Demystifying Gita 18.66 – Does surrender mean giving up dharma?

Congregation program at Bahrain

Hare Krishna. Thank you all for coming today afternoon and I'll be discussing on the topic of Sharanam Gati.

How is it practical? We say in devotion, we should surrender to God. So, while living in today's world, how is surrender practical? And in that context, I'll discuss how the Bhagavad Gita analyses the concept of surrender. Normally, concepts are abstract and to make the abstract more understandable, there are often certain concrete images which become inextricably associated with that concept.

So, for example, patriotism. Patriotism, love for one's country, it is a concept. It means a lot of things.

Now, one tangible way in which patriotism, we are going either too high or too low, just a little lower, little lower. So, patriotism, yeah, is it better now? There's no echo for you. So, patriotism is often conveyed through the symbolism of a flag.

A flag is a tangible object and say the national flag is unfurled, then everybody salutes. So, now this patriotism, which is an emotion, it is subtle, it is intangible, but it gets associated with the flag. And the way a person respects or disrespects a flag, that is a reflection of whether they are patriotic or anti-patriotic.

At the same time, patriotism itself is much bigger than simply saluting a flag. It involves working, maybe fighting for the country on the war field. It involves fighting inside the country against corruption or against irresponsibility, against laziness, against apathy.

There are so many ways in which patriotism can be expressed. So, the concrete images and the abstract concepts, they are not equivalent. They are related and one can point us towards the other, but the image is not the concept and the concept is much bigger.

I am talking about this because the concept of surrender can often become associated with certain images in traditional circles and in modern circles. So, for example, in modern usage, people who grow up say watching western movies, there the idea is if there are two armies that are fighting and then one army is defeated, they are completely outnumbered, they have lost their people, they have lost their weapon, they have lost their territory and they are on the verge of defeat. And I say surrender, hands up, surrender.

So, here the word surrender is associated with the imagery of defeat where the person does not really want to surrender. They are much rather fight and win. But because they are helpless, because they can't do anything, then they surrender.

So, the imagery which we get from contemporary culture of surrender is it's an expression of frustration and helplessness. I can't do anything, so I surrender. Now, if we come in the traditional depiction of surrender, quite often there is one image which is almost always associated with surrender.

Which is that image? Sorry, hands up. Yeah, but any particular character doing this? Draupadi. Now, Draupadi, she surrendered to Krishna.

When she was being dishonoured in the Kuru assembly, at that time, she surrendered. And that is the image. Surrender means, okay, again the gesture is the same.

A defeated general raises one's hands. And Draupadi also raised her hand and surrendered. So, this is, again Draupadi, she was helpless, nothing worked for her, and at that time she surrendered.

So, the image of surrender is often associated with helplessness. When I am helpless, I surrender. If we look at the Bhagavad Gita, so the point is that yes, this image is valid, it is important, it is valuable, but the concept itself is much bigger than the image.

So, if we associate the concept of surrender with the idea of helplessness, then we may feel, you know, I am not helpless, I can do many things. Why should I surrender? So, the reduction of a concept to a particular image often deprives us of a broader understanding of that concept. And we may also feel, okay, if I am helpless, I am surrendering, what is going to happen? Is God going to come and help me now? How is surrender practical? These sort of questions may come in our mind.

So, to understand this, let us look at the Bhagavad Gita's explanation of surrender. The Bhagavad Gita has 18 chapters and it concludes in terms of its exposition, in terms of its content description in 18.66. And this is called by Sripad Ramanujacharya as the Charam Shloka, as the crest jewel verse of the Bhagavad Gita. That is, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣeṣyāmi māṁ śucaḥ So, Krishna is telling, sarva-dharmān parityajya, give up all varieties of happiness, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja.

So, mām ekaṁ, she surrendered to her mother now. śaraṇaṁ vraja, surrender to me, Krishna is saying. Now, at this, I will analyse this verse more in detail later, but at this stage, Arjuna, seven verses later in 18.73, he states, kariśe vachanaṁ tava, I will do your will.

That means Arjuna says, I am surrendering. Krishna has told Arjuna, surrender. And Arjuna is saying, I surrender.

Now, what does Arjuna do after surrendering? That is pointed to in the last verse of the Gita. In 18.78, which is the last verse, 700th verse of the Gita, it is said, yatra yogeśvaraḥ kṛṣṇaḥ yatra pārthaḥ dhanyaviddharaḥ tatraśeṁ vijayo bhūte dhruvā nityaṁ matiṁ mama Wherever there is Krishna, wherever there is Arjuna, that is where there may be victory. So now, the important point is, yatra pārthaḥ dhanyaviddharaḥ dhanyaviddhara means Arjuna, who has lifted up his bow.

This is not just a generic description, like we have, Vishnu may be described as gadāpāṇi, one who has gada in his hands. It is a generic description. But here, the word dhanyaviddhara has a specific significance also.

It is, Arjuna is the wielder of the bow, but dharaḥ, he has picked up the bow. The specific point signified by this verse is that Arjuna is normally the lifter of the bow, but in this specific instance also, he has lifted up the bow. And that is essential to communicate, because at the start of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna had put aside his bow.

The last verse of the first chapter, 1.46 states, viśrujya-saśaraṁ jāpam śoka-saṁvīkṇa-mānasaḥ viśrujya, he put aside. saśaraṁ jāpam So, śara and jāpa is bow and arrow. śoka-saṁvīkṇa-mānasaḥ because his mind was overwhelmed by grief.

