Did Krishna protect Draupadi only after she stopped trying to protect herself – does surrender mean we stop trying to do anything?

Answer Podcast

Does it answer the question you think? When she surrendered, she had complete faith and when she was applying her full strength, that’s when Krishna realized that he could not even fall into space and no strength for him. So Krishna didn’t help her because he was completely blind to her strength.
Krishna helped her when she was blind, she actually gave up and he completely surrendered to Krishna in complete faith. So this is that Krishna didn’t help the devotee till she gave up her own efforts and surrendered wholly. There are different modes of surrender.
Somehow I have heard this example given by devotees that and I have never heard seen a shastric praman for this. See Krishna was there from the beginning so as long as Krishna was there, she was holding, Krishna didn’t help. Only when she let go and called, then Krishna helped.
Well that is a, you could use it for conveying a particular point that we have to wholeheartedly depend on Krishna. But it’s situational also. Is it that Draupadi was not surrendered to Krishna before that? Was she surrendered only at that time? No.
If you see at that time, even when she had been called in a single cloth to the assembly, she was not just crying in this cloth. She was crying but she was still reminding everyone of dharma. She was telling that may be it is dharma to bring a lady like Krishna.
If Krishna had gambled himself, then how could he have gambled? Was he my master when he gambled? If he was not his own master. So the whole assembly was going on the path of adharma and she was trying to stop that. She was remembering the principles of dharma even then.
And Nishma actually applauded her. Nishma said that even amidst such adversity that you are remembering dharma and reminding others of dharma is laudable. So it’s not that only then she surrendered and before that Krishna was not surrendered.
It is that we all have to do the best that we can. We all have a certain area of control and certain things are out of our control. Now this Kshetra of ours, that is not static.
It keeps changing. Sometimes the area over which we have control is a lot, sometimes the area over which we have control is very little. With whatever area we have control over, we use that control for Krishna.
And if that is a lot, we use all of it. If that is very little, that’s what we use. And sometimes we have no control.
Arjuna, on the 14th day when he was going to bring down Jayadratha, he fought with the fullest capacity until he could see the standard of Jayadratha’s chariot. But then suddenly a Kshatriya over him just charged upon him and he just couldn’t even see anything, couldn’t even move forward. His son was rapidly listening to what was happening.
He was so close, yet so far away. He tried his best and he couldn’t do anything. I think Krishna knew that he was going to win.
So we do our best and then when we can’t do it, what will we do our best? Then Krishna does the rest. Even in this case, Draupadi, she didn’t call out to Krishna wholeheartedly. That was also her endeavour, that was also her strength.
With all her strength, she called out to Krishna. And then we have Kirtan, we say, call out loudly to Krishna. That also requires Kirtan.
So is it that when we give up our effort that Krishna takes over? There are times that happens. But that is not the only reason. There is, Prabhupada also talks about this, that when he was in Thompson Square Park, he had tried so much and nothing was moving forward.
He was thinking, maybe I just have to go back to India. And he said, let’s start it. He started with Kirtan, he closed his eyes.
He said, it’s going to be comfortable. It’s going to be comfortable now. So, Prabhupada said, I closed my eyes.
He started singing and singing and singing and singing. And then I opened my eyes and I saw only Kirtan was dancing. And he said, Krishna didn’t dance much.
Now, does that mean that Prabhupada didn’t do anything? Prabhupada said, no. So basically, if there are situations, situations when we can do something, when we are mentally ready, there are situations when we can’t do anything, then we just offer our consciousness to Krishna. Our consciousness is always to be offered to Krishna.
But sometimes, it’s only our consciousness. Other times, it’s our consciousness along with our circumstances. We should try to make the mass available for Krishna’s service as well.
It’s dynamic. It’s not that, that’s why I said that surrender has two beautiful meanings. There is dependence on Krishna, as exemplified by Draupadi.
And there is a diligence for Krishna, as exemplified by Arjuna, when he picks up his bow and ready to strike. So, for the things that are in our control, there is diligence for Krishna. For the things that are not in our control, there is a dependence on Krishna.
So, both the quarters are still available, so why don’t you apply your strength on Krishna? Both the quarters need to be strength, like full strength and faith. And the third quarter, no strength and faith. I would not call that a new strength.
Because even then, we are using whatever strength we have to offer our consciousness. And offering our consciousness to Krishna is not easy. Like basically, no strength and faith means I just do nothing at all.
