A Structural Review of the Main Topics of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Lecture 14
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · 2021
Chapters
Omna mo Bhagavate Vasudevaya, Omna mo Bhagavate Vasudeva. Omnamo Bhagavatevaya, narayanam no mastrity, naram chaiva narotam, devim sarasvatim yasam.
Tradodjaya Mudira, Nasta praya, Swabadriso, Nashabrishu, Nitam Bhagava Tas, Bhagavatam stuke, Bhakti Bhavti na Ste, Yamprajanta Manu Petamte Krityam Daipayana, Viragatara Juhava, Putretitam Mayatayota, Sarvabhuta Hridayamunimana Dosmi.
Topical structure of Srimad Bhagavatam
So Hare Krishna, I am continuing We are
continuing this series of lectures on the structural review of the topics of Srimad Bhagavatam, where we are describing the Logical structure of Srimad Bhagavatam or topical structure of Srimad Bhagavatam. How the flow of the narration of Srimad Bhagavatam goes to ultimately bring us to the lotus feet of the Lord.
Shimad Bhagavatam can be compared with a very powerful river, the river Ganga, which has very fast and very strong current. And if we enter the waters of Ganga and surrender to the flow of river Ganga.
Ultimately she will bring us to the ocean. I don't know what will be left of us when we are there in the ocean.
But the idea is that the whole flow of Simad Bhagavatam, the whole narration of Srimad Bhagavatam, is automatically bringing us to the lotus feet of the Lord which or to to his beautiful personality which is described in the tenth cant of Shimad Bhagavatam.
And it definitely doesn't matter whether we structurally or logically understand how Shrimad Bhagavatam works or not because this is the flow. It's spontaneous. It will work anyway. If we reach him at Bhagavatam, thank you.
If we reach him at Bhagavatam spontaneously, it will do the needful with our heart. It will purify the heart, uh give us certain understanding.
But if we understand how this uh structure works and how it is uh the whole mration is structured, then it's better. We will be able to more comprehensively understand the whole uh book of Srimad Bhagavatam.
So we have been describing first preliminary studies, 10 topics of Srimad Bhagavatam, and then Kanto by Kanto, how it goes. And now we're on the eighth canto and I will try to do the topical review of the eighth canto.
And the eighth canto according to the Krama theory, Krama theory is the theory which ascribes each of the ten topics of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to each kanto.
And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura definitely follows this Krama theory and his explanation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Where the first two cantas is just introduction to the whole book and starting
from the third canto Sarga, Visarga is the fourth canto, Stanam is the fifth Kanto, Poshanam is the sixth Kanto, Uti is the seventh Kanto, and Manvantara is the topic of the eighth Kanto.
And Śukadeva Gosvāmī himself explains that what is Manvantara, what is the topic, why this topic is so important. He says Manvantara means the description of sad dharma or eternal duties of the humankind.
Manvantara or rules of a certain manus. Manus they establish the laws of nature. The laws of which humankind should follow and manvantara
the avatāra manvantara av Aatvataraar of the Lord is being pleased, and he is coming to receive the fruits of the activities of human being.
Meaning and foundation of Sad Dharma
So he says Saddharma. So the topic of the eighth canto is Manvantara or Saddharma. What is Saddharma? As opposed to Asad Dharma.
Dharma is a very you know famous word, and you know there's a lot of things which is Dharma, Manava Dharma, this Dharma, that Dharma, you know, serve the humanity. It's all good.
But it is not necessarily sad dharma or eternal duties. What is the eternal duties?
As opposed to asad dharma or temporary duties, which we also have to do, duties to our family, duties to the nation, duties to humanity, this is all fine.
But what is the essence, what is the foundation without which all other dharmas become useless, futile.
All other dharmas are good only if they have strong foundation in sad dharma, in something which is eternal and not changeable.
So, what is this sad dharma, and as we will see, all the stories of the eighth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam very clearly show that the Saddharma upon which the which is the foundation for any activity which we do in this world?
Any activities which we do in this world will be fruitful, useful, and beneficial to us and to other living beings.
Only if the foundation is there and the foundation is Saddharma and Saddharma is the surrender to the Lord. So the topic of the eighth canto is the complete signs of surrender to the Lord.
What does it mean to surrender to the Lord? What does it imply? How we should surrender? What should be our motivation when we surrender to the Lord?
