(1/6) 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 ভাব-বর্জ্জনাঙ্গীকার ॥

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

‘(1) Humility, (2) self-submission, (3) accepting that the Lord is your maintainer, (4) keeping faith that “Krishna will certainly protect”, (5) engaging only in what is favourable to devotion, (6) rejecting what is unfavourable to devotion.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Many say, ‘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 haibe yanhara
tanhara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara

‘Lord Krishna hears the prayers of those who surrender to Him in these six ways.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

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 yourselves lowly. If somebody chastises me or says something bad, what of that? They have a problem, that is why they chastise me, 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 tolerant than a tree and who gives honour to others without desiring it for themselves is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Krishna.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.239)

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 Supreme Lord (Master of the Universe, Jagadiswar)! I do not desire any wealth (religion, money or material desires), any followers (wife, sons, servants or maidservants) or material knowledge (beautiful poetry). My only prayer is that I may birth after birth have pure devotion to You, devoid of seeking any result.’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.20.29)

Actually, I do not usually 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 have 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 host kirtan singing at their homes. But Srimad Bhagavatam says (if you read it, you will find it there, right in the first chapter) that you must not listen to those who read Srimad Bhagavatam for money. If somebody does kirtan for money, you must not listen to their kirtans or lectures because it is an offence to the Holy Name. If somebody reads Bhagavatam for money or chants kirtans for money and you listen to it, you will not get any spiritual benefit – it only brings inauspiciousness. Therefore, it is not good to go here and there to listen to such kirtans or 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?

তৃণাধিক হীন দীন অকিঞ্চন ছার ।
আপনে মানবি সদা ছাড়ি’ অহঙ্কার ॥
বৃক্ষসম ক্ষমাগুণ করবি সাধন ।
প্রতিহিংসা ত্যজি’ অন্যে করবি পালন ॥

trnadhika hina dina akinchana chhara
apane manabi sada chhadi’ ahankara
vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana
pratihimsa tyaji’ anye karabi palana

‘Give up ego and always consider yourself lower than a blade of grass, poor, destitute and wretched. You must practise tolerance like that of a tree and nurture others giving up vengeance.’

(Sri Gitavali, Sri Siksastaka 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 and tolerant. When you cut a tree, does the tree say anything? It does not; on the contrary, it gives you shelter. Such must be our tolerance.

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

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

‘You must live without causing anxiety to others and do good unto others forsaking your own happiness.’

(Sri Gitavali, Sri Siksastaka Giti, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Do you understand the meaning? You must never trouble or harass others for your own maintenance, for your own food, clothes, and so on.

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

‘I am not afraid to commit sins for my own happiness. I am merciless and selfish. I always lie. I feel unhappy to see others happy, and I feel happy to see others sad.’

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

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

I told you yesterday about how Srila Sanatan Goswami left his prime-minister’s post. When he 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 he refused to take it – he asked devotees, ‘Is there any old, torn piece of Mahaprabhu’s clothes? You can give me one.’ Srila Sanatan Goswami was given Mahaprabhu’s cloth, and he tore it into two parts – he covered his lower body with one half and his upper body with the other half. Clad in this way, he would go begging. He thought, ‘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 Adisaptagram), but he left everything as 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 to Puri for twelve days! On his way, during those twelve days, he took prasadam only three times. He took some milk in some house, and at another house, he slept in a shed. He was a great landlord, his family had so much land – from Katwa up until Adisaptagram, but he did not care about it. When you want to go to the bathroom very much and at last pass stool, you feel happy and relieved; in the same way, Raghunath Das Goswami left everything as stool and urine and came to Mahaprabhu.

You must have humility (dainya), you must 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). But 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 that you have got married, so you have to look after your wives, children, parents, and so on, 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 is no sin in that. 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 laile phala phale

‘Just saying, “I am Gora’s! I am Gora’s!” will not do. Only when you follow Gora’s practice and Gora’s conception will you get the proper result.’

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 put on tilaks and show the whole world that you serve Gora, but secretly you do outrageous things. Gora will catch you out, thief (hypocrite)!’

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6–7, Sri Jagadananda Pandit)

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 ways of saranagati, Krishna will hear you.’

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