So, that Arjuna, who had put aside his bow, at the start of the Bhagavad Gita, at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, he has picked up his bow. That means the Bhagavad Gita's message inspired him to pick up his bow. And since Krishna told Arjuna to surrender, and Arjuna says, I surrender to you.

But the way Arjuna surrenders is not by raising up his hands in helplessness. The way Arjuna surrenders is by picking up his bow in readiness. So, for Arjuna, in this situation, the form of surrender is dramatically different from the way Draupadi surrendered in her position.

So, surrender is not necessarily just an expression of helplessness. Yes, in helplessness we may surrender to Krishna, but we may also surrender in readiness. And when we surrender in readiness, that means we are not just giving up everything and depending on Krishna.

We are taking up things in Krishna's service. In fact, the Bible also talks about the mode of surrender when Getsemani, Jesus, is to be crucified. So, the previous night, Jesus comes to know that there is going to be a conspiracy against him.

He foresees it. And then he prays to God of let this calamity, let this cup pass. Let this cup pass.

That means that in those times there were different ways in which convicts were punished. And normal way in which say a person who had got capital, sentence of capital punishment, the way the person would be killed would be by asking them to drink a cup of hemlock. Hemlock was a poison and they were asked to drink it.

And that is how Socrates, who was a philosopher 700 years ago before Jesus, he was killed like that. So, that is the standard way people who were on the death row were killed. Jesus was anticipating that tomorrow a great test is going to come.

And he was praying to God, let the cup pass. So, actually what happened was, even in killing, even in punishing, there are different degrees of punishment. So, killing by giving poison was a normal way of killing.

But killing by crucifixion was the most painful way of killing. And not only should the person be killed, but the person should suffer while dying. Suffer a long time while dying.

So, it was for the worst of criminals. So, Jesus was killed that way. I am not going into Christian history over here.

The point which I am making here is that after that Jesus said, let thy will be done, not mine. Let thy will be done. From his side he prays that let this cup pass.

May this not happen. But he concludes in surrender by saying, let thy will be done, not mine. So, whatever it is God, let it happen.

I surrender to that. That is considered to be a very high level of surrender where one may have to die and one is ready to accept that as God's will. The Gita also talks about a very high level of surrender.

In fact, Arjuna surrenders in one sense higher. He is not just saying let thy will be done. He is saying I will do thy will.

One is that something is God's will and it is happening, I accept it. The other is something is God's will and I will do it myself. I take the responsibility of doing it on his behalf.

So, that is the level of surrender which the Gita talks about. So, both are perfectly valid, glorious forms of surrender. Something happens which is difficult for us to process, which is very unpalatable, we accept that.

That is surrender. But sometimes we have to do ourselves something which is very difficult to do. We take up the responsibility of doing that.

That is also surrender. Surrender is not just passive dependence on God. That is one way of surrender.

Surrender can also be active responsibility on the behalf of God. So, Arjuna, when he is fighting in the Kurukshetra war, he is also surrendering. So, surrender in that sense is not to be reduced to any particular image alone.

Yes, the image can depict surrender, but surrender is much bigger. So, the Bhagavad Gita depicts surrender as a commitment to do one's duty, no matter how difficult it is. Now, why Arjuna's duty was difficult, I will come to that again towards the end of this class.

But let us take a step back now and look at where all the Gita talks about surrender, to understand different dimensions of surrender. It is like if you want to look at a particular object, you can look at it from one angle, and you go on the other side and look from another angle. Then you want to look from another angle.

We take pictures from different angles sometimes to see what is this object really like, what is this thing really like. So, like that, let us look at the Bhagavad Gita at different stages to see how the word surrender is understood. It is interesting that the Gita concludes with Krishna asking Arjuna to surrender.

But the Gita begins with Arjuna surrendering to Krishna. In the beginning, in the 7th verse of the 2nd chapter, Arjuna tells Krishna, I surrender to you. Arjuna tells Krishna that I am prevented.

I do not know what is my duty. Please guide me. What is really important for me, please tell me that.

Certainly for that. Now Arjuna's question is very significant. Arjuna is not asking Krishna should I fight or should I not fight.

His question is much deeper. I want to know what is Dharma? So, if the Bhagavad Gita had simply been a question from Krishna, from Arjuna to Krishna, should I fight or should I not fight? Krishna could have given one answer, fight. And the whole Gita could have got out.

And if the Bhagavad Gita had simply been about should Arjuna fight or not fight? Thousands of years later, today we would not be discussing the Bhagavad Gita. It would not have any relevance. So many wars have happened throughout history.

And there may be commanders and counsellors discussing before the war. That would not have any relevance. Relevance to us.

The Bhagavad Gita's relevance endures because it goes from the specific situation to a universal condition. To a universal human condition. The specific situation is Arjuna is confronted with fighting a war.

And he doesn't know whether I should fight or not fight. So Arjuna asks what is my Dharma in this situation? In fact, the whole Mahabharata is a search for understanding Dharma. And Dharma is very difficult to understand.

Gahana, it's very difficult. There is a theme which comes repeatedly in the Mahabharata. So in all the storylines of the Mahabharata, the different characters are trying to understand what is Dharma.

And they are trying to act according to Dharma. And near the dramatic climax of the Mahabharata, the whole Mahabharata is going to climax in this Kurukshetra war. And near its dramatic climax, there is this book, Bhagavad Gita, which explains what is Dharma.

Now the word Dharma has many meanings. So here, before I go into the meanings of Dharma, I am talking about surrender here right now. So, at the beginning itself of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna is surrendered.