And what we should try to avoid while thinking that we are surrendering to the Lord. Because oftentimes there is a self-deception, we are deceiving ourselves. We think I'm a devotee. I'm surrendered. I'm surrendered soul.
But at the same time we maintain uh the same sort of attitude, changing externally the dress and tilak and everything else. Like Arjuna in Bhagavad-gītā. But I'm not going to fight. So that's the position of all of us.
I'm surrendered soul, but don't ask me what I don't want to do. So this is a very important topic of the eighth canto, uh, different aspects of surrender and it's a science. It's a science of surrender.
How to surrender to the Lord and how beautiful it is, how joyful it is to surrender to the Lord if we do it properly.
And basically, what is described in gist in this eighth canto, the five types of surrender is described here in the eighth canto. Five different types of surrender with different according results.
And also the six types of surrender is also described. Ṣaḍ-vidhā śaraṇāgati is also described here in different stories, in the form of stories. To drive this topic home to our heart and to explain
Identifying who is worthy of surrender
it to us, Śukadeva Gosvāmī is describing different stories of surrender. So, first, when we study the science of surrender, first of all we, should understand who is worthy to surrender.
Because surrender we cannot avoid in this material world. We always surrender to somebody. The problem is that we always surrender to somebody who is not worthy of being surrendered to. We always make a mistake.
So many people surrendered, you know, during the Second World War, you know, the whole German nation surrendered to Hitler and the result was very bad.
And uh you know many people surrendered to Donald Trump. Somebody surrendered to somebody else.
You know, in this material world, surrender is the most common thing. Everyone has to surrender because we are incomplete. The reason why we have to surrender is because we are incomplete and, we all desire to be complete.
And for this completeness, we need to surrender to somebody who is more complete than us who can complement our incompleteness, so to speak.
Therefore, the first, the very first important topic which we have to understand when we study this science of surrender is that who is worthy to be surrendered to.
And for that, I will read verse and purport from the first chapter of the eighth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Prabhupāda, where the general description of surrender, the general qualification of qualification of somebody who should be surrendered to, who we should surrender to, is beautifully described.
So that's the 16th verse of the first chapter of the 8th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is entitled The Manus, Administrators of the universe.
Tamihamanam nirahankritam budham. Nirasisham Purnam Ananya Coditam Nrin Sikhsayantam Nijavartma samstitam prabhum prapadya killadharma bhavanam. Very beautiful and very instructive verse of Srimad Bhagavatam.
Tam under the same Supreme Personality of Godhit, Ichamanam, who is acting for our benefit, Nirahankritam, who is without entanglement or desire for gain, Buddham, who completely who is completely in knowledge, Nira Shisham, without desires to enjoy the fruits of his activities. Purnam, who is full and therefore has no need to fulfill desires. Ananya by others, Choydam, induced or inspired Nrin, all of human society, Shikshayantam, to teach the real path of life, Nijavartma, his own personal way of life, some stitam to establish without deviation, Prabhuom unto the Supreme Lord, Prabadi. I request everyone to surrender. Akila Dharma Bhavanam, who is the master of all religious principles or the occupational duties for human beings.
So this is the verse spoken by Swayambuva Manu, the first chapter of this canto very beautifully describes this process of surrender.
Swayambuhu Manu is performing austerities and while performing austerities standing on one leg to please the Lord. He is chanting the verses which are the verses from Ishopanishad.
At least the first verse, the second verse of this verses, is very much similar to isha vasiya medam sarvam yat kincha jagatyam jajaj jagat tenatyaktena bunjita magrida kasya svidanam and he's explaining the signs of surrender in these verses in these prayers.
And this is last of his prayers, the last of his prayers, where he explains who we should surrender to.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna works just an ordinary human being, yet he does not desire to enjoy the fruits of work. He is full in knowledge, free from material desires and diversions, and completely independent.
As the supreme teacher of human society, he teaches his own way of activities and thus he inaugurates the real paths of religion. So this is the Sad Dharma.
Very clearly Svayambhu Manu says Krishna Himself inaugurates sad-dharma, and this Saddharma is surrender to Him. I request everyone to follow Him, to surrender unto Him.
Lessons from the divine incarnations
Prabhum Prapadye Akhila Dharma Bhavanam. Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's a long purport, but very nice. This is the sum and substance of our Krishna consciousness movement.
