্ষাকালে ভক্ত করে আত্মসমর্পণ ।
সেইকালে কৃষ্ণ তারে করে আত্মসম ॥

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana
sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

"At the time of initiation, when a devotee fully surrenders unto the service of the Lord, Krishna accepts them as His very own."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.192)

"When you surrender to the Lord, do you think this body is yours?" These are such beautiful words! "How can you destroy this body? You want to destroy this body by committing suicide, but you have given this body to Me. When you took initiation, you gave your body to Me! You told me, 'Use this body as you please, Prabhu. I am your sacrificial goat—you can cut my neck, you can cut my leg, you can cut my head, do as You please.'" This is what surrender (saranagati) is. "You have given this body to the Lord, then how can you want to commit suicide?" This is what Mahaprabhu told Srila Sanatan Goswami...

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