Pure Surrender Without Gaps

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata-Worldwide, 4 April 2021, part 8

[Addressing Doyal Nitai Prabhu's mother.] When everybody here hears about Doyal Nitai Prabhu keeping money for Gaura Purnima and you sending it, everybody is very astonished—a little boy, but he every day keeps aside some money for Mahaprabhu. You taught him in this way, and I say that parents must raise their children in this way in all houses. Boys must learn to come to Vaishnavs, pay dandavat, they must learn to play the mridanga, to chant kirtans, dance, etc. Almost every family has children, and they must teach their children in this way. You give him tiffin money (pocket money) to buy some food at school, but he keeps one-two dollars from that money for Mahaprabhu's service, for Gurudev's service. Muslim people also have a rule—they earn money, and one-two per cent of that money they must give to Allah. Many devotees also do this. I know they are getting so much austerity in their life. I see devotees from Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, how difficult their life is. They go to Spain from Venezuela, and there they work the whole day just to pay their bills, house rent, and food. Still, they are happy to serve the Lord, to serve Krishna consciousness.

Question: How can we stop feeling disturbed by the three-fold miseries?

Adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik, আধিভৌতিক, আধিদৈবিক, আধ্যাত্মিক: miseries caused by one's body, by the nature, and other souls. This is a simple matter, a simple question. "Bhagavata pada Vaisnavera sthane, ekanta asraya kara Chaitanya-charane (ভাগবত পড় বৈষ্ণবের স্থানে, একান্ত আশ্রয় কর চৈতন্য-চরণে)." Read Bhagavatam under the guidance of a great Vaishnav and take shelter under guidance of Gauranga Mahaprabhu and His associate. That is the main answer. Mahaprabhu also chastised Srila Sanatan Goswami,

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)

The main problem is that we do not surrender properly. I was talking to that boy in Uluberia today. I told him: what kind of surrender is this? Are you surrendered to Maya or are you surrendered to your Guru? Ask yourself this question. If I show off that I have taken initiation, I put on tilaks, wear kanthi-mala, etc.—I am surrendered! This is not what a surrendered soul is. A surrendered soul is one who follows 100% what Gurudev tells. If Gurudev says, "Jump from the seventh floor," you must jump, you must not think whether you will die or not. You must depend on your Guru. But the problem is that you do not have any faith in your Guru. You are thinking, "Oh, if I go there, what will happen?" You do not depend on your Guru, you do not have faith in your Guru. You must go wherever Gurudev takes you—if Gurudev takes me to hell, OK, I will go to hell. It is necessary to have proper surrender.

If you do not surrender properly, then some lack of devotion and some gap will come. We sometimes follow all rules and regulations, we put water in the pot—we put, and put, and put again and again—but the pot never gets full, it always remains empty. You are giving more water, and again the same thing. What is happening? Because there is a hole in the bottom of your pot! So, we do what is favourable to devotion, but at the same time we also do what is unfavourable to devotion—we eat more, we sleep more, etc. This is not favourable to devotion. Eating too much, sleeping too much, gossiping too much, too much prajalpa, too much gramya-katha. Everybody keeps asking me, "Maharaj, how do you get so much energy to chant?" I do not waste my time on talking and gossiping—talking, talking, talking, talking nonsense, I do not like it. If I hear somebody talking too much, I get very annoyed. Now I cannot tolerate it so much, I cannot take it when I hear somebody gossiping and talking, talking, talking nonsense things, prajalpa, etc. I am not interested in all this.

Sometimes, we see people have so many exercise machines at home—they practise body balance, they do fasting, they control their diet, they do all sorts of things to keep their body fit, but if you just pay full obeisances one hundred times a day, it will cover all your exercises. If you have the habit of walking one-two hours a day, you will get energy—if you sit in one place all the time, then you will walk fifteen minutes in the parikrama and you will be out of breath. You must be habituated to being energetic. As the saying goes, "a man is a slave of habit." If you do something every day, it will become your habit. Try to understand this.

As for the three-fold miseries, you can see the examples of Srila Sanatan Goswami, Srila Rupa Goswami, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami. Their character, their practice shows it perfectly.

You know, one time, Gurudev said about one sannyasi, "He is my servitor, he always stays near me, but why does he always fight with me?" I said, "Gurudev, it is like Jagadananda Pandit and Mahaprabhu," and Gurudev became very angry, "Jagadananda Pandit?! Are you comparing him to Jagadananda Pandit?! Jagadananda Pandit followed 100% what Mahaprabhu told, but does he follow me?! When Jagadananda Pandit went to Vrindavan, Mahaprabhu told him not to mix with the Vraja-basi people and to always stay with Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami, and he listened properly. Does he [that servitor] listen to me?!" Gurudev was angry with me, "Are you comparing him to Jagadananda Pandit?!"

...I am going to Vrindavan next week because there is some service there. I am not going there for eye exercise. When devotees come, then I will do the parikrama. This time I am not going for parikrama, I am only going to my temple, Gurudev's temple and Radha Damodar's Temple to pay obeisance, my dandavat; then I will go to the Govardhan Temple and will pay my obeisance to Giriraj Govardhan there. I am not going on parikrama this time. I am only going because there is some emergency service there that I have to attend to.

Jay Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.

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