We are simply requesting human society to follow in the footsteps of the teacher of Bhagavad-gītā, follow the instructions of Bhagavad-gītā as it is, and your life will be successful.
That is the summary of the Krishna Consciousness Movement. The organizer of the Krishna Consciousness Movement is teaching everyone how to follow Lord Ramachandra, how to follow Lord
Krishna, how to follow Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. In this material world, we need a leader for a monarchy or good government.
Lord Ramachandra, by his practical example, showed how to live for the benefit of all human society.
He fought with the demons like Ravana, he carried out the orders of his father, and he remained the faithful husband of Mother Sita. Thus, there is no comparison to Lord Ramachandra's acting as an ideal king.
Indeed, people still hanker for Amaraja, a government conducted like that of Lord Ramachandra.
Similarly, although Lord Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He taught his disciple and devotee Arjuna how to lead life ending in going back home, back to Godhead. Manaiti Mamaiti Sorjuna.
All teachings, political, economical, social, religious, cultural, and philosophical, are to be found in Bhagavad-gītā. One only has to follow them strictly.
The Supreme Personality of God also comes as Lord Chaitanya just to play the part of a pure devotee. Thus, the Lord teaches us in different ways just to make our life successful.
And Svayambhu Manu requests us to follow Him. Svayambhu Manu is the leader of mankind. He has given a book called Manu-saṁhitā to guide human society.
Herein he directs us to follow the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His different incarnations.
These incarnations are described in Vedic literature and Jaidev Goswami has described ten important incarnations in summary Keshavadrita Minashari Rajajagadishahare Keshavadrita Narahari Rupa Jai Jagadisha har, kesha vadrita, buddha shari rajai jagadisha haré, etc.
Swambu Manu instructs us to follow the instructions of God's incarnations, especially Appreciating
Bhakti Marga as instructed by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Sarvabham Bhatacharya thus depicted the activities of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Vairagy Vidani Jabhakti Yoga, Sikshartam Ekakh Purusah Puranaha, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Shari Radhari Kripam Budhiri Yastwamaham Prapad ye.
Let me take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna who has descended in the form of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to teach us real knowledge.
His devotional service and detachment from whatever does not foster Krishna consciousness. He has descended because he is a notion of transcendental mercy. Let me surrender unto his Lotus feet.
In this age of Kali, people cannot follow the instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and therefore Lord Himself takes the part of Sri Krishna Chaitanya to teach personally how to become Krishna conscious.
He asked everyone to follow him and become a guru to deliver the fallen souls of Kali Yuga. Yari Deca Tari Kaha Krishna U Padesh Hamaragyai Guru Hoi Hanam Tara Eidesh.
Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Shri Krishna as they given in Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. In this way, become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land.
The coherent purpose of Lord Ramachandva, Lord Krishna, and Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is to teach human society how to be happy to f by following the instructions of the Supreme Lord.
Cari nirvis Sunyavadi, Paschatisari, Vanchakal Pataru Vescha, Kripa Sindu Vacha Pattitana, Pavane Byovishnava Byonamon Maha, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhunita Nanda Sriadvaita Gadhathara Srivasi Gaura Bhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Ramare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hari Ram Ramhari Hariam.
Yantah pravishi mammavachima mamam prasuktum sanji vaja ta kila shakti darakswamna, anyam syhasta charanam sramatva gadi, pranamba taripu sariatu Swastukwak prasida tangda butani sivam mithudiamanascha bad Ramba chatata dhoksaja, Halesha Naomi, Apya Tuthi.
So Srila Prabhupada explains the essence of all teachings of Vedic literature is just to surrender to Lord and follow Him. Sarva Dharman Parityajama Kam Saranam Raja, aham tvam sarva papibyo, moksasyani, masuchara.
It's interesting that sometimes people don't even understand this. I spoke once with Indian ambassador to Russia. He was a very nice person, very, very friendly follower of Mahatma Gandhi.
And once we started talking with him about Bhagavad-gītā, and he said that actually, you know, this no he's not actually follower of Mahatma Gandhi, on the contrary, he was against Gandhi's interpretation of Bhagavad-gītā.
He said, you know, in Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna teaches us to fight for the country.
How Mahatma Gandhi can interpret it that it should be non-violent things, you know, it should be desi bhaktas, we should fight for our country. I said no.