Then why is Krishna telling at the end of the Gita also surrender? Has he not already surrendered? There are different kinds of surrender. So Arjuna's surrender initially is the surrender that I don't know, please tell me what I should do. It's like initially, many of you are doctors, I was told.

So when a patient comes, the patient has to have some level of surrender. I am sick and I don't know what to do. Please tell me.

So, in fact, about maybe 10-11 years ago, I had got very advanced TB. So as a brahmachari, I used to do many austerities and things like that. So at that time, my doctor told me that, you know, if you want to be treated and cured, you have to follow the Bhagavad Gita.

I said, what do you mean? I am following the Bhagavad Gita. I was a little taken aback. I didn't follow the Bhagavad Gita.

He said, that Sarva Dharma Parittajya Bhaav Ek Kavicharam Bhaja. He said, you forget all your austerities and just do what I am telling you to do. Only then you will be cured.

So, and the thing is, initially, there is an admission of ignorance and an admission of the need for help. So initially, when a patient goes to a doctor, the doctor says, I still don't know. I am getting this disease again and again.

I tried this, I tried that. Nothing is working. Please help me.

That is one level of surrender. Then afterwards, the doctor will give a diagnosis. Doctor may do various tests and then give a diagnosis.

And then the doctor will tell, okay, this is the prescription. Now you may have to undergo this surgery or you may have to take this injection. You may have to follow this diet.

And at that time, the patient has to exhibit another kind of surrender. So initially, the surrender is for the purpose of enquiry. And at the end, after the doctor has given the full analysis, full diagnosis, then the surrender is for applying the prescription.

So this is how the concept of surrender. So at the start of the Gita and at the end of the Gita. It is there, it evolves.

So at the start, Arjuna's surrender is so that he can know the answer. At the end of the Gita, it is so that he can apply the answer. So Arjuna's question is, Prachamitam dharmasambudh chetah.

Please tell me, what is dharma? Now the word dharma is often translated as religion or it is translated as duty. All these are valid meanings of the word. But the word is much deeper.

Many Sanskrit words are actually not very easily translated. Because often concepts are concepts emerge from particular cultural contexts. And when you take them out of that cultural context, you may use some other word.

But all the connotations of that word they are there, they just don't they don't get communicated in the other language. So for example, one easy way to understand this is in Hindi we have the word jugad. Now if you try to translate jugad in English improvisation.

It just doesn't have that feel to it. Jugad is improvisation but there is creativity involved in it. Basically make things work.

I have to do something, somehow or the other I make this work. Now in India where often things don't work and somehow we have to make do with whatever is there and make it work, jugad is quite common. If somebody is living in America, they have things which are already very comfortable over there and things work.

So jugad, improvisation, this will fit over there. Because the word has emerged from a particular cultural context. So dharma, if you want to understand it we have to actually have multiple words in English which give different senses of the word dharma.

So Sri Prabhupada in the introduction to Bhagavad Gita as it is, explains dharma as a defining characteristic or essential nature. That which makes a thing that thing. So saltiness is what makes salt, salt.

Now if I said today I am going to serve you some sweet salt. It doesn't make any sense. Salty means it has to be salty.

Today I will give you some bitter sugar. It doesn't make any sense. Sugar has to be sweet.

So there is some things have a defining characteristic. So we could also say a defining characteristic is the nature. So dharma refers to that defining characteristic or nature.

So now we all have a particular nature. But today or presently we are not living according to our nature. So dharma at one level its meaning is nature.

Another level its meaning is religion. Another level its meaning is duty. I will explain how the Bhagavad Gita relates to these various things.

The Bhagavad Gita explains that our nature is to love and serve. You are going to love. Now if parents are somehow not able to have a child then they want to adopt a child.

Because they want someone to love and they want to love and then they care for the child, they serve the child. So it is our nature to love and to serve. And if we look at our own heart we want our loving relationships to go on forever.

So we want an eternal object just for love and service. So the Bhagavad Gita explains this longing for eternity both inwards and outwards. Inwards means we all long that I want to have a relationship that goes on forever.

If I look at most of the movies and the novels especially those which are involving romance, they end with H-E-A Happily Ever After. Now actually speaking in real life hardly ever it turns out like that. If you look at it practically speaking the Bhagavad Gita details this world as Dukhaale Ashashvatam.

It is exactly opposite of Happily Ever After. Ever After? No. Ashashvatam.

It is temporary. Now still although everybody knows that nothing is going to last forever but still that longing is there. So where does this longing come from? If we were simply material creatures if we were simply our bodies and the body is made of matter.

Matter is temporary. Everything in the world around us is temporary. We don't see anything that is eternal.

Even this big building or even a big heritage building which has been there for hundreds of years even that is not going to last forever. So nothing in the material world is eternal. If we were simply products of matter then where would the desire to be eternal ever come from? If I have never heard of a pizza how can I get a desire for a pizza? If suddenly I say I want a pizza and if I am living in some village in rural Madhya Pradesh and suddenly what is pizza? How did you come to know about a pizza? So unless that person has heard of a pizza somewhere the desire will not come only.

So if we were simply material creatures then why would we ever get a desire to live forever? So our very desire for lasting existence and lasting relationships that points to an eternal dimension to our being. The Bhagavad Gita explains inwards our body is temporary but inwards there is an aspect to us that is the soul that is eternal. नासतो विद्धिते भावो नाभावो विद्धिते सतः In 2.16 the Gita Krishna says that there is material which doesn't endure but there is a spiritual which never ceases and similarly not only do we have a desire to ourselves to live forever we want to have a loving relationship that goes on forever that indicates outwards that there is an eternal object of love.

