Does surrender come from devotion or devotion come from surrender?
Okay. Thank you so much. Surrender and affection come from devotion or does devotion come from surrender and affection? It's whatever comes first, we start with that.
It's like that. There is no bhakti. It's a personal relationship.
So, we start with whatever we have. Broadly speaking, Vishwachikha Thakur in Madhuri Kadambani says that there are two ways in which the shraddha, in the nine stages of bhakti, the first stage is shraddha. With faith we start off and then remaining stages come up.
So, he says, first shraddha means swabhaviki. That means natural. So, he says that natural means that somebody has practiced bhakti in a previous life and because of having practiced bhakti in a previous life, this life, they have a natural attraction to this life.
But the other is balen uttapadita. It is by forceful preaching by someone. That bhakti is used.
Now, it's interesting he uses balen uttapadita. He uses the word because ultimately we all have swachha and force cannot work. But what he means is not that the free will is forced but rather it is the force of the purity and potency of another devotee that attracts our heart.
So, that is also another way things may begin. So, now if we consider a particular situation in our life. So, this surrender and affection means a feeling that, oh Krishna, you are my lord.
I want to serve you. So, that we may have a little bit of devotion maybe from our upbringing, maybe from our circumstances, whatever. With that little devotion we connect with Krishna.
Means we may have a little faith by which we may come to a temple. So, Prabhupada in fact translates the shraddha almost as favourable curiosity. What is this temple business? What is this Bhagavad Gita? What is this bhakti? I want to know about it.
So, by that favourable curiosity people come in association of devotees. And from there they start bhajanati. So, we could say that at one level if we want to define devotion as that favourable curiosity.
It is not really devotion in the sense of flowing love for Krishna. It is just an openness to know about Krishna. Then that initial spark is what leads to bhajana kriya.
And bhajana kriya involves surrender, involves affection, whatever little we have and we move forward with that. And then from there one comes to the level of nishtha, ruchi and bhava, where the devotion becomes very strong. So, we use whatever we have right now.
When we practice bhakti, the Acharya has described that when we come in front of the Lord, we bow down to the Lord. So, what is the idea? Those who are great saints, who are intoxicated with love for Krishna, when they see Krishna, they faint in ecstasy. And they faint and they fall down.
Now, that's what happened to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu when he came to Jagannath Puri first time. So, the Acharya just fainted. So, the Acharya has told us, you may not faint, at least you fall down.
So, the idea is, if we do the externals, by doing the externals, gradually the internals start developing. So, one definition of surrender is, surrender means to do what we can with what we have now. That means, we can apply this, okay, I would like to do so much service to Krishna.
But right now, in my schedule, I have only one hour to do something. So, I will do in that one hour as much as I can. So, I would like to build a big temple for Krishna.
But in this temple we have right now, let me do as much service as I can in this temple. This is what resources I have. Let me use these resources in Krishna's service.
And the same, we can apply to devotion also. Okay, when I come in front of Krishna, I don't feel my heart overflowing with devotion. But, I at least have some affection to Krishna.
So, with that affection, I come to the temple, I bow down, and then when we do that, Krishna reciprocates. When Krishna reciprocates, then we feel greater devotion for Him. Krishna reciprocates by revealing His all attractiveness.
Krishna reciprocates by giving us taste for Him. And by that taste, we move forward. Does that answer your question?