Six limbs of surrender 1 – The Medical Metaphor

[Bhagavatam class at online Bhakti Sanga Japa Conference]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Welcome to this Bhakti Sangha Japa Conference.
So, today’s class will be given by His Grace Chaitanya Charan Prabhuji and on the topic of the Six Limbs of Sharanagari. And, Hare Krishna, Prabhuji, are you present on the call? Hare Krishna, Chaitanya Charan Prabhuji. Thank you very much, Prabhuji, for joining.
Dhanwa Pranam. All Grace to Shri Subbah. All Grace to Guru Maharaj.
Thank you very much for giving your very valuable time and association to us this morning and enlightening us on the topic. I now hand over the call to you, Prabhuji. Hare Krishna.
Please take over the call. Hare Krishna. Okay.
Tasmai Shri Guruve Namaha. Hare Krishna. So, today I’ll speak on the topic, I’ll discuss on the topic of the Six Limbs of Surrender.
I’ll focus primarily on the first limb today. The first limb is Anukulyasa Sankalpa. So, I’ll go over this concept of surrender gradually.
If we consider the six limbs, these are explained by our Acharyas. Bhaktivinoda Thakur has elaborated on them and Bhaktivinoda, he has also made a series of songs called Sharanagati, which describe this theme of surrender in various ways. So, Anukulyasa Sankalpa Pratyakulyasa Varjanam Rakshisthiti Vishwaso Gopasatve Varanam Tatha Atmanakshepakarpanye Shadavidhasharanagate So, it’s said over here that there are six limbs of surrender.
Anukulyasa Sankalpa Except that which is favourable. Pratyakulyasa Varjanam Put aside that which is unfavourable. So, here I will do, there will be some metaphors I will use throughout to illustrate this principle of surrender.
The one main metaphor which I will be using is of treatment of medication and then I will use some other metaphors also such as war at some time but let’s focus on this metaphor of medication. So, if somebody is sick and they are to be sick about 15-17 years ago I was very sick and I had TB So, there was a devotee doctor who was treating me. And he told me that it was quite a serious advanced TB I had.
So, he told me that in today you will have to practise Bhagavad Gita with me if you want to become healthy. He said, what do you mean? He said, you will have to follow Sarva Dharma for it. You will have to give up all your conceptions of what austerities you want to perform or what else you want to do and just do what I am telling you to do.
And then he told me various things about what food to eat, how much rest to take and everything. So, that time it struck me how this particular principle applies just as when we go to a doctor we basically surrender. We may have a particular plan of how we want to lead our life.
It may be based on our desires which might be lower. I want to eat this or I want to eat that or it might be based on our certain plans and purposes also. But if the doctor tells us something differently, then we have to follow because that’s what is required for the recovery of health.
Of course, here we are assuming that the doctor is competent. So, Sarva Dharma as Krishna says, just give up everything else. So, now if you consider the metaphor of a doctor generally we may think of surrender as say a general who is defeated in a military context and a devotional context.
We all have certain stereotypes of surrender. In a devotional context the stereotype usually is that we surrender by we surrender by giving in to we accept defeat basically in military terms that a particular army that has been defeated, it raises the white flag of surrender. And then it comes back that it accepts defeat.
So, surrender having that negative association of powerlessness, helplessness and defeat that’s the military context of surrender. Say after fighting the World War II, Germany surrendered eventually. Now, it could have another connotation.
In a devotional context we may think of Draupadi as surrendering. Surrendering as calling out to the Lord. Helplessly raising her hands in total dependence.
So, here there is not so much matter of defeat as a matter of dependence. So, defeat has a negative connotation. Dependence has a positive connotation.
But still, dependence both of them convey the idea of powerlessness. That okay we can’t do anything so let us surrender. But these six limbs of surrender begin with a very with a connotation with a delineation of something which we have to do which implies that we do have some power.
So, Anukulyasya Sankalpa Pratikulyasya Varchanam, that means accept that which is favourable, avoid that which is unfavourable. So, this for understanding this how does this kind of choosing carefully come under surrender. Surrender simply means just give up.