So what the Bhagavad Gita explains is our dharma is that as souls we are meant to eternally love and serve the supreme soul that is our supreme dharma that is our eternal nature our swabhava, our defining characteristic is that we want to love and serve and we want this to go on forever. So in the movies in the novels that aspiration it is promised it will be fulfilled. Actually it is not fulfilled in real life and the novel is just fiction but still it touches this longing of our heart somehow we feel it should be fulfilled and that's how we are attracted to these things.

So our nature is that we are souls and as souls we are meant to love and serve God, supreme soul Krishna and therein find eternal happiness at the same time presently we don't even understand that I am a soul and we have so many other loving relationships in this world. Are they to be rejected? No. Here the other aspects of dharma come.

Dharma as I said, we could say dharma at three levels. Dharma at the spiritual level is to love and serve Krishna. But we are not existing at the spiritual level right now.

We are in this material world and we can't just abandon whatever we are doing in the material world over here. So then dharma has two other aspects to it. One aspect of dharma is how we live harmoniously in this world and second aspect of dharma is how we rise from where we are to the spiritual level.

So there is dharma which enables us to live harmoniously. That can be called as aparadharma. That is paradharma is spiritual duty.

Aparadharma is not spiritual, material duty. Material duty is also important. But it is not all important.

We will come to that a little later. So for example, when a husband and wife come together in marriage, it is their duty. They get committed to each other.

When parents beget a child, it is their duty to take care of them. This is also dharma. When we are a part of a particular dynasty, we have a duty to our relatives, our family members, our community.

That's also dharma. So while living in this world, also we have to live harmoniously. That is aparadharma.

Aparadharma means material dharma. Now many people think this is all that is there to life. You know, if I get a job, if I get married, if I have children, I ensure that my children are well educated.

And then I make sure that my children get settled, they get married. Then I have done my dharma. Yes, we have done our dharma, but that is only one part of dharma.

Taking care of our young ones, actually speaking, even the animals do that. If a kitten is being threatened, a cat becomes fierce, which means she will snarl her teeth and howl and screech and scare away the person. And often the kangaroo, mother kangaroo carries baby kangaroo in her pouch.

So the caring for young ones is done even in the animal species. So in the human species we are meant to care for our loved ones but not just for their bodies, also for their souls. So if we think that just caring for the bodies of our loved ones is our dharma then we have an inadequate understanding of dharma.

Dharma also has another aspect that from where we are we rise to spiritual consciousness and we help others to rise to spiritual consciousness. And that is where our sadhana. So sadhana is also our dharma.

For example, we come in satsang, we chant japa, we worship the deities. This is not just a cultural activity. Of course, we are from a Hindu culture so we know this activity.

We may have that understanding but that is not the essence. The essence is this is not just a cultural activity, it is meant to be a transformational activity. It is meant to raise our consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level.

So that is also dharma. So dharma is doing our duty in society, in family, that is one aspect of dharma. Then practising the process by which we raise our consciousness to the spiritual level that is also dharma.

So that means there are three meanings of the word dharma. Nature, duty and religion. So nature is we have a nature to love itself and at the pure spiritual level this is directed towards Krishna.

So that is our nature. So that is dharma. Dharma also refers to those activities that enable us to return back to our nature.

So for returning to our nature there is a process that we follow. The process of sadhanavati which raises our consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level. And while we are living in this world we also have to exist harmoniously and there are duties for that.

That is also dharma. So dharma is nature and the activities that help us to return to our nature. Now when we are doing material activities in this world often our apara dharma our worldly duties they involve various expectations from us.

There are many things that we have to do. So in modern terminology they say that we have to wear many hats. We have to play different roles.

If somebody is a doctor and then maybe their child's birthday is there. At that time from the office they get an emergency call. The hospital.

The patient is very sick. Now what do they do at that time? As a parent their duty is to be there with their child at the birthday. It's so important for the child.

But then at the same time at office at the hospital the patient may be in danger. A life threat. So what do they do at that time? So this is where both the duty as a member of a family and the duty as a professional.

These two duties pull us into different directions. And then what to do becomes very difficult to understand. Arjuna faced such a conflict at the start of the Gita.

So there are the last verse of the Bhagavad Gita Sarva dharman parityajya Give up all dharma and surrender to me. This is often very perplexing for people. In fact there is a Hindu scholar who has said actually in narrating the Bhagavad Gita or in recording the Bhagavad Gita there was a mistake.

And he said this verse should not be Sarva dharman parityajya. It should be Sarva adharman parityajya. Because he says why will God tell you to give up dharma? God will tell you to give up dharma.

So he says somehow whoever was writing the Bhagavad Gita for thousands of years he forgot to write an A. So he says now we should add that A. Sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam sarva dharman parityajya. Now the point is that it is a logical question why God will ask someone to give up dharma. But if you look at the context of the Gita you will understand what is going on.

For Arjuna, Arjuna was a very virtuous person. So for Arjuna there is no question of he doing adharma intentionally. So for Arjuna there is a conflict between two dharmas.

One was his Kula dharma and the other was his Kshatriya dharma. His Kula dharma, Kula means he was a member of a particular dynasty. And as a member of the dynasty he had a duty to the members of the dynasty.

So normally we have a duty to our immediate family but if our relatives are there, somebody is in financial trouble, somebody is in some other trouble, we try to use whatever influence we have to help. So here his own relatives were there, his cousins, his uncles, his great grandfather, so many other relatives were there. And normally as a member of a dynasty his duty would be to protect them.

