(4/13) A Hole In Surrender

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

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

We are doing so much service, but instead of devotion, our efforts turn into karma-misra bhakti. Everybody has some devotion, but the problem is that 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 ekadasi, and they follow it just to get something. This is also a material desire. However, in our line, we follow ekadasi because Mahaprabhu, Gurudev and Guru Maharaj have told us to follow it. If you follow ekadasi hoping to get something, it is not what ekadasi is for. Ekadasi is not for your pleasure.

Our ideal is Vraja gopis’ service, and their service is niskama (selfless). There is niskam-bhakti, and there is sakam-bhakti. ‘Niskam’ means you have no desire for anything, and ‘sakam’ means you want to get something. People worship various gods, but instead of actually worshipping them, they 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. In the same way, you come to the Lord and, giving Him some rice or money, think, ‘I am giving You one kilogram of rice because I know that later I will get two kilograms in lieu of that.’ Somebody has a coconut tree at home, and when they offer coconut to the Lord, they think, ‘If I offer a coconut to the Lord, I will get more coconuts on that tree!’ It is the same with jackfruit and other trees. People think, ‘If I give one jackfruit to the Lord, more jackfruits will grow on my tree!’ When you have such desires, it means that you turn the Lord into a bribe-taker and make Him your menial servant. People pray, ‘O Lord, give my son a good job’, ‘O Lord, please let my daughter marry well’, ‘O 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 matter (or duty) to keep your body well because this body is His. You can remember Srila Sanatan Goswami’s example. He is a great pandit, an extremely educated person, but at some point even he thought, ‘I will commit suicide. I have come to this world to serve the Lord, but my health is very bad – because I have this bad skin disease, I cannot serve the Lord with this body anymore. It will be better if 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 mind. What did Mahaprabhu say? Mahaprabhu chastised him, ‘Are you not ashamed of yourself?! How can you spoil others’ property?! Do you think this body is yours?’

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

‘Devotees submit their entire being when they take initiation. At this time, Krishna accepts them as His very own.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.4.192)

‘When you have already surrendered to the Lord, how can you think that 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 when you took initiation, you gave this 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. So, Mahaprabhu told Srila Sanatan Goswami,’You have given this body to the Lord, then how can you now want to commit suicide?’…

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 52 Mb
Length: 108 min
Language: English

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Remembering Guru-Varga
2) Sacrifice For Preaching
3) Loving Interactions
4) A Hole In Surrender
5) Have a Heart For the Temple
6) Power of Service
7) Origin of Bhagavatam (1)
8) Origin of Bhagavatam (2)
9) Origin of Bhagavatam (3)
10) Lacking or Slacking?
11) Feeling Hungry?
12) Main Target
13) Determination and Surrender