But no, here it is said choose carefully that is surrender. So, that means the point is that if somebody is going to take a treatment then whatever is conducive for health, they accept that. Whatever is unfavourable for health, they avoid that.
Now, of course, we could say that is something which we should always do. But often in the routine course of our life, our health may not be our top most priority. Health is there, but we have our job, we have our family, we have our spiritual practises, we have our services and sometimes if health is stressed, that’s okay.
But if you are focussing on recovering of health, then we will operate on based on the dynamics. So, accept what is favourable. So, eating this kind of food is favourable.
Take food, say having if I had TB, take a food with lot of proteins in it. Pratikulyasya Varchanam. Avoid certain kinds of foods.
Don’t do certain kinds of activities. So, if you consider surrender to be like a treatment. Now, in the treatment, if you consider who does the major work? Is it the doctor or is it the patient? If it’s something like a surgery, at that time the patient just is given some anaesthesia, patient lies on bed and the surgeon does most of the work.
But, if it is involving something like physiotherapy or something which involves exercise and long-term treatment, then in that situation, the doctor’s role is very significant. But the active thing that the doctor does may be very minimum. That means we just, even if somebody is, say, you know, I had to take like a 9-month treatment.
But in the 9 months, I just went to the doctor maybe 4-5 times, 3 times maybe, after I was discharged. And so, literally the doctor did nothing except maybe see me do some tests and write down some prescriptions. That’s all.
So, most of the things have to be done by the patient. And yet it is the patient who is surrendered to the doctor. So, a patient is obeying the doctor.
That means the patient is doing what the doctor is telling. But in this conception of surrender, there is a lot to be done by the patient. So, in our spiritual life also, especially in the six limbs of surrender, there are these two things which are very active.
Except that which is favourable. And avoid that which is unfavourable. So, we could say that doing this is surrender.
So, surrender in this sense is not just passive dependence. It is resourceful choosing. It is active, resourceful choosing.
So, we’ll have to constantly think, okay, is this favourable? Is this not favourable? And based on such resourceful choosing, we move forward in surrender. So, the patient has to live the life for treating himself. It is not that the doctor will live for the patient.
So, similarly when we surrender, it is not that Krishna does everything for us. It is we who have to do according to Krishna’s will. Now, these two are there.
So, doctors may give prescriptions and proscriptions. Do this and don’t do that. Prescribe and proscribe.
So, that is prescribed that is favourable. Do that. That is proscribed.
That is unfavourable. Avoid that. After that, Anukulyasya Sankalpa.
Rakshishya iti. That I will be protected. This faith is required of that Krishna is my protector.
So, normally whenever we surrender, let’s go back to the two metaphors once again. The war metaphor and the medicine metaphor. In a war metaphor also, when an army surrenders to the other army, they have at least some faith, some hope that this person to whom I am surrendering, they are not just brutal and they won’t just exploit or kill me.
That there will be some kind of fairness in the terms of the treaty that will come if we surrender. But in a military sense, surrender is the last option usually. People surrender only when they have no power to fight and they have no hope of winning.
That means either it is slaughter or surrender. We keep fighting and we are slaughtered or we surrender. So, that connotation, slaughter or surrender is quite negative again.
So, that’s not the connotation we would apply. But the point I am making is, if somebody is going to prefer surrender to slaughter, that means they have the faith that after surrender we won’t be slaughtered. That after surrender the person whom we are surrendering to, the force we are surrendering to, at least they will treat us with some degree of fairness.
So, faith is required. Now, if we are going to go to a doctor, Lakshmi Shirdi Ishwar, so what that would mean is that we have faith this doctor is competent enough to cure me. That this doctor knows their business and knows what they are talking about and their treatment will work.
In modern medical science, although it is very biology based, that means it is biochemistry based. This is the imbalance in the body and this is the chemical to treat it. Or it may be the surgery involved.
And also it is like anatomy. Anatomy or physiology. Both are parts of biology only.