On the other hand that is his Kula dharma. But he was also a Kshatriya. And as a Kshatriya, Kshatriya's duty is that he has to punish those who are aggressors.

Kshatriyas are basically martial guardians of society. And martial guardians of society often have to take aggressive action. And in his case, the opponents, they had been horrendously aggressive.

They had tried to dishonour his wife, they had plundered away their property, they had tried to poison them, they had tried to burn them alive. So there had been multiple murderous attacks on them. And there had been not even remorse, not to speak of any attempt at rectification.

Krishna, when he had gone as Shanti Duta, there are different ways of saying no. Suppose somebody asks us something, can you come for this programme? So we say no, actually I have to go over there, so I cannot come. But somebody says, you know, not even a hair from my body will come for your programme.

That means we are not just saying no to that particular activity, we are saying a complete no to the person itself. So there are ways of saying no which are polite, and there are ways of saying no which are intentionally provocative. So actually Duryodhana, when Krishna went with his peace proposal, he answered a no in a deliberately provocative way.

What was his reply? Yeah, I will not even give enough land to put the tip of a needle through. So that means there is no remorse, there is no attempt at any apology or any rectification. It's not just a no to the person, it's like a no which is a kick in the face.

So just there is no hope of reconciliation. So as a Kshatriya, Arjuna had a duty to fight. And he had to correct, not just because they had done wrongs to him, but because if such unrighteous people became rulers of society, they would bring unrighteousness in society, they would bring Adharma in society.

So here he had his Kula Dharma and his Kshatriya Dharma. And these two were pulling him not just in different directions, but in opposite directions. Earlier I talked about a doctor.

Should he stay at home or should they stay at home or should they go to office? So that's the two different directions. But take this example, this point further, and suppose there is a judge or suppose there is a policeman who is being deployed to stop some terrorist riots that are going somewhere. And then as he goes with his gun and he is trying to find out who are the terrorists and he is to shoot them.

And there among the terrorists, he sees his own brother. He thought his brother had disappeared for a long time and now he is horrified to see that his brother has joined the ranks of the terrorists. And that brother is breaking airwork now.

So now he has his fraternal duty and he has his professional duty. What should he do in such a time? As a brother he will not want to protect his brother. But the brother has become a terrorist, he is killing innocent people.

So Arjuna had that kind of situation. So now it's a very difficult decision at that time. So that's why Arjuna was a builder.

He said, I don't know. नचेतद्वित्मा कतरण्नोगरेयो यद्वाजयेमेदिवानोजलेयो यानेवक्त्वानजजीविशामस् ते अवस्तिता रमुगेथारदराज्टा He said, I don't know whether I should win. But by winning I will be killing my relatives.

What is the point of victory after losing my relatives? But if I don't win, if I don't win, if I fight and I lose, I will die. All my loved ones will die against me also. If I just quit the battle and go away, I will be dishonoured.

For a Kshatriya, for an honourable warrior to just abandon war and go away, that dishonour is terrible. I just don't know what to do. So at that time, he surrenders to Krishna.

So there are many definitions of intelligence. One definition is, intelligence means to know what to do when you don't know what to do. To know what to do when you don't know what to do.

That means Arjuna didn't know what to do, so he surrendered. Krishna, please guide me. Please guide me.

Similarly, when life presents us with perplexities, when we just don't know what we should do at that time, at that time, we can surrender to Krishna. We can turn to the Bhagavad Gita, pray to Krishna. Please guide me, Krishna.

And what Krishna's guidance will be or how we can connect with that guidance, I will come to a little later. But at this point, I was talking about three levels of dharma. So in terms of duty.

So the duty that we perform in this world so that there is orderly existence. That is also dharma. And Arjuna faced a dharma samkara.

So when he faced a dharma samkara, should I do this or should I do that? And that was his confusion. And so when Krishna tells Arjuna, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja We cannot have sarva-adharmān parityajya. Because for Arjuna, adharma was not an option.

His dilemma was whether to follow kula-dharma or kṣatriya-dharma. And Krishna's answer to Arjuna is that, don't get caught in these technicalities. Should I be doing this or should I be doing that? He says, focus on the principle.

The principle is mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. That we have to surrender to God. We have all these different roles.

Okay, I may say I have a role as a kṣatriya. I have a role as a kuru-nandana. Which role should I follow? See, we all have certain roles.

And those roles are important. But sometimes if we let our identity become reduced to that role alone, then we will get extremely confused. We will be misled of what I should do.

But if I look, Krishna says, go deeper. Understand who you really are. So you are a soul, you are my part, you are meant to serve.

And do that which will enable you to serve. So mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. Surrender to me.

And when you surrender to me, that does not mean you have to become adharmic. When Śrīla Prabhupāda went to America, that was in the 1960s. That was a phase in American history which is called the counterculture.

So at that time Americans rejected everything that was considered conventionally the good life. Good life means, you know, have a big house, have a car, have a lot of gadgets, have prosperity. This is all innate.

They wanted to explore something higher. So they just left their education, they left their job, they left their parents. They just left everything.

They were searching for something higher. But in the process, they got misled that drugs will take us higher. And they got into drugs.

So Prabhupāda said that even the hippies practise sarva-dharmān vraja. They also gave up everything. But he said, I taught them how to do mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja.

How to surrender to Kṛṣṇa? So sarva-dharmān vraja is not all that difficult. Anybody can become. If you just give up dharma, we don't become spiritual.