And I think God will do everything. It’s, it’s… Okay, let me take a more… specific example of what I mean by this. In the Bible, there is a story of Jesus’ temptations.
Jesus was fasting on a mountain cave, and Satan came over there. The devil came over there. And he said, you are teaching all this about God to people, and you say God is always protecting you? He said, yes, of course.
He said, jump down this mountain. Let us see if your God protects you. Jesus said, I cannot jump down this mountain.
If you push me down, God will protect you. But I will not let God protect me. So the idea is, you will be able to do anything.
So, now, if you are being pushed down, then it’s different. So we have the example of Prahlad, who was just a five-year-old boy. He just couldn’t do anything.
He just closed his eyes, and Krishna protected him. But we also have the example of Arjuna. Svayi-dor-bhir-astham-adharma.
The Bhagavad-gita says that sometimes Krishna destroys the demons by his own hand, and sometimes Krishna destroys by other’s hands. So we have to use our strength, our intelligence, to do our best. And when our best is sometimes just nothing, because there is nothing in front of us.
We need intelligence. There is the idea of world-rejecting kind of spirituality. I just leave everything to Krishna.
This is a caricature of God, if it is not done very carefully. There can be devotees who have that consciousness, and they surrender everything to Krishna. And often, in religious literature, these kind of stories are talked about.
But that is a model for extraordinary level of dependence on Krishna. But that is not the standard for everyone. Like we may have stories like the great sinlel-tukaram Maharaj, who does the bhajan, and then people will come and give food.
That’s true. Krishna can do that. Krishna has done that.
But generations and generations of kings and brahmins, number of brahmins say that, I just sit and Krishna will give me memorization of all the Vedas. I have to sit and memorize. I have to sit and learn the rituals.
The idea that I depend on Krishna doesn’t mean that we don’t endeavor. If Vyasadeva had not endeavored, how would he have written the Mahabharata? He couldn’t have done it. My last question.
Okay. Sinsel-tukaram Maharaj is absorbed in bhajan. There is a story about how he was told to guard a field.
And he got so lost in reciting the words of the Lord that he forgot to guard. And then people came and stole, or animals broke in and stole something, everything. But then the Lord arranged for everything to be showered.
The Lord can intervene miraculously also. And in that case, the point here is, okay, let me phrase it in a more precise way. A devotee doesn’t deliberately neglect one’s responsibilities.
A devotee doesn’t deliberately neglect one’s friends in the name of devotion. Sometimes, because it’s so absorbed in devotion, we forget everything else. And that is ecstasy.
That’s possible. And that’s wonderful when it happens. There are cases where in the Bhagavatam also, Jiva Goswami says that usually the pastimes of Krishna are bestowed chronologically.
But then it was actually this pastime happened after this pastime. He gave various evidence for that. And then he says that because Shubhdev Goswami is born to great ecstasy.
So that ecstasy now is not really has to be chronological. But most of the Bhagavatam is chronological. So when that happens, sometimes a devotee becomes so lost that the devotee just doesn’t do anything.
And that is considered a Bhushan. Not a Bhushan. Bhushan is an ornament.
And Bhushan is like contamination. So if we, okay, let’s put it another way, there is material responsibility, there is material irresponsibility, and there is spiritual responsibility. Sometimes somebody might be so caught in spiritual responsibility that they neglect their material responsibility.
Paramahamsa gets so absorbed in remembering Krishna that he forgets his material responsibility. But most people, they are not that absorbed. So what happens is they will simply think over here.
They will go to their material responsibility. So that’s what I am talking about. It’s possible of course that somebody can transcend and there are glorious examples.
I mean another way to say it is that there are Uttam Adhikaris who at such a level, they see everyone as a devotee. So what is the need to preach? Some people are serving Krishna directly, some people are serving Krishna from Ayahs. So everybody is, Prabhupada is serving Krishna, everybody is dancing in Rashtriya.
Some people are dancing on the Yogamaya and some people are dancing on the Mahamaya. So there is a pure male-female attraction and there is a perverted male-female attraction. Everybody is dancing.
So but the Uttam Adhikari, the topmost devotee cannot preach. Uttam Adhikari has just seen everybody as a devotee. So even if somebody is a Uttama, they come down to the level of Madhyam.
They come down to the level of middle level where they see differences. Okay, this is a devotee, this is a seeker, this is an envious person and they have to follow him. So yes, somebody can be at the transcendental level but functioning in the world, you have to function at a level of, which is effective in this world also.
Okay, and last question.