So, it is, we may say there is no need for faith over this. You just take the pill you get cured. But even to make the decision to take the pill, one has to have faith that the pill will work.
The doctor knows the right pill to prescribe and therefore if I take this pill I’ll be cured. Beyond that there is a now faith is required in every walk of life. There in medicine there is a well known phenomenon of placebo effect.
That even if the doctor gives sugar pills, but the patient will use that, actually I am getting medication. Many times the patient gets cured. So, for medicines to pass the desired to be passed by the government authorities as working medicines, the rate of cure by the medicines, by the proposed medicines that might be coming up after research, the rate of that medicine should be, rate of that medicine working needs to be significantly more than the rate of cure because of placebos.
So, if the patient’s faith that I am being treated competently, that itself has a healing effect. Placebos can’t cure everything. But the point is, faith is not just that the doctor is, that this medicine is going to work, but faith is also that I am in safe hands and even if the medicine is not going to work, still that faith itself works.
But now, when we are talking about surrender within bhakti, surrender is based on, and here the point is not just in military terms, purpose of surrender is to at least get not a terrible deal, to get a good deal, hopefully in medicine, the purpose of surrender is to get good health. In bhakti, we want to surrender to develop a personal relationship with Krishna. So, normally, if we consider both the military surrender and medical surrender, they are basically motivated by fear.
Fear that if I don’t do, things will be worse. Now, that might also be one way in which we surrender to Krishna. But, the way the Bhagavad Gita talks about surrender, say, Arjuna is told to surrender, that is, Krishna expresses his love for him.
And, he says, you are very dear to me. I declare that you are very dear to me, Arjuna. And, therefore, I ask you to surrender.
So, if you surrender, I will protect you. I will free you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.
So, Krishna is revealing his love to Arjuna and the surrender is basically in that context a call to return the love of Krishna. It’s not so much a call to, it’s not so much a call to surrender out of fear as surrender out of love. So, when we understand this, that it is for the purpose of love.
So, Rakshashidhi, yes, there is danger and we want to protect it from the danger. But, as a devotee’s conception evolves, initially we might practise bhakti because we are in trouble. We might surrender to Krishna when we are in trouble.
And, that’s good. At least then we turn toward Krishna. But, that is not enough.
Krishna doesn’t want surrender like a forced marriage. It’s called shotgun marriage. The bride catches, the bridegroom catches the bride and forces her to, with a gun to her, to marry me.
It’s not like that. So, Krishna wants it out of love. And, that’s why we see that, in the third canto there is a description of how the Gopas, of how the child surrenders to, child prays fervently to Krishna and on praying fervently to Krishna the child he says please, I don’t want to go out into this world.
Let me stay here. And, let me become enlightened. And, what happens is Krishna says, now we might say that he prays, the world is full of illusion, let me not go there.
But, still the child goes out of the womb, into the world and more often than not the child falls into illusion. So, why is that? Is it that Krishna does not hear the prayer of the child? No. Krishna wants the child to go into the world and freely surrender.
Not surrender out of force. In the womb, when the distress becomes unbearable and there is some kind of sensation of the Lord’s presence or an awareness of a divine connection with the Lord. There is some prayer and surrender.
So, we want protection not just from the distress of the world but we want protection from the delusions of the world also. And, what is the fundamental illusion? Takshashati, Vishwaso, Gop-tattve, Varanam-tatha. That, my dear Lord, we may have doubts.
If I surrender, will Krishna protect me? Then, if our conception arises, then we will understand that actually Krishna is always protecting me. Even now, my existence is dependent on factors beyond me. That right now, we are breathing and we are not producing the air that we are breathing.
We may say, okay, I worked hard and produced the food. But, no, we didn’t. We only procured the food.
The food was provided by nature. Even if scientists in future start making artificial food, the ingredients come from nature. So, even after we eat the food, if we don’t digest it, how our body has the complex mechanism to digest, we don’t know.
So, we only think of our digestion only when it doesn’t work, when it stops working. We don’t think about it. We just presume it will get digested.