We become irresponsible. So it is what, the giving up of dharma is the pre-step, is the beginning step so that we can do mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. That means, should I be doing this? Should I be doing that? Don't get caught up in all these things.

Understand that I am a servant of God, I am meant to serve God. Start with that. Once you start with that, then, okay, how can I best serve in this situation? Ask that question and then the answer will emerge.

So sometimes in our life, in the normal course of our life, it's like our life is a well-lit pathway. Okay, I have my job, I have my family. I do this in the morning, I do this in the afternoon, I do this in the evening.

And path seems to be very clear. But sometimes, like on this well-lit pathway, suddenly power goes off. Suddenly something goes wrong, you know.

Maybe we get some terrible disease diagnosis. Suddenly we lose our job. Suddenly there is a terrible misunderstanding in the relationship and the relationship seems to be crumbling.

At such a time, it's like the whole path becomes dark. We are on that path, at one moment everything was lit, at the next moment everything seems to be dark. What to do now? So when suddenly, in a big way, things start going wrong, at that time, to find out, why did this happen? Why did I get this disease? Why did I lose my job? Why did he or she behave like that? When we ask the why question, it is often very disempowering.

Because many times when things go wrong, the why question just has no answer. It just has no answer. Just things happen sometimes.

Philosophically, we can understand it because of karma. But in a practical sense, we just don't know. And the why question simply leads to disempowerment.

If you just change the question, not why did this happen? Why did God make this happen? Why are we asking? We start asking, we simply frustrate ourselves. Just change. How? Instead of why, how? How can I act now? How can I serve now? That question, how can I serve now, that is actually path revealing.

So suddenly, we are on a path and all lights go off. We are plunged in darkness. So what do we do at that time? We momentarily curse the darkness.

Curse our fate that we are caught in the darkness. But immediately, after we recover, we will take out our phone, turn on the flashlight. The flashlight does not replace the streetlights.

But the flashlight can show us one step ahead. And we take one step ahead. And then we find that, the further step is also illumined by the flashlight.

We take one more step forward. We take one more step forward. And as we keep taking a step forward, then eventually, we find some safe destination and the lights do come back after some time.

So like that, the question, how can I serve? How can I serve? I don't know why this has happened. Please, let me know. How can I serve now? This question is like the turn on the flashlight.

At least, okay, what can I do now? Okay, maybe I can do this. This is one step I can take. I don't know what I am going to do in the future.

But I can take this one step. And I can take this next step. Then I can take the next step.

And like that, if we keep taking steps forward, then gradually, one step forward, one step forward, one step forward, eventually, we find that the lights come back. And things become okay. So, our service attitude, Krishna, I am your servant.

Oh God, I surrender to you. Let die will be done on my own. Please, what should I do in this situation? Please help me.

That guidance may not come as some bolt of lightning in the sky which shows us, oh, this is what we should do. Krishna may not come in a mystical dream telling us, this is what we should do. Krishna can do that.

But that need not be the way he comes. He may come simply as the intelligence to take one step forward. I take one step forward.

And then, okay, I tried this. This is going in the wrong direction. Okay, turn around and take another step.

We move onwards. So, surrender, I conclude now with Bhaktivinoda Thakura's explanation of surrender. He says, surrender has six elements.

Explaining all those six elements is a whole class. But I will just focus on the first two. He says, what are the six elements of surrender? He says, accepting that which is favourable, rejecting that which is unfavourable.

Rakshashati iti shvaso. Having faith that God will protect me. Gopatrutve varanam gata.

I am thinking that it is not that God will protect me. Actually, even now I am dependent on God. Even now, it is not that I am maintaining myself.

It is God who is maintaining. I may eat food but I don't even know how the food is digested. So, I may go in a place where there is good ventilation.

But I don't know how the oxygen is going inside and out. How the oxygen is going inside and out. Am I speaking loudly? So, how the oxygen is actually nourishing my body, purifying my body.

I don't know any of these things. So, it is God who is maintaining me even now. It is not that Krishna will protect me in some dangers.

Actually, Krishna is maintaining me even now. Gopatrutve varanam gata. Atmanikshep karman.

Atmanikshep means Krishna, I offer myself to you. Karman means I am helpless without you, Krishna. So, my existence is for you, without you I am helpless.

Now, among these six items, the last four are dispositions. And the first two are actions. The last four means the feeling that, oh, Krishna will protect me.

The feeling that, oh, Krishna is maintaining. That, oh, I offer myself to Krishna. That, without Krishna I am nothing.

Now, all these are emotions, they are dispositions. And they will come but they will take time to cultivate. But what is practical is the first two.

First two are actions. Anukulyase sankalpa pratikulyase varjuna. Accept that which is favourable and turn away from that which is unfavourable.

So, in any situation that I am in, say, I am confused about what to do. If I am just thinking, maybe I should do this, maybe I should do that, maybe I should do that, I simply end up getting confused. What is one step I can take? Let me take one step and look at the next step afterwards.

So, like that, we in whatever situation we are in, we may not have answers to the big problems. But you can always find small steps to take forward. And as we keep doing small steps, we keep moving forward.

And the intelligence, the clarity to take the small steps comes when we have this service attitude. So, surrender in a practical sense means that we ask Krishna, how can I surrender? How can I serve Krishna in this situation? Prabhupada writes in one of his purports that a devotee may be perplexed but a devotee is never discouraged. Perplexed means to not know what to do.

