If you and I surrender to Krishna, then all our miseries will immediately end. This is confirmed by Krishna himself in Bhagavad Gita 18.66, “Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.”
In spite of Krishna’s assurance, we refuse to completely surrender to Krishna. Why is it so? Either we do not have complete faith in Krishna’s words, or we are so foolish that we fail to understand the message of Krishna.
Words of Krishna, the Supreme Lord, should be taken seriously.
Krishna is not an ordinary person like you and me. He is the Supreme Lord. He is the creator and maintainer of the entire world. Scriptures confirm this. Brahma Samhita 5.1 says, “Kṛṣṇa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.”
If Krishna is saying something, then it should be taken seriously. So, if Krishna is asking us to surrender then we should not just believe in his words but should also act on it.
But there is some force which does not allow us to surrender to Krishna. And that is our ignorance and impure consciousness.
Our consciousness is covered with material impurities
In this world we have lived for many lifetimes. And because of this our consciousness is covered by material impurities like lust, greed, pride, anger, envy and illusion.
Due to material contamination, we live in ignorance. In fact, we have forgotten our real identity. Our real identity is that we are spirit souls, parts and parcel of Krishna. But unfortunately, we fail to realize this fact. Instead, we identify ourselves with our material body, mind, and senses.
Since our consciousness is material, our senses crave for material pleasures. But these pleasures ultimately become the cause of suffering. “An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kuntī, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them.” Bhagavad Gita 5.22
As long as we seek worldly pleasures, we will suffer. As long as we surrender to the demands of our body, mind and senses we will suffer.
But as soon as we understand that we are eternally related to Krishna and decide to surrender to Krishna, our miseries will slowly disappear.
Our suffering began when we decided to leave our spiritual homes
Srila Prabhupada explains that we once belonged to the spiritual world where we enjoyed our life with Krishna. But sadly, we decided to come to this material world because we wanted to enjoy an independent life. Away from Krishna, we are undergoing many sufferings. We have forgotten our spiritual homes, our spiritual families and most importantly the love of Krishna.
Our condition is like a child who decides to abandon his father and mother and runs away from the house. The adamant child thinks that an independent life will give him great joy. He does not realize that he is voluntarily inviting unlimited miseries.
Away from his sweet home, he struggles for each morsel of food. For want of shelter he wanders here and there. Sometimes the biting cold makes him shiver. Sometimes the heat waves give him unbearable pain. Feeling pity on him, sometimes people offer him torn clothes, he accepts it and quickly wears it. Someone gives him some food; he immediately grabs and gorges on it. Someone offers him shelter and he feels so grateful. He thinks this is what life is all about. He slowly forgets the love and warmth he got at his home. Whatever he gets in the outside world, he mistakes it as real love.
Just like an orphan child we are struggling in this material world which is not our real home. We have forgotten the love and warmth of our spiritual homes.
Although a child may abandon his parents, but the mother and father always want him to return home. They are always ready to forgive and forget all the mistakes of their child.
Krishna wants us to return back to our spiritual homes
Similarly, Krishna, the Supreme Father, is also eager to get re-united with us. He wants us to come back to Him.
He makes many arrangements to facilitate our return to the spiritual world. Many times, he comes personally and tell us to come back to him. He also sends his devotees who tries to reawaken our dormant love for him so that we become eager to go back to our spiritual homes.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu explains, “Vaisnavas or devotees are usually very compassionate upon conditioned souls. Without even being invited, a devotee will go from door to door to enlighten people and to bring them out of the darkness of nescience by injecting knowledge of the living entity’s constitutional position as a servant of Lord Krsna. Such devotees are empowered by the Lord to distribute devotional consciousness, or Krishna consciousness, to the people in general.”
The Lord and his devotees put in their best effort to rekindle our love for Krishna. But we have to also play our part. Lord cannot force us to love him. Devotees too cannot compel us to love Krishna. We have to voluntarily decide to love Krishna.
What happens when we surrender to Krishna?
We all will agree that we are suffering. Krishna, the Supreme Lord, is saying that he can free us from suffering. So, will it not be better for us to take shelter of Krishna. If we put aside our stubbornness and surrender to Krishna, then we will save ourselves from many unwanted calamities.
“Surrender to Krishna” means following the instructions of Krishna as given in the scriptures.
The best way to surrender to Krishna is by chanting the holy names of Krishna i.e. the Hare Krishna Mahamantra – Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Chanting helps us to rekindle our love for Krishna.
Also, by associating with the devotees of Krishna and by hearing the pastimes of Krishna, we develop love for Krishna.
Chanting and hearing also cleanses our hearts of all material impurities which is the cause of our ignorance and which is keeping us away from Krishna.
Once our hearts start getting cleansed of material impurities, we start understanding that we are suffering because we have forgotten Krishna. And as we start moving closer to him our miseries start decreasing.
We start tasting the happiness which we have always been looking for. And once we get free from all material impurities, our miseries cease to exist.
When You and I surrender to Krishna, we become qualified to go back home ‘Back to Godhead’, our spiritual home. We get reunited with Krishna, with our spiritual families and enjoy an eternal blissful life. We attain complete perfection.
So, without wasting a moment, let us surrender to Krishna.