So, the point is, Gop-tattve, Varanam-tatha, that Krishna is my maintainer. It is not that, oh, if I do this, will Krishna protect me? Even without doing this, Krishna is protecting me already. Yes, there is this particular danger.
But the danger is there because I am alive. And if I am alive, that is because of many factors beyond me. It’s said that there are many things wrong in our life.
But if we are alive, then that means there is more right than wrong in our life. Whatever be our age, we might be 35, 40, 25, 60. There are so many people who die before they come to the age we are at.
And if we are alive, that means it’s because of factors beyond us, that those factors have worked favourably enough to keep us alive. So, we are right now also dependent on Krishna. So, Gop-tattve, Varanam-tatha, that Krishna is my protector, that is Rakshashiti.
Krishna is a competent protector. But Krishna is also a competent maintainer. And we may say there are many things wrong in our life.
Oh, but this didn’t work out, that didn’t work out. Yes, but if we are alive, there are a significant number of things that have worked out. Then, Atmanikshe-patar-panyam.
So, now, we know those four levels at which surrender is, or we approach God, that is fear, desire, duty, and love. At the level of fear, oh, if I don’t obey God, things will become worse, He will punish me. At the level of desire, oh, if I obey God, He will reward me, things will become better.
Duty is where we understand that actually God has already done so much for me. It’s like the parents have already done so much for me, and the child, who is a grown-up adult, understands what all the parents have done for me. And therefore, there is a sense of duty.
So, we could say that fear and desire are more self-centred. Duty is where the consciousness is expanding more and more. And love is where it’s based on a personal relationship with Krishna.
The Brajavasis, their surrender to Krishna is based on their love for Krishna. That they just give themselves to Krishna all the time. And that is Atmanikshep Karpanye.
So, Atmanikshep is giving oneself utterly to Krishna. Atmanikshep. Atma is self-nikshep.
So, Bali Maharaj, when he gave all his possessions to Krishna, and then he gave himself to Krishna. This giving of oneself to Krishna, that is actually based on love. When we may surrender to a doctor, yes, we entrust our body, but it’s not that we are going to give our heart to the doctor.
Okay, we may give a part of our heart in the sense that we may be very deeply grateful to the doctor if we survive and heal. But the doctor is not the object of love for the patient. And similarly, when an army surrenders, the conquering army is definitely not the object of love.
And if only somebody gives oneself, the defending soldier gives up oneself, then that’s slavery. That’s not love. But here, Atmanikshep, that is giving of oneself to Krishna, that is based on love.
So, we are talking about Bhakti. Bhakti is divine love, devotional service, as Prabhupada translated. So, we give ourselves to Krishna.
And here, the idea is that we understand that love is consuming. Bhakti consumes our entire being. It is not just one part of my life which is wrong and I pray to Krishna during one part of my life to set that one part of life which is wrong, right.
Rather, we understand that my life is a part of my Bhakti. That means this life and whatever Bhakti I am practising, it is actually a part of my multi-life spiritual evolution. If I can practise seriously, it may get completed in this life.
If not, it may take one more life. Doesn’t matter. So, it’s not that Bhakti is a part of life.
Functionally, that is true. We have many other aspects to our life and the direct Bhakti activities that we do are a part of our life. That’s functionally true.
But philosophically, it is not that Bhakti is a part of life. Life is a part of Bhakti. That during this whole life, it’s a part of my multi-life growth in Bhakti.
So, the purpose and perfection of Bhakti is we want to offer our entire being to Krishna. And Karpanya Karpanya is a variant, but not exactly the same. Karpanya is humility.
So, now Krupana, the word has negative connotation. Krupana is miser. So, Krupana means that one who holds everything for oneself for immediate possession without even the consideration of pleasure.
So, those are misers. They hold on to things without considering how they can be useful. They can be constructively used.
They have wealth, but they don’t even use that wealth for their own well-being. They just hold on to wealth. That is Karpanya.
