Surrender is not just exalted sentiment but also practical action – Gita 18.66

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Bhagavad Gita 18.66 One of the most celebrated verses from the Srimad Bhagavad Gita and a verse that is often not very easily understood either. sarva-dharman parityajya, give up all religions and surrender unto Me. Krishna is telling here that just become devoted to Me.
And this verse has a particular meaning in its original context. And it can also have a very relevant and very important meaning in our context. In every religious tradition, in every situation, there are certain practises and there are certain principles.
And an enduring challenge for any religion is to ensure that its practises don’t become so dogmatic, don’t become so fossilised and rigid as to prevent the implementation of the principles. So here the point is that the Bhagavad Gita starts with Arjuna having to face a dharma sankat, a conflict over duty, which is a dangerous conflict over duty about what should he be doing. The conflict is between the Kshatriya dharma and Kula dharma.
That as a Kshatriya, he is meant to fight against aggressors. As a member of the Kuru dynasty, he is meant to protect the members of his dynasty and therefore he is not meant to fight. So what should he do in such a situation? Should he fight or should he not fight? He is not able to decide and the indecision causes him, becomes the source of delusion for him, where he feels that I should not fight and then he is not sure whether he should not fight.
And overall he ends in a state of great confusion. So in such a situation, when he is confused, at that time Krishna comes to his guidance. And Krishna tells him that, he gives him the message of the Bhagavad Gita, which focusses on Paravidya, the supreme spiritual knowledge, which tells him that ultimately all dharmas are to be subordinated to the dharma of bhakti.
And in the dharma of bhakti, he should focus simply on the glorification of the supreme. And he should serve the supreme and he should adopt those duties that help in the service of the supreme. And by so doing, he will always stay protected.
He will never get entangled. He will move onwards steadily towards Krishna, towards righteousness, towards dharma, towards liberation. So Arjuna, if we see in the context of the battlefield of Kurukshetra, he adopts the Kshatriya dharma.
Because that is what is anukul for his service to Krishna. To adopt the Kshatriya dharma and to fight a war. And in the fighting of that war, by fighting that war, he wins that war and moves onwards towards attaining Krishna.
So now in our situation, quite often, we see that in today’s world, there is sarva-dharmaan parityajya. There are various kinds of dharma which are to be given up. And what does that refer to? Today we see that there is Christianity, there is Hinduism, there is Islam, there is Buddhism.
There are all these various kinds of dharmas and they often themselves become the sources of confusion and conflict for seekers. Because seekers sometimes don’t know, if there are so many dharmas, what should I follow? What should I be doing? Which path should I be adopting? And not knowing which path to adopt, they often adopt the path of least resistance, which is usually the path of adharma. Wherein people just simply cave in to their lower impulses and by caving in to their lower impulses, they often cause great harm to themselves.
So the Bhagavatam urges us to resist from such a course of action. The Bhagavata rather, not the Bhagavatam, it urges us to be ready to give up all external religious formularies for the sake of love. मामेकं शरणं भ्रजः And to me alone you should surrender.
This is the path of love, this is the path of affection, this is the path of devotion. And it is on this path that Krishna guides Arjuna. And when people feel confused, should I follow this religion or that religion? Should I follow this organisation or that organisation? Should I take initiation from this spiritual master or that spiritual master? Should I be a part of this community or that community? Should I choose this counsellor or that counsellor? When we have to make such choices, we should know that all these things are dharmas.
But मामेकं शरणं भ्रजः is the ultimate purpose of all these dharmas. मामेकं शरणं भ्रजः And to me alone you should surrender. That means that for the sake of surrendering to me, whatever you are required to do, you should be ready to do that.
And if that requires you to fight, you should be ready to fight. If that requires you to choose one thing and to reject another thing, you should be ready to do that. The point is that a seeker, a spiritual seeker should not let external formularies obstruct one in the pursuit of the essential goal.
The essential goal is devotion to Krishna. And whatever attracts our devotion to Krishna, whatever kindles our singular focus on Him, that is what we should all be willing to do. And sometimes every choice brings with its consequences.
So for example, when we choose one course of action, that means implicitly we are rejecting thereby many other courses of action. And when we do this, the consequences are at times degrading. The consequences are at times mortifying.
The consequences are at times disappointing. So we may hurt some people, some people as a result may try to hurt us. So we should know that if we are acting with the desire to serve and we are striving to serve according to the best of our capacity, then even if there are complications, we should know that Krishna will help us to steer clear of those complications.
