Sincere Surrender

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Singur, noon programme
14 February 2021, part 1
Translated from Bengali

[His Divine Grace recites Sri Jaya Dhvani, Vandana, and chants 'Gurudev bada krpa kari', 'Sri Krsna Chaitanya jive daya kari' and then comments the following.]

"Sri Krsna Chaitanya jive daya kari" is a kirtan about surrender. We chant it every day when we wake up in the morning. What is said in it?

দৈন্য, আত্মনিবেদন, গোপ্তৃত্বে বরণ ।
'অবশ্য রক্ষিবে কৃষ্ণ'—বিশ্বাস পালন ॥
ভক্তি-অনুকূল মাত্র কার্য্যের স্বীকার ।
ভক্তি-প্রতিকূল ভব—বর্জ্জনাঙ্গীকার ॥

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana
'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana
bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara
bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

"Humility, self-submission, embracing the Lord's guardianship, maintaining the faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me', engaging only in activities that are favourable to devotion, rejecting everything unfavourable to devotion."

(Saranagati, 1)

Many say, "The Lord does not hear me. I call the Lord, but He does not hear me." People blame the Lord, but what do the scriptures say?

ষড়ঙ্গ শরণাগতি হইবে যাঁহার ।
তাঁহার প্রার্থনা শুনে শ্রীনন্দকুমার ॥

sad-anga saranagati ha-ibe yanhara
tanhara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara

"These are the six types of saranagati, and if you can surrender in all the six ways, Krishna will hear you."

(Saranagati)

The Lord hears the prayers of only those who have surrender (saranagati), nobody else's. There are six limbs of surrender. The first limb of surrender is humility. You must be humble; you must consider yourself lowly. If somebody chastises me or says something bad, what of that? They have a problem, so they chastise, but I have no problem. This is humility. We sing this kirtan every day, and we also sing Mahaprabhu's Siksastakam. The first sloka is "Cheto-darpana marjanam," the second verse is "Namnam akari bahudha," and the third verse is this:

তৃণাদপি সুনীচেন তরোরিব সহিষ্ণুনা ।
অমানিনা মানদেন কীর্ত্তনীয়ঃ সদা হরিঃ ॥

trnad api sunichena taror iva sahisnuna
amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih

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

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.239)

What is the fourth verse?

ন ধনং ন জনং ন সুন্দরীং কবিতাং বা জগদীশ কাময়ে ।
মম জন্মনি জন্মনীশ্বরে ভবতাদ্ভক্তিরহৈতুকী ত্বয়ি ॥

na dhanam na janam na sundarim kavitam va jagadisa kamaye
mama janmani janmanisvare bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

"O Lord! I do not want any wealth (of religion, money, or material things), any person (wife, sons, servants, maidservants, etc.), or knowledge of refined poetry (devoid of relation to the Supreme Lord). I only pray to have pure, spontaneous, unmotivated devotion to my Lord birth after birth."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 20.29)

Actually, I do not recite many verses because most people do not understand them. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wrote kirtans as purport to these verses. What does he write? Who can chant kirtan? I spent five days in Narayanpur (Bardhaman) recently. I did programmes there, and visited 130-140 houses every day. At every house, I sat for a minute. Every day was like that. 140 houses was maximum, but every day it was 120-130 houses, sometimes 110 houses. You can imagine how much I have walked. In that area, people like to hire kirtan singers to have kirtans at their homes. Yet Bhagavatam says (if you read it, you will find it there, right in the first chapter) that if somebody reads Bhagavatam for money, you must not listen to them. If somebody does kirtan for money, you must not listen to their kirtans or lectures. It is an offence of the Holy Name. If somebody reads Bhagavatam for money or chants kirtans for money and you listen to that, you will not get any spiritual benefit—it only brings inauspiciousness. Therefore, it is not good to go here and there to listen to kirtans or listen to Bhagavatam classes. Who is capable of chanting kirtan? Those who have a good voice? No. Only those who have the right can chant kirtan. What is this right? Who has this right to chant kirtans?

তৃণাধিক হীন দীন অকিঞ্চন ছার ।
আপনে মানবি সদা ছাড়ি অহঙ্কার ॥

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara
apane manabi sada chhadi ahankara

"Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean."

বৃক্ষসম ক্ষমাগুণ করবি সাধন ।
প্রতিহিংসা ত্যজি অন্যে করবি পালন ॥

vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana
pratihimsa tyaji anye karabi palana

"Practise tolerance like a tree. Stop ill-treating others, instead nurture them."

(Siksastakam Giti, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Those who are humbler than a blade of grass, who are more tolerant than a tree, and who can give honour to others, have the right to chant kirtan. These are Mahaprabhu's words. Kirtan can be chanted only by those who are humble, who are tolerant (when you cut a tree, does the tree say anything? It does not. On the contrary, it gives you shelter.)