Sorry, that is Krupana. But Karpanya has a very different connotation. We have So, Karpanya here is an acknowledgement that Krishna, I am weak without you.
So, it’s not just I am weak. I am weak is important but I am weak without you and with you I am strong. Without Krishna with Krishna we flourish.
Without Krishna we languish and perish. The soul is like a part of the whole. Just like if you have a complex machine and we have one screw out of it.
Now, that screw falls off it doesn’t really have much value. But if you have a complicated machine like a Mac computer or a high-end computer and there is a screw which holds the bottom frame together. If the screw falls off that screw will go everywhere.
Why does the screw fall off in such far and wide? We have to order that screw specially. That screw is playing a very special role. But if somebody if that screw, somebody sees it on the ground and they don’t know it’s a part of this whole, that screw might lie down for some time and it will be swept away into the trash.
Similarly for us, when the soul is disconnected from Krishna, it is like a screw lying on the ground. Unless someone knows the value of that screw and connects it with the whole that is connected to the computer it will eventually be swept away. So we are like those parts.
We may do our best to create a meaningful life for ourselves. But time will sweep everything away. Time will sweep even us away.
So, Karpanya is humility. And humility doesn’t mean that we think we are worthless. It is we are worthless without Krishna.
And with Krishna our existence has worth. It has significance. In fact, everything that we do becomes worthwhile when we are living, connected with Krishna.
And we are striving to connect with Him. So surrender means that a devotee recognises that without Krishna I am worthless. And with Krishna everything will become worthwhile.
And therefore, let me connect with Him. So when we try when we have this understanding so going back to the medical metaphor if we continue that like say somebody has gone to a doctor. Will this doctor’s medicine work? But if the doctors are regular physicians and we are already following the doctor’s guidelines and so my current health which was there, my regular health which was there before this disease came upon me that health is also to some extent the credit of the doctor.
So we expand the scope of the relationship. Not just this treatment but that my health has been maintained also by this doctor. Okay.
This treatment requires me to give myself fully. I was recently with Radhant Maharaj in Chicago and Ambarish Prabhu was also there. So Ambarish Prabhu he was going to come to go to the Nico village for treatment.
Now Ambarish Prabhu is very dedicated to the TOEVP project and he travels across the world despite of his health being deteriorating to raise support for the project. So he said I’ll come to GEV, I’ll be there for I will be there for 6 days but in between I’ll have to go to Singapore, Malaysia and other places. So then then they said that Kaurang Prabhu, Radhant Maharaj both were there.
Both of them said that the doctor in GEV, he is a big doctor who comes from elsewhere only once a month and he treats and we will arrange for him to come when you are there. But his condition for treating is that during the phase of treatment you don’t go anywhere. Just take full rest.
So you have to give your full being, Atmanikshay. So we see that Krishna also requires the full being. Now of course with the doctor we give the full being for a short while Krishna, it’s forever.
We want our full being. But the point is Atmanikshay is required at that time at least. That’s why sometimes when the sickness is very high the doctors say you cannot just do treatment at your home.
You have to get admitted over here. That means we give our full physical time physically at least we are present for constant observation and medication and Karapanya. Karapanya is in this case at least that without just like most people they take treatment not when it is preventive it is when you cannot live without the cure.
So without now that can be based on either the experience of pain or discomfort is becoming so unbearable. I can’t live with this. I have to take this treatment.
Or it can be based on knowledge. Okay, I have got this maybe I got this particular disease and it’s going to worsen. So before it worsen let me take the treatment.
That medical metaphor can be extended like that over here also. But the important thing is more on the medical metaphor has its utility to understand the dynamics involved in surrender. Surrender is not just passive.
There are moments in extreme distress and we may raise our hands and surrender. But when these six limbs of surrender are talked about they are not talking about just those moments of extreme danger or helplessness and we raise our hands and surrender. Here what is being talked about is the overall mode of living which comprises a surrendered life.
And therefore we understand without a connection with Krishna my life is worthless. Even if things are going on right in my life right now. Even if there is no major problem.