Krishna will give us the intelligence by which we can emerge unscathed and not just unscathed, we can actually even grow through those complications. That is Krishna’s munificence. And we need to have faith in His munificence that He is there for us and that He will not let us down.
If we work with a sincere heart to try to serve Him to the best of our knowledge and capacity, then He by His inconceivable mercy will guide us towards choices which are the best and while making those best choices, if there are less than optimal consequences of certain choices, at that time He will protect us through those less than optimal consequences also. That means He will enable us to keep moving closer and closer towards Krishna and thus we will be able to eventually attain Him. So, aham tvam sarva-papebhyo mokshe shami.
When it is said that I will free you from sinful reactions, we can take that in today’s context to mean that when we make some choices, every choice brings with it some consequences and sometimes the fear of a consequence may have a positive effect on us or it may have a negative effect on us. Sometimes because of fearing something, because of dreading something, we may actually end up not doing that thing. And if we don’t do that thing, that means that we let ourselves be carried away, be consumed by something which is the path of least resistance, even if that is not the best path, but because we don’t want the complications coming from that situation if we take a particular choice.
So we just coast along, not really making a choice and thereby making what is the default choice. So, at every moment when we are choosing, even when we say delay a choice, to delay a choice is also a choice. And we know that just as choices have consequences, delaying making a decision also has consequences.
And in that way, when we delay a choice at that time, we will have to bear the consequences of delaying that choice also. So rather than worrying too much about what choice is right or wrong, rather than worrying too much about whether we are working towards something positive or something negative, what we can focus on is what is the way in which we can serve Krishna the best in our present situation. And if we feel convinced and inspired that this is the best way I can serve Krishna in this situation, then we don’t have to paralyse ourselves by thinking too much.
Thinking can be the basis for acting, but thinking can also be the excuse for not acting. So, we have to see in our individual situation, what function is thinking performing for us? Is it aiding action or is it impeding action? There is the very deep rooted human tendency to overthink situations. And when we overthink situations, what we do by overthinking situations is that we end up complicating our situation.
Because after all, we do have to live in this world and living in this world means that we have to act in some way or the other. And sometimes when we just get too caught in our head, then being caught in our head, we lose ourselves, we lose the opportunity to act in this world. So we shouldn’t get so caught in the head that we can’t act in the world.
Certainly, using our head is important, but of course we need to know that the head is a part of us, the head is not us in itself. And that means that sometimes we may have to make choices which have to go along with our gut feeling that this is what is the best for me in this particular circumstance. And therefore, this is what I will do.
So, Prabhupada also says that, अच्छे कि चुकारत बे एही अनुमाने, नहें के लो आनिबेन एही उग्रिस्थाने. He says, my dear lord, there must be some reason why you have brought me here, oh lord. Because otherwise, there does not seem to be any reason.
This is not a particularly attractive place. Prabhupada has composed this prayer, मार्किने भागवत धर्म, when he was on the verge of reaching America, when he was in the Boston fire. And when he was there, he was thinking deeply and praying deeply to Krishna for help.
अनुमाने. He says, I think Krishna, I guess that there must be some purpose why you have brought me here. And that purpose, I think that whatever it is, please make me dance, oh lord.
Make me dance. If you want me to dance, please make me dance. Such is the mode of devotion of the great devotees.
They simply pray to the lord, make me dance, make me dance, make me dance. And when we are faced with situations of indecision, wherein we are just not able to figure out what we should do and what we should not do. At such times, we too can surrender to the lord.
And we too can express the surrender by saying, my dear lord, make me dance, make me dance, make me dance. As you wish to make me dance, make me dance accordingly, oh lord. Now, sometimes we have to face very big decisions in our life and we may feel paralysed.
Oh, what decision should I take? Will this decision be right or wrong? And yes, we should give time to take decisions. But at the same time, if we try to permeate our decision making process with devotion, and pray to Krishna, contemplate on the pros and cons in a prayerful mood, and thereafter arrive at a deeper understanding of what we should be doing, and thereafter do that particular thing. That means rather than thinking that I have to be cut, dried and through with the decision in one go, we can take the whole process step by step.
Recognising that decisions like everything else are often progressions. And to be progressions means that we create for ourselves a process of decision making that works for us. So, it’s not that we can just overnight make a decision.
If certain decisions are complicated, we may well have to spend time investing new thought and prayer to take a decision. And even in such situations, decisions don’t come overnight. At that time, rather than just agonising over the indecision, we can look back at the past when we have made decisions, and not just look at those decisions and their consequences, but also look at the process by which we have made decisions.