জীবন-নির্ব্বাহে আনে উদ্বেগ না দিবে ।
পর-উপকারে নিজ-সুখ পাসরিবে ॥

jivana-nirvahe ane udvega na dibe
para-upakare nija-sukha pasaribe

"Do not trouble others for your own upkeep, and forget your own happiness in the course of helping others."

(Siksastakam Giti, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Do you understand the meaning? For your own maintenance, for your own food, clothes, etc., you must never trouble or harass others.

নিজ সুখ লাগি' পাপে নাহি ডরি
দয়াহীন স্বার্থপর ।
পর-সুখে দুঃখী সদা মিথ্যাভাষী
পরদুঃখ সুখকর ॥

nija sukha lagi' pape nahi dari
daya-hina svartha-para
para-sukhe duhkhi sada mithya-bhasi
para-duhkha sukha-kara

"For my own happiness, I am not afraid to sin. I am devoid of compassion and my own interest is supreme for me. I am sad when others are happy, I always lie, and I am happy when others are sad."

(Saranagati)

We are not afraid to commit sins for our own enjoyment, but we must never trouble anyone for our own sake (jivana-nirvahe ane udvega na dibe). On the contrary, you must forget your own happiness to help others (para-upakare nija-sukha pasaribe). What do sannyasis do? Genuine sannyasis, genuine sadhus give up family without thinking about anything and depend on the Lord in everything. They give up everything and go house to house to bring people benefit. Do you think they come for money, clothes, a place to stay? Is there any lack of places for sadhus to stay? Why would they come because of this? Sadhus go house to house begging for some alms—they do that for the Lord. They do everything for the Lord.

I told about it yesterday. Srila Sanatan Goswami left his prime-minister's post and came to Mahaprabhu. He changed his clothes and was given a dhoti, but he tore that dhoti into two pieces. At first, he was given a new cloth, but Srila Sanatan Goswami refused to take it—he asked, "Is there any old torn cloth of Mahaprabhu? You can give me one." Then, he was given Mahaprabhu's cloth, and Sanatan Goswami tore it into two parts—he covered his lower body with one part, and his upper body with the other part. Clothed in this way, he would go begging. He thought, "I cannot just sit and eat here. I have come to the Lord, so I cannot only sit and eat by His side. I will go house to house and take whatever alms I get."

Srila Raghunath Das Goswami was the son of a big landlord here in Hooghly (in Adi-saptagram). He left everything like stool and urine and came to Mahaprabhu empty-handed, on foot. He made a festival at Panihati and got Nityananda Prabhu's mercy, and after that he went to Mahaprabhu, who was staying in Puri at that time. He walked for twelve days to Puri! On his way, during those twelve days, he took prasadam only three times. In some house, he took some milk, and in some house, he slept in a shed. He was a great landlord, his family had so much land—from Katwa up until Adisaptagram. Just as people feel happy when they pass urine and stool, he also happily left everything and came to Mahaprabhu. When you want to go to the bathroom very much and then at last pass stool, you feel happy and relieved; in the same way, he left everything like stool and urine.

It is necessary to have humility (dainya), it is necessary to surrender everything to the Lord (atma-nivedana), you must know that Krishna takes care of you (gotrtve varan), and you must know that Krishna is your protector (avaisya raksibe Krsna). We always think about ourselves. What does the Lord say? Do we ever listen to what the Lord says? If anyone asks me what the highest verse in Gita is, I will say that it is this verse:

সর্ব্বধর্ম্মান্ পরিত্যজ্য মামেকং শরণং ব্রজ ।
অহং ত্বাং সর্ব্বপাপেভ্যো মোক্ষয়িষ্যামি মা শুচঃ ॥

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

"Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

You think you have got married and you have to look after your wife, children, parents, etc. But Gita says: give up everything. Give up all religions (be it the religion of brahmans, ksatriyas, vasyas, sudras, grihasthas, brahmacharis, vanaprasthas, or sannyasis). "Give up all religions and surrender to Me. I will take care of you. There will be no sin. I will liberate you from all sins." This is the gist meaning of Gita, but we do not read it, we do not understand it. We read Gita, but we do not follow what is said in it. That is why it is said:

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।

গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

লোক দেখান গোরা ভজা তিলক মাত্র ধরি ।

গোপনেতে অত্যাচার গোরা ধরে চুরি ॥

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'
gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.7)

To impress others, you wear tilaks and think that you have become a sadhu. This is not right. It is necessary to first have proper surrender. Who does the Lord hear? "If you surrender following all six types of saranagati, Krishna will hear you."

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