My health is good. My family is good. My job is good.
My prospects are bright. But still it’s Karpanji. Actually all of these are like Everything may be wonderful at this moment but at the next moment everything can collapse.
That is the nature of time. Not that we have to live in fear but that we have to live with knowledge. And with that knowledge we focus on connecting with Krishna even if things are right because we understand right now circumstantially the things that I may do, I am doing may have value.
But ultimately without Krishna nothing has value. So Karpanji, we offer ourselves fully to Krishna in that mood of surrender. And then we can grow in our life.
So in the future sessions we can grow in our life toward Krishna. In the next sessions I will talk about the limbs individually. What does it mean? And how we can apply them in the practicalities of our life.
But in this session I focus on the theme of the practical application in terms of how we can see this as a medical metaphor. So I will summarise. I spoke on understanding surrender through a medical metaphor primarily.
So the six limbs of surrender that I talked about they begin with active choices not just a passive dependence. Except what is favourable and avoid what is unfavourable. That means except, it is like a patient goes to a doctor and the doctor, the patient surrenders to the doctor but most of the work unless it is a surgery, most of the work has to be done by the patient.
Work here means choices have to be done by the patient. And those choices mean accept the prescriptions and avoid the proscriptions. So that is Anukulyasana Anukalpa, Patikulyase Varjani.
So acceptance and rejections. This is the first two elements. And to be able to do these two elements the first two are basically a choice of actions.
The next four are dispositions that we need to have so that we can do these two actions. And that is Rakshashyapinikilishva so that the patient needs to have the understanding, afraid that the doctor will cure me. So faith is required in medicine also.
Sometimes faith can work even when the medicine doesn’t work. It’s like placebos. So if faith is required even in a medical cure, then how much more in a spiritual cure where it’s a matter of the purpose of faith is not just a biochemical restoration of balance but it is a spiritual connection with the supreme object of Lord Krishna.
So we may when we are surrendering to Krishna, we need faith that Krishna will protect me. And I talked also about that as a metaphor of a war. The negative connotation of the word surrender is associated because a defeated army sees surrender as preferable to slaughter.
There is nothing else we can do so we surrender. But even then they prefer surrender to slaughter only if they have faith that this army won’t slaughter us after that or torture us. So that faith is required either way.
But for a devotee when they are approaching Krishna it is not so much out of fear as out of love. Fear might be an initial impetus. But Krishna wants us to choose freely out of love and that’s why the embryo in the womb who surrenders Krishna accepts the surrender but then Krishna also gives the facility for living in the world so that the person can surrender even when they don’t need to surrender.
Even when they have alternatives. If we have no alternatives and we surrender then that’s not love. That’s compulsion.
But when there are alternatives and still we surrender that’s actually a sure choice born of love. And how can we make that choice? How can we have that faith that surrendering to Krishna is good? We understand that it is Krishna who is my maintainer. And even when I am living normally my normal life depends on so many things beyond me.
And all those are being provided by Krishna. Not by just my own arrangement. We don’t produce the air we breathe.
We don’t produce the food we eat. We don’t digest that food also. Then Atmanikship Akarpandi.
So I talk about when we come to go through three, it’s like we move from desire to duty. There are four levels. Fear, desire, duty and love.
We understand that it is God who is taking care of me even now. My parents have done so much for me that I have duty to serve them. And then we move from duty towards love.
That’s why here it’s a complete offering of oneself which is not done in the case of a physical war or medical surrender. Temporarily it might have to be done. But here body, mind, heart.
Everything is to be offered. Atmanikship. And we do that because we understand Krishna is so attractive.
And loving Krishna is the purpose of my life. And without it. And we talked about Karpandi is Kripada is one who holds on to things that are worthless.
Or who doesn’t tap the worth of things and holds on to them in a way that turns out to be worthless. So Karpandi is in this context that I am worthless if I am without Krishna. It’s like a screw which is a part of a expensive computer.
