Tag: surrender

Everyone ultimately has to surrender to Krishna

Either we have to surrender to Krishna voluntarily or we will be forced to surrender but eventually everyone has to surrender to Krishna, the Supreme Lord.  

When a person surrenders to his enemy then he loses all his glory. The surrender is too painful for him. But when one surrenders to the will of the Lord then the surrender is not painful but it’s joyful. It brings joy to both – the Lord and the one who surrenders to him.

Every one of us has to surrender to the Lord at some point in time. The decision is ours. We have to decide when we want to surrender. If we do not surrender to Krishna willingly then at the time of death we will be compelled to surrender to him. And that surrender is terrible.

Krishna is very sweet but in the form of death is extremely fearful.

Krishna’s fearful form

Arjuna personally witnessed that terrifying form of Krishna when he saw how people were entering into his mouth and dying helplessly. Arjuna was seeing Krishna’s gigantic all destroying Universal form. 

He saw people rushing into Krishna’s fearful mouth. Sometimes their heads were being crushed by his teeth while entering into the mouth. Seeing this Arjuna was aghast and terrified.

He said, “I see all people rushing full speed into Your mouths, as moths dash to destruction in a blazing fire.” Bhagavad Gita 11.29

Arjuna pleads with Krishna to come back to his two-handed sweet form. The Supreme Lord accepts his request and shows him his beautiful form.

“When Arjuna thus saw Kṛṣṇa in His original form, he said: O Janārdana, seeing this humanlike form, so very beautiful, I am now composed in mind, and I am restored to my original nature.” Bhagavad Gita 11.51

So, we have to decide if we want to surrender to sweet Krishna who is the darling of all the brajvasis, or do we want to surrender to all devouring fear personified Krishna in the form of death. 

Krishna tells how to surrender to him

In the material world surrender means accepting defeat. But here surrender means accepting the ultimate reality. It’s like a rebellious child surrendering to his father. When a child surrenders to his father then his father not only accepts him with open arms but also forgets and forgives his all-previous mistakes.

Attaining Krishna is not difficult because the Lord himself tells us how we can get his grace.  

He says, “My dear Arjuna, he who engages in My pure devotional service, free from the contaminations of fruitive activities and mental speculation, he who works for Me, who makes Me the supreme goal of his life, and who is friendly to every living being – he certainly comes to Me.”  Bhagavad Gita 11.55

Like a loving father, Krishna is waiting for us with his open arms to embrace us. We just need to turn towards him and say – Krishna I am yours. Now you are the goal of my life. Please accept me.

Krishna will surely accept us because he never rejects anyone who surrenders to him.

But if we fail to surrender to Krishna then we should be ready to see in the form of death.

Three Reflections

• If we do not surrender to Krishna willingly then at the time of death we will be compelled to surrender to him.
• Arjuna saw people rushing into Krishna’s fearful mouth. Sometimes their heads were being crushed by his teeth while entering into the mouth.
• We have to decide if we want to surrender to sweet Krishna or fear personified Krishna in the form of death.  

Ask Yourself

• Am I ready to surrender to Krishna as per Krishna’s wishes?

Action Item

• Everyday say to Krishna, “I am yours. Please accept me.”

Surrender to Krishna to be happy forever

If we surrender to Krishna, then all our miseries will immediately end and we will be happy forever. 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 ignorant 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 us. 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.

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.

How to surrender to 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.

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.

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.  Around 5000 years back Krishna appeared in this world for us, to inspire us, so that we return back to him.  Once we are with him miseries will not touch us. 

Surrender means to do things which always pleases Krishna. Srila Prabhupada following the footsteps of great vaisnav acharyas taught us how to practice devotion to Krishna and how to surrender to Krishna.  

He explains the meaning of surrender, “Surrender means one should simply accept favorable service to Kṛṣṇa and reject anything which is unfavorable, and then next is avaśya rakṣibe kṛṣṇa viśvasa-pālana: “And to be firmly convinced that ‘Kṛṣṇa will give me all protection.’ ” Lecture on SB 6.3.16-17 — Gorakhpur, February 10, 1971

So, with this understanding let us try our best to surrender to Krishna and enjoy a happy life forever.

Three Reflections

• Away from Krishna, we are sufferings.
• Surrender means to do things which always pleases Krishna.
• Be convinced that Krishna will give me all protection.

Ask Yourself

• Do I always do things which are favourable to Krishna?

Action Item

• Today do not watch anything on internet or TV which is not related to Krishna.

Surrender out of love to Krishna

My friend cringed when he heard that the final instruction of the Bhagavad-gita is to surrender to Krishna wholeheartedly. “Am I a criminal that I should surrender to Him? Better worship a God who is more humble and down-to-earth!”

The word surrender does not usually conjure good images in our mind. As the dictionary confirms, surrender is associated with defeat and despair, and loss of pride and prestige. When an army surrenders to the enemy, it brings disgrace to the nation.

A criminal or a terrorist is forced to surrender because he is a nuisance to the society. In this world we find that the winner becomes arrogant and want to humiliate the loser by forcing him to surrender, while the loser is seeking an opportunity to take revenge and settle scores.

But the surrender that Krishna demands in the Gita is far different from the forced surrender of a loser in life. Selective reading of the Bhagavad-Gita may make us think that Krishna is an egoistic God. Certain verses may sound like the speech of a politician, who while campaigning for election promises the voters to eradicate all sufferings of the people if voted to power.