Discouraged means to not feel like doing anything. So, like if I come to my if I am on a road and I come to a crossroad where I don't know which way to go. I am perplexed.

Left or right? But discouraged means I don't want to go anywhere. I will just stay here. Just give up.

No, but you are lost. You are not at home. You have to go somewhere.

So, a devotee may also be perplexed. Even when we become advanced, even when we become pure, it is not necessary that every step of our life will be completely crystal clear. You know, it may not be.

When Prabhupada went to America on the coast of America, he composed a song. And that song, he reveals his heart. And he says, आचे कि चुका जे तबे एही अनुमाने नाहे के नो आनी बेने एही उग्रस्थाने So, he says, Krishna, there must be some purpose because of which you have brought me here.

I guess. Otherwise, why would you have brought me to this terrible place? So, I guess there must be some purpose here. So, what does this mean? Even Prabhupada may not know clearly, okay, whom I am going to meet, how I am going to preach, how I am going to build a temple.

He is inferring, anumane, that there must be some plan Krishna has. And what did Prabhupada do? Wherever an opportunity came, he started. Some person of his interest, Krishna told them, somebody invited him somewhere, he went there.

He is exploring. So, because we are finite living beings, we may not always have clear understanding of what to do. But, if we are connected with the infinite, and bhakti is the process of connecting the finite with the infinite, then even when we are perplexed, we will not be discouraged.

Yes, I don't know what to do. Specifically, I don't know what to do. But, in principle, I know that I am meant to serve Krishna.

Krishna, you guide me, how I can serve you. And with whatever little intelligence I have, maybe I can consult senior devotees, consult my guides, consult my friends, counsellors, and based on their guidance, my own intelligence, I take small steps forward. And if we keep taking small steps forward, even if our life seems to be very dark, seems to be no light anywhere, but you just keep, use the flashlight of a service attitude, take one step forward, take one step forward.

We will actually, whether you survive through the darkness, and then the light will come back. He says, don't tell God how big your prominence are. Tell your prominence how big God is.

So, at least, yes, there is darkness. There is darkness. What should I do? I don't know what to do.

And, we just get overwhelmed. Thinking that, oh, there is so much indecision, so much confusion, such a big problem. No, don't worry about that.

Okay. Krishna is much, much bigger. And if we look at our own life, even in our past, we have gone through problems.

At that time, the problems that seemed like they are earth-shattering. But, we have survived them. We have grown through them.

So, like that, whatever problem is there, we will grow through this also. And, rather than getting obsessed with the problem, thinking how big the problem is, we focus on Krishna and try to serve Krishna. And with whatever little understanding we have, if we do what we can do, then God will guide us to do that which we can't do.

How to deal with that? We take small steps forward, and then Krishna will guide us about what are the next steps forward. And in that way, we can move onwards. So, maam ekam charanam This is the surrender thing that talks about.

Actually, Bhagavad Gita uses one more place, surrender, in the 7th chapter, where it says, daivya eksha gunamai mamaya dhrutya maam eva ye prapadyante maya nitham taranti te. So, maya creates illusion. She makes us confused about what to do, what not to do.

And the way to overcome the confusion is through surrender. So, surrender means, Krishna, I am your servant. Please guide me.

I don't know what I am meant to do. But, I'll take one step, one next step. My intention is to serve you.

How I will execute that intention, that will vary. But I'll stick to that intention, and I'll take one step forward. The way to overcome illusion is through surrender.

And that surrender means just taking small, small steps forward in our life, and gradually the big lights will turn on, and we will be able to march ahead. So, I'll summarise. I started by talking about the concept of surrender.

I said that images are often associated with concepts. So, for example, patriotism is associated with saluting a flag. But the concept is much bigger than the image.

So, similarly, surrender as a concept is often associated with certain images. It's like helpless acceptance of defeat. Such as when a general who has been defeated, they surrender, raise their hands.

Or when Draupadi, she tried something, it didn't work, she raised her hands. So that is, it's a valid and valuable image of the concept. But the concept of surrender is much bigger.

And in the Gita, Krishna does Arjuna surrender, Arjuna surrenders. But what does Arjuna do? He raises his bow in readiness to fight. So, surrender is not just passive dependence.

Surrender can also be active acceptance of responsibility. In the Bible, Jesus surrenders by saying let thy will be done, not mine. Something is happening, which is difficult for us to accept, but we accept it.

That is surrender. But then sometimes we have to do something which is difficult to do. And Arjuna accepted that surrender.

Karishe I will do your will. So that was surrender for Arjuna. And what was it specifically? Sarva dharma Krishna tells Arjuna give up dharma because the specific forms of dharma were confusing him.

And so Krishna tells Arjuna focus on the essential principle, that is mahamik culture and religion. We discussed about how the Gita starts with surrender also. Arjuna surrenders to Krishna and it ends with surrender.

So the initial surrender is like a doctor surrendering to a patient sorry patient surrendering to a doctor for understanding. What is my disease? Enquiring and understanding. And at the end of the Gita, the surrender is to apply the prescription the doctor has given.

And Arjuna's question was not just should I fight or should I not fight? The Gita is universal because it moves from a specific situation to the universal human condition. Arjuna's question is what is dharma? What is my duty? And we discussed three meanings of the word dharma. One is nature.

So our nature is to love and serve and because we want to love and serve forever so that indicates that internally we are eternal beings. Just as I cannot have a desire for a pizza unless I have heard of a pizza somewhere. Unless there was some aspect of us that was eternal we would not get the desire for being eternal.