And try to learn from that process. And if we can create for ourselves a process for decision making. Ultimately we say that we are not the controllers, and we have to realise that we are not the controllers.
But at the same time, a part of Bhakti, there is a tension in Bhakti wherein we want to surrender to Krishna as the supreme controller. At the same time, we also while functioning in this world, we want to live as much as possible in Sattva Guna. And living in Sattva Guna means living in an orderly responsible way.
So, now of course, if you want to use provocatively different language, creating some orderliness means recognising that we have to control certain things. Say, I will wake at this time, I will eat at this time, I will do this at this time, I will do this at this time. All this is essentially a certain level of controlling.
And how can we have order unless we are able to deal with certain variables and try to prevent those variables from varying too much. So in that sense, in the surrender of transcendence and orderliness of goodness, there is always a tension. And that tension has to be resolved by infusing the orderliness of goodness with the intention of devotion which expresses in another way through surrender.
So that means that the underlying mood of everything is to serve Krishna. Krishna, you are my lord, I am your servant. And whatever happens, oh lord, I want to serve you.
So with the underlying mood of surrender, when we work towards progressing through the process of Bhakti, then we recognise that surrender is one mode of Bhakti. Of course, in one sense, devotees are always surrendered to Krishna. But surrender in the sense of Draupadi throwing up her hand on Krishna, please help me.
It was not that Draupadi lived like that throughout her life. She had responsibilities and her responsibilities meant cooking, her responsibilities meant taking care of her husbands, her responsibilities meant educating and taking care of her children, especially in terms of their understanding of various things on the home front. So there were various things to be done.
And recognising that these things are something which is very important for us. To do. Because we are to be surrendered.
So then how this works is that if you want to serve Krishna well, we are not just meant to raise our hands and stay in that position throughout our life. Yes, that may be required. And when that is required, we definitely should not flinch from doing that.
But that is not the only way to serve Krishna. The important thing in the service of Krishna is service to Krishna, in our relationship with Krishna. And when we don’t, when we are in a situation where we just can’t do anything in a service, at that time, we put aside our initiative and just beg Krishna, please do your will, O Lord, let me be an instrument of your will.
I surrender to you. Let thy will be done, not mine. Now, if you look at it deeply, this prayer is always there in the heart of a devotee, that Krishna, let thy will be done.
That means that even when I am acting, even when I am taking initiative, my dear Lord, I am acting to fulfil your will. Whenever I do anything, my Lord, let it be done in a mood of service to you for your pleasure. So here we see the essential mood of bhakti as expressed both through the orderliness of goodness and through the utter admission of one’s capacity to keep order in transcendence.
And we recognise that as devotees, we strive not to think of ourselves as controllers. But paradoxically, we do get control. We get control over resources, we do get control over power, we get control over position, where people, as we become seasoned in bhakti, as we become senior, at that time, we start getting all these things.
And when we get these things, how we respond to them will be critical for our growth. If we respond to them with disdain or we respond to them by becoming captivated, by thinking, oh, now that I am able to do these things, that means now my life is successful. Now I have arrived.
Now I have got power. Now I have got fame. Now I have got glory.
Then we are actually committing a great, great blunder. On the other hand, if we recognise that ultimately we are beyond the processes of this world and that we are at our core souls, अनर्थोपश्यमं साक्षात् पक्तियो मदोक्षुजे लोकस्य जानन्तो विद्वाम् स्चाकरि सातत् सम्हिताम् that by hearing the glories of Bhagwan, we understand that अनर्थास् दोवे या सम्मोहिता जीवा आत्मानां त्रिवुणात्पकम् परोपमनुते अरथम् तत्कुतम् च अभिपद्यते that सम्मोहिता that we are all bewildered by the spell of this world. None of us can claim that we are free from illusion.
We are all susceptible to illusion and the foundational illusion is to identify ourselves with the body. And because of the identification of the body, when we act in this world, we function in the mode of being controllers. We fancy ourselves as controllers and try to act accordingly.
But periodically, our lack of controllership is jarringly exposed to us. You know, when people don’t behave the way we would have wanted them to behave. When things go scandalously wrong, when our own body collapses because of some terrible disease or whatever else.
So at such times, we realise that we are in big trouble. And the way out of the trouble is by surrender, is by devotion, is by determination and it is by careful use of intelligence. So coming specifically to our point here, of the resolution of the tension between the orderliness of goodness and the non-orderliness, we could say, not disorderliness.
The imperceivable orderliness of surrender is that we always try to cultivate a surrendered mood by thinking that Krishna, I am doing this in a mood of service to you and I want to do your will. And as I am your part, whatever intelligence I have, I will try my best to use it in your service. And please O Lord, guide me so that I can serve you properly.