But Krishna is not a political leader that He wants to increase His number of followers. His call for surrender is not driven by egoistic claims of supremacy; it is actually impelled by His supreme compassion for all living entities.

Panacea for all sufferings

Krishna’ s Godhood does not need our backing as proof. All the Vedic literatures unequivocally declare that Krishna is the supreme. Here are some examples: isvarahparamah Krishna – “Krishna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead” (Brahma-samhita 5.1); Krishna tubhagavansvayam – “Lord Sri Krishna is the original Personality of Godhead” (Bhagavatam 1.3.38).

“Devaki’s son [Krishna] is the Supreme Lord” [Narayana Upanisad (4)]. Even Krishna Himself declares explicitly about His supreme position: mattahparataramnanyatkincidastidhananjaya – “0 conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me” (Bhagavad-Gita 7.7).

 Surrender to Krishna is a beautiful experience and the most wonderful concept in all of creation. It means to genuinely offer our love to Him. Those who are unwilling to surrender to Krishna with love have to surrender to Him at the time of death. Old age, disease and death are the weapons by which powerful time strangulates us.

All great emperors of the world – Alexander, Napolean, Hitler, Aurangzeb – have been swept away into oblivion by the force of time. To the degree we consider ourselves the controller and proprietor of things of this world, to that degree we suffer when we face Krishna in the form of death. That surrender is too painful and immensely horrible.

 On the other hand, if we understand our eternal position as the servant of Krishna and humbly accept it, all our miseries will cease to exist. Krishna immediately takes the devotee under His tutelage.

If we take one step towards Krishna, He takes hundreds of steps towards us. Krishna wants us to be happy and is always ready to shower His love upon us. He promises: “Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.” Bhagavad-Gita (18.66)

Krishna the humblest waiting for us

I wish my friend understood how God, although the greatest person, is simultaneously the most humble. Imagine an employee who works for a multi-millionaire becomes inimical towards his boss and starts disobeying and demeaning him. Will the boss tolerate him?

Strangely Krishna does so; He allows the rebellious souls to rebel against Him, and creates the material world for them, so they can satisfy their gratuitous desires. Krishna tolerates all and patiently waits for the moment these souls will realize their folly and turn towards Him.

Krishna’ s pastimes with His devotees clearly reveal His humility. One time His childhood friend Sudama came to visit Him in Dvaraka, being very poor, Sudama was not dressed properly. His clothes were torn and dirty, and he was emaciated. When Lord Krishna came to know that his friend Sudama has arrived, He immediately rushed out of His palace to receive His friend. He embraced Sudama and made him sit on His own bedstead. He washed Sudama’s feet and personally offered him fruits and drinks.

 Although Krishna belonged to the royal Yadava family, He never forgot His poor brahmana friend. He treated Sudama as His equal.

Krishna is famous as the charioteer of Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra, He didn’t mind taking such a humble position for His devotee although He was God Himself.

Thus, we see that the supreme proprietor, creator and master of the entire cosmic manifestation is eager to serve His devotees and take a secondary role. We rarely find such examples in the history of the world.

In spite of our brazenness Krishna is ready to accept us again and fervently hopes that one day we will return back to the spiritual world, our original home.

The Wonder of Surrender to Krishna

My friend abhors the word surrender because he thinks he is not a criminal. But as lawbreakers of the spiritual world, we too have acted criminally. Fortunately, Lord Krishna is merciful toward us and eagerly wants us to return back to Him.

Surrendering to Krishna, our original father, does not bring us any dishonor. Our surrender to Krishna is like a patient submitting himself to a doctor for treatment or a child taking shelter of his mother.

A patient agrees to abide by the prescription of the doctor for his own benefit; a child experiences love and care on the lap of his mother. Krishna’ s clarion call to surrender is for our salvation.

Not everyone surrenders; Krishna understands this: “After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.” (Bhagavad-gita 7.19)

If we are not with Krishna, we are undoubtedly with maya, Krishna’ s material illusory energy. So either to Krishna or to His material energy, we must surrender. In fact, every day, knowingly or unknowingly, we surrender to the dictum of our mind and senses, to our insatiable desires, to the demands of our bodies, to our lower self, to so many people in our daily life.

My poor friend is a heavy smoker, smoking half a dozen cigarettes daily. He hardly realizes that he has surrendered his life to a life-threatening addiction.

Arjuna’s example

Arjuna was in acute anxiety before the Mahabharata war began, but after hearing Krishna’ s message he completely surrendered to Krishna and thus paved the way for his glorious victory.

Arjuna said: “My dear Krishna, 0 infallible one, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy. I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to Your instructions. (Bhagavad-Gita 18.73).

Like Arjuna, there are many examples in history who achieved incredible fame and glory just by following Krishna’ s instructions and the instructions of His devotees. By surrendering to Krishna success is certain in our life; there will be no room for anxieties and miseries.

Surrendering to Krishna opens the door for a blissful and eternal life. “For those who have accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is famous as Murari, the enemy of the Mura demon, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf’s hoof-print. Their goal is param padam, Vaikuntha, the place where there are no material miseries, not the place where there is danger at every step.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.14.58)”

Why don’t we Surrender to Krishna?

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.

Krishna opens the door for a blissful and eternal life