It doesn’t have as little as huge value in its place but meagre value without out of its place. Similarly we will connect with Krishna our life and everything that we do gains a value. And to the extent we understand that we surrender to him to that extent our life can move forward and we can evolve through everything that happens.
So we understand that Bhakti is functionally a part of life but philosophically it is life that is a part of Bhakti. in this life, in future life every life death will be the ultimate destroyer of meaning but devotion is the provider of meaning that transcends death. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Any questions or comments? Hare Krishna Prabhuji. Thank you very much for a very very very nice informative class.
I have a question. So as you were speaking about these four things about fear, desire, duty and love and towards the end you were explaining about Atma and Kshepakarpanya which is actually giving yourself out of love so that it appears to be the perfect level of surrender that one must have not out of duty, desire or fear. But I have this question about I don’t know if you are going to cover it in the previous sessions if I am jumping too ahead but I would like to ask the question right away.
This is about Bali Maharaj. So often times we hear the example of either Bali Maharaj or Draupadi or Gajendra when we talk about surrender. These are the three people who are often quoted.
Now it doesn’t appear that any of them really did it out of love. They did it out of a situation. So why are they glorified as the perfect examples of Sharanagati if love that is Atma and Kshepakarpanya should be the most important factor of Sharanagati? I don’t know if I have understood the concept correctly.
Can you please? Beautiful question. So if perfect surrender is out of love then Gajendra Draupadi and Bali Maharaj whom we consider as emblems of surrender none of them did it out of love. They all did it out of situation.
Yes. I don’t see anywhere where Gajendra is considered to be like the perfection of surrender. It is surrender and he is usually given the example of Artho among the four categories of people who come to Krishna among the distressed.
Gajendra is given as an example. And it is good that one comes to Krishna some way or the other. So Krishna said they are Sukrupinaha.
They are all very good people because they are coming to me. So yes, when we have difficulties also we can do so many other things. Some people can just drown and forget all the problems.
Some people can even commit suicide and just anything and that is the end of everything. To come to Krishna even when one is helpless requires a certain level of piety and that is also to be appreciated. So we could say that Gajendra is the example of surrender for the sadhakas.
Even in distress come to him. And of course Gajendra had a past life and that his surrender was not just because of the situation it was also because the situation provoked the recollection of his past life when he had been king in the Vyumna and he surrendered at that time. The story of Gajendra if you look at the context is not primarily to demonstrate surrender.
It primarily demonstrates multiple things. It is how in the most comfortable situation suddenly danger can come up. And more importantly if you look at the 8th chapter in its context it is that what we have learned in the past is never lost.
It will come to us at the right time. That is the point over there of that story. So surrender is definitely a significant element of the story but that is not the primary demonstrating surrender is not the primary purpose of the story.
So now if you consider Bali Maharaj it was in a sense he had already been imprisoned. So he had given his freedom. He had been tied up by because apparently he had not been able to fulfil the word of giving three steps of land.
He had already been imprisoned. And that time when he offers the third step as he bows down on his head so there what is he doing? It is basically for him also it is a dramatic tilt. The initial part of the story it is all Bali Maharaj saying that I am honourable Kshatriya and I will always, if I have given the word of giving charity I will surely give charity to a Brahmana.
And that is why he even rejects, when he rejects Shukracharya that is not so much because Vishnu is the Supreme Lord and I am his devotee and I am going to surrender to him. That is not how it comes out in the Bhagavatam. It is he says I am going to honour my word even at the cost of death.
But then Prahlad Maharaj comes and offers prayers, Brahmaji comes and offers prayers and later on once he is bound at that time it is, Bali Maharaj also starts speaking with great devotion. He says that Ideal Lord nobody can punish the way you have punished and yet nobody is as great a well wisher as you are. So I offer, I will honour my word and offer my help to you.
So if you consider thereafter that it is started with the situation but there is a complete transformation in this position and Acharya has explained that it is the prayers and blessings of Prahlad Maharaj that work on Bali Maharaj in that particular situation and his devotion was so great that afterwards Vamana became his door keeper and the mood of becoming the door keeper is that I stole everything from you but now I will ensure that no one steals anything from you. That is how I will become your door keeper. So in that case that surrender expressed his devotion and although it might have manifested because of the situation but as I said in the case of Gajendra he was liberated.
In the case of in the case of Bali Maharaj it was more than liberation he got a personal connection with the Lord and a personal proximity to the Lord in the case of Draupadi it was her whole life was devoted to Krishna and in that particular time she called out to Krishna but before that also she was devoted, after that also she was devoted that is just a dramatic high point it is not that before that she was a non-devotee and after that she becomes a devotee. That is how it is in the other cases at least in the way they are manifesting in this lifetime but in the case of Draupadi people say she is always devoted but in that particular time it is a dramatic demonstration of devotion of surrender. So here it is Vishwanatha Chakravarti who explains and Prabhupada Swami also says the similar thing that even sometimes devotees when they are in great danger they may seek protection from Krishna and they may express surrender but they still have anyabhilashita shunyam there is anyabhilasha and anyabhilashita anyabhilasha is other desires anyabhilashita is inclination for desires for anything other than Krishna so in emergency a devotee may pray to Krishna or something but a devotee does not make it a habit of praying to Krishna for things in the world even things such as one’s own body’s protection a devotee’s relationship with Krishna is primarily based on serving and offering of oneself but occasionally a devotee may seek protection so that one can continue one’s service to the Lord, so then in that case the surrender is just a high point of the relationship it’s a high point where devotion is demonstrated it’s just like say in an ordinary life also a mother may love her child very much she does all duties everyday taking care of the child and everything but when the child is sick and the mother stays awake all night by the child the child is in the hospital and the mother is there constantly praying and being there doing everything so it’s extraordinary moments that love is demonstrated in extraordinary ways, so in the case of Draupadi devotion was always there but in that moment the devotion was demonstrated in a dramatic way, so basically for all of us these high points of extreme difficulty when devotees surrender to Krishna they are meant to demonstrate how we also need to surrender but it’s not just that we surrender at those times, just as all these characters either before and after or at least after they devoted themselves to Krishna similarly they are also meant to take inspiration from these visible symbols or these dramatic examples of surrender at particular situations and then we apply that principle of surrender throughout our life is the answer to your question? yes Prabhuji, very clear, thank you so much thank you very much is there one more question? we will stop thank you so much Prabhuji Prabhuji we are in accident class Prabhuji you are here for 4 days I request to organiser also and you also can you please give your association these 3 days regularly, so that we are not able to come in Atlanta that is coming area is very far from our place and our responsibility also there so can you please give 3 days association every day, so that we can get your association and feel that Maharaj is here thank you Prabhuji Dhanwar Pranam from Atlanta happy to be of service next we will end in the class I think there is a question in the chat sorry should I answer this question in the chat what is the difference between Atma Nivedanam and Surrender well there are different frames of analysing Atma Nivedanam is offering of one’s being in this frame of analysing Atma Nivedanam is one limb of surrender because we offer ourselves to Krishna that is definitely there that is tomorrow we will talk more about this there are actions and there are dispositions so I might say that I have offered myself to you in a relationship I have offered myself to the country but then that is internal, how do we know that is there actually, that has to be seen through actions so our actions deepen the dispositions and the dispositions reinforce the actions say somebody has a patriotism in their heart and then there is actual service to the nation maybe they serve the poor they fight for the country or they support those who are fighting for the country, whatever so there is internal and there is external that is more external expression of the inner surrender so Atma Nivedanam that I want to offer my entire being to Krishna that is the inner disposition and that is one limb of surrender so thank you very much, we will continue tomorrow and if there are any more questions we can discuss them tomorrow Srila Prabhupada ki Jai Gaura Vata Vindaki Jai Gaura Premar Thank you Prabhuji, Jai Hare Krishna Thank you Prabhuji Thank you If there is no one else, anyone has a question? Do you want to take a question? We can continue tomorrow Atmaji Sure Prabhuji Thank you very much Hare Krishna Thank you