That is the default mood that we cultivate. Now while cultivating this default mood, we also recognise that actually there is more to that. As Krishna’s parts, we are also meant to act in this world.
And therefore we embrace the challenge of acting on his behalf by doing the best that we can in his service. And while doing the best that we can, whenever we face indecision, whenever we face confusion, whenever we face any kind of problems, at that time, we focus on Krishna. We turn our hearts to him and we offer our heart to him in a mood of devotion.
Krishna, you are my master, I am your servant. Please O Lord, guide me. Please guide me as to how I can serve you in this situation.
And as we slowly but steadily, increasingly, we cultivate this mood of surrender devotion, we will find that we will move closer and closer to Krishna. And even if we make some wrong decisions, we find out that, oh, I made this decision, but this was wrong. So a wrong decision is not the end of the world.
A wrong decision is just one wrong decision. And we weigh the consequences and then we move onwards towards what we can do best to deal with the mess of that situation. So rather than seeing life in terms of some dramatic future moment of surrender, where we will give up everything else for Krishna’s sake and till then we will not do anything, we can see life as, each moment in life as a progression in our journey towards surrender.
When we learn to see each moment does as an opportunity to step forward towards Krishna. And we use our God-given intelligence to surrender to the best of our capacity and we use our God-given intelligence also to recognise that there are certain situations where our intelligence will not work for us, so we just offer ourselves wholeheartedly to Krishna. And through both modalities, our focus is on moving closer to Krishna.
Through both modalities, our focus is on attaining Krishna. When we keep that as a consistent focus, we will be able to navigate life’s pitfalls much better. We will be able to recognise that no matter what happens, Krishna is always there with us.
And yes, life may sometimes put us through a tangle where we just don’t know what is to be done or what is not to be done. At that time, rather than letting ourselves feel dismayed by the tangle that we find ourselves in, we can focus on getting out of the tangle by moving closer and closer to Krishna and by ultimately attaining Him. So the more steps we take in our journey towards Him, the more how to take the big big leaps.
Now when the road is clear, when the road is straight, let’s not cross and complicate our minds about what to do when we come to the crossroads. So, when the road is straight, let’s keep taking steps forward straight one at a time as is our capacity. And if we keep doing this, then eventually even when we come to forks, we’ll be able to recognise that whatever happens, we will be moving onwards in our journey towards Krishna and we will be attaining Krishna and thus we will attain life’s perfection.
So step by step forward is the way to move towards Krishna and by moving step by step forwards, ultimately we will attain Krishna and that is our life’s perfection. That is our life’s greatest aspiration and the path of devotion takes us towards that perfection, not just through the dramatic phases when we say Krishna I am nothing you please accept me I give myself over to you. Yes, those phases are important and we need to make sure that when we are faced with complications, we do respond to Krishna with a mode of devotional surrender but along with those phases when there are things are clear at that time we also show our devotion to Krishna by taking steady strong steps towards him by doing this combination of taking steps when they are in our power and moving forward slowly but steadily towards Krishna we will eventually come to a stage where life’s perfection will not seem impossibly far away but will become more and more of a step by step journey which if we keep taking Krishna will be ours in due course of time not ours in the sense of proprietorship but ours in terms of relationship that Krishna ultimately we all want to be devoted to him, ultimately we all want to attain him and the way to attain him is by cultivating a mode of surrender devotion and the more we cultivate that mode the more we strive to move closer and closer to Krishna through our various day to day devotional activities the more we will find that ultimately we will attain Krishna because after all Krishna is our greatest well-wisher after all he is the person who wants our good more than what we even want and that is his immeasurable magnanimity by keeping our faith in him by not letting ourselves get unduly excited about the big decisions in life but instead focussing on the small steps of life and making sure that we take those small steps properly eventually when we come to the crossroads where we have to take the big steps properly we will be able to do that by his mercy so bhakti is about both relinquishing control to Krishna in the way Draupadi did it is also about taking up the responsibility to serve which also includes to some extent taking up control because when we want to serve the way we serve is through an example of surrender devotion and that example of surrender devotion involves sorry not surrender devotion dedicated devotion and dedicated devotion has as its part as its important part the responsibility of doing whatever it takes to serve Krishna the responsibility of doing our part to the best of our capacity in our devotional relationship with him by steadily striving for the right balance in the combination of devotion and in the combination of devotion and service we will move onwards steadily towards Krishna and attain him thank you