That aspect is our soul and outwards our desire for an eternal relationship indicates that there is an eternal origin to it. So at the spiritual level dharma means to love and serve Krishna. But we have to get to the spiritual and so there is a material dharma and there is a transitional dharma.

So material dharma is what we call as duty. We may have our family duties, national duties, social duties, community duties, professional duties. This is to maintain harmony while we are living in the world.

And there is a transformational dharma that is our sadhana bhakti which raises our consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level. So dharma is nature and dharma is the duty that restores us to our nature. And in the material duties that we do sometimes there is conflict.

Like a doctor having on the birthday of the child to go to be called to hospital or a policeman having to shoot at a terrorist who turns out to be his own brother. So then what to do? So Arjuna faced that problem when Krishna, when he has a kurunandana his kula dharma was to protect his family members protect his relatives. But his Kshatriya duty was to kill them.

And Arjuna had not wanted to fight but Duryodhana had not only repeatedly murderously attacked them but had scornfully rejected their proposal for peace. Not just saying no to the proposal but knowing to completely rejecting the person saying that not even what to speak of coming for your, not even a hair from my body coming for your brother. Like that.

So then Arjuna had to fight. So when specific roles should I be doing this or should I be doing that that became confusing. So at that time Krishna took him from the specific roles to the soul to the essential person who you are.

And the message of the Gita is not sarva-dharman parityajya. It is mam ekam sharman parityajya. So Arjuna for him there is no question of adharma but when two dharma kula dharma and daksha dharma they got confusing at that time Krishna told Arjuna focus on your identity as a soul and surrender.

So surrender means service. So when life suddenly, the pathway of life suddenly becomes dark and we don't know what to do at that time intelligence means to know what to do when we don't know what to do. So rather than asking why, why, why did this power go off, why did this go off, why did this happen the why question is disempowering often.

The how question is empowering. How can I solve this situation? The how question will become like a flashlight which will show us one step forward and one step forward we keep taking keep taking and trying to do what we can with our intelligence. Devotees may be perplexed but they are never discouraged.

As we keep one step forward, one step forward rather than telling God how big problems I have, we tell the problems how big God is. Stay God conscious, keep serving and gradually that service attitude acts as a flashlight, take us forward eventually the lights will come back in our life and things will become a stone to normalcy. Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna. The question is that normally we consider the intelligence to be above the mind. The Bhagavatam says that the mind comes from the mode of goodness whereas intelligence comes from the mode of passion.

So why is that? The Bhagavatam is analysing from a different perspective there. The point is that goodness is associated with maintenance and passion is associated with creation. So there is material intelligence and there is spiritual intelligence.

Spiritual intelligence is what comes from Guru, Sadhu, Shastra. Material intelligence is the intelligence for processing matter. Processing material things around us.

So material intelligence actually creates new plans for material enjoyment. For example, science and technology. There is phenomenal amount of intelligence over there.

When I was studying my engineering, I studied electronics and telecommunication and my fourth year I came to application and then in one of my text books I read the biggest application of electronics engineering is making TV. That was a big anticlimax for me. So all these years I studied so that I can make idiot boxes to make people into idiots.

Is that what I am meant to do? So of course technology can be used for other purposes also but the point is technology is often used, technology is a product of intelligence but this intelligence is often used to increase people's material enjoyment and material entanglement. So that means the mind maintains the status quo. Like I talked about the default settings today morning.

The mind maintains the status quo in material existence and the intelligence expands the status quo. So mind keeps on saying you are materialistic stay materialistic. There is no need to explore anything spiritual.

And the intelligence, the material intelligence it says you want to explore something, explore something material. Try to find new ways to enjoy. So in that sense the mind is in goodness because the mind maintains material existence and the intelligence is considered in passion because the intelligence expands material existence by coming up with newer and newer schemes for enjoyment.

Does that answer your question? So you can say some amount of passion is required in any activity. Okay. Because you can't leave the… Okay.

Good question. Yeah. So is passion needed in activities? Yes of course.

See the three modes of material nature, they all comprise material existence. So for example when we sleep, what are we doing? We have to… We are in the mode of ignorance. That's essential.

So when we say we should live in the mode of goodness that does not mean that we reject passion or ignorance. Rather we let goodness be the dominating mode that defines our activity. So everybody has to sleep.

Even a pure devotee who is transcendental has to sleep. So when we have to work in this world there is passion. So if we have to go from one programme to another programme, from one city to another city, we have to rush to catch a flight or rush to go from… rush in a car, there is some amount of passion involved.

So there is we using passion and there is passion using us. So when passion controls us, then it becomes a problem. But when we can use passion in Krishna's service that is perfectly fine.

Shri Prabhupada was in Mayapur and there he asked the devotees to get funds for building the… erecting various buildings and various places. Shri Prabhupada said, for ourselves, you can just chant Hare Krishna and be happy. But we want people to come here, people to benefit from Mayapur Dham.

So for that we want them to… we need to provide them comfortable facilities. For that we are creating all this. And that involves passion.

So the devotee may use passion out of compassion. A devotee may do a lot of things which involve, which seem like mundane. But the intention is compassion.

So what changes as we become purified is the intent. It is not necessarily the action. We may still have to have jobs in a passionate environment.

Why jobs? Because somebody is a full-time devotee. They may still have to live in cities and preach. It's a passionate environment.

So similarly, as I said, everybody has to sleep. So we…our intent remains to serve Krishna. But for that, in executing that intent, we have to interact with material nature.

And there may be different modes with which we interact. But we don't let them control us. Hare Krishna.

Yes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .