Gita 18.62 – Transcend problems by surrender to attain the supreme peace

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
And that’s how we move onwards towards Krishna through the practice of fixing our consciousness on him. Thank you.
So, 18.62, that person has been described, that is a pronoun. The noun is, in 18.61, He is referring to the super-soul in the heart. Krishna has already said in 15.15, I am residing in everyone’s heart.
So it’s clear that it is Krishna who is referred to as the object of surrender. And that will be clarified and reiterated in 18.66. This is four verses later. Here, Krishna says, And how surrender? It’s one’s complete heart and being, with all the emotions of the heart.
So, sarvabhavena bhārata is a phrase that has come earlier in 15.19. Yoma meva saṁmodo jānāti puruṣottamaḥ sarva-vijitimāṁ sarva-bhavena bhārata, wholeheartedly, with all the emotions of the heart. So, same context, that when one knows Krishna’s position, then one will surrender wholeheartedly. So there it was more of an objective statement, whereas here it is an injunctive statement.
Here Krishna has given instruction, do like this. When you surrender like that, what will happen? tat-prasāda-parāṁ śāntim, by His mercy one will attain the supreme peace. Not just the peace of avoidance of war, but the peace that comes by transcendence of war.
Krishna will offer to Arjuna the process of bhakti-yoga by which he can raise his consciousness above material realities. And therein, in the unchanging ecstatic spiritual territory, find real happiness, real peace. That is the supreme peace, because nothing can destroy that peace.
And then, sthānaṁ prapyaśāśvatam, I think that you won’t be a loser, because here in this war, even if you win and you get a sthāna, that will be a temporary sthāna, but there if you rise to the spiritual level of consciousness and attain the spiritual world, that is a śāśvatas-sthāna, that is a destination, a resting place, which will last forever. So this is the verse which tells peace and place. So the supreme peace and the eternal place, these two are the gifts of surrender to Krishna.
And these gifts don’t have to be delayed till we actually surrender wholeheartedly and irreversibly. Even at this very moment, to the extent we surrender, and even if our surrender is likely to be reversible, but still, this activity of surrendering can enable us to keep moving forward in our, to keep moving closer to Krishna, and thereby experience. So our prayer time, our meditation time, our japa time, these are all meant for us to surrender to Krishna.
There are opportunities by which we can just, Krishna, I put everything aside. I surrender unto you, please accept me. And to the extent that whatever emotion we have, at our command, we try to surrender with that emotion, sarvabhavena.
Sarvabhavena doesn’t necessarily refer to every single emotion of the heart, it can refer to every single emotion that we are capable of at our present level of conditioning. Because after all, Krishna is not an unreasonable God. He doesn’t expect or demand from us that which is impossible for us.
So, if we surrender like that, then we can also experience peace, shastra, prasada, rama, shantyam. Thank you.