In Bhagavad-gītā Krishna teaches us to surrender to him. He said, really? I said, yes. He said, where did he say this? I said, Sarvadharmān parityajya. He said, really he said this? You're not joking.
So you know people miss the point. Because we interpret anything we read according to our samscars, according to our understanding, and we miss very important points sometimes.
But Śrīla Prabhupāda stresses this again and again and again. In Rāmāyaṇa the same point is stressed.
Lord Ramachandra says to even Ravana, Sugriva, he said, you surrender unto me, and I will, you know, you will rule happily this Lanka and everything will be fine.
And when Vibhishana surrenders, he says that this is my sacred duty, Sakṛd eva prapannāya tavāsmīti will make him completely abhai, completely fearless. This is Mamavrata, this is my vow.
If somebody surrenders unto him, I will protect him. And of course, Śrīla Prabhupāda says that Lord Caitanya ultimately says the same thing: surrender means follow me, follow what I said, and you will be saved.
You want to be saved? Here is what you should follow. Lord Ramachandra is there, Lord Krishna is there, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is there, follow what they say, everything will be fine.
Qualities of the supreme shelter
But very interesting and important point here is that Manu explains why we should surrender to the Lord. Why? Why we should surrender?
And if we are to surrender to somebody else, we should see in Him reflection of the same qualities. And these qualities of the Lord, which makes him worthy of surrender,
of taking shelter of, is ihamanam are, ihamanam. Ihhamanam means he is detached. He is not he is not really he is not selfish. All all these qualities is actually uh describing the Lord as somebody who doesn't have any particular self-interest.
When we surrender to somebody who has selfish interest, we will fail. We will be actually we will we will be frustrated in our surrender.
So many people lost faith in Krishna consciousness because they applied their surrender to not exactly to the worthy persons. It's a very sensitive process.
We have to be very clear, and because it is a science, Svāyambhuva Manu, Svāyambhuva Manu says it very clearly. Ihamanam. Ihamana means he is not he is not into himself, he is he is detached, he is not attached.
Nirahaṅkara and nirahaṅkṛtam. He doesn't have ahaṅkāra. He doesn't have false ego, he is not self-centered. Buddha.
Buddha, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, very beautifully explains what Buddha means. He says Buddha means he is conscious of his own bliss. In other words, he is blissful himself. He is not somebody who is lacking of something.
When people are, you know, there are so many people who say, surrender unto me. Surrender unto me. You know, any political leader says this, surrender unto me. Just follow me. And I will I will make you happy.
But they cannot do because they're not happy themselves. First of all, you have to see if this person is happy.
If he is not satisfied, if he is trying to acquire more and more material possessions and everything else, then he's not worthy of surrender.
And Svāyambhuva Manu says he's Buddham, Buddha, the Lord, Buddha means he is conscious of his own bliss. He is blissful. He is he is not in need of anything else. Nirashisham, he doesn't have any desire.
Purnam, he is full, he is complete, he doesn't lack anything. You know. The problem is becomes you know we we can surrender to a human being, but only if he is surrendered to the Lord.
And in this way he's not lacking of anything. He's happy.
You know, Śrīla Prabhupāda was like this. He was happy when he was living in Rādhā-Dāmodara Temple in a very humble way. He was happy when he was living in the palaces. And there was no change in his mood. He was not lacking of anything.
And therefore, it is said here, Purnam. Ananya-choditam. He is not, uh, uh, He's not induced by somebody else. Ananya-choditam. It's not that, you know, I'm afraid that somebody is doing something to me.
It's just self-inspiration. The inspiration, uh, choditam, ananya-choditam, is coming from within, not because somebody else is telling me, do this, do that, you know. No. The Lord or a pure devotee.
He's ananya-choditam. He is not impelled for the action by somebody else. And he is doing this nṛ-śikṣayāṁ tān niija-varta-sthitaḥ. Masamstitam. He is doing it only to teach. Whatever he does, he does to teach us.
He shows the example. He is doing it not because he has some selfish interest or something to gain from his activities, but he is just showing the example to teach for our benefit.
So the selflessness is the main characteristic of somebody who should be surrendered. So that's the first teaching of the Eighth Canto. Whom should we surrender to?
We should only surrender to somebody who is complete and selfless and doesn't have
ahaṅkāra and doesn't have any self-interest, even a tinge of self-interest. Because if the tinge of self-interest will be there, we will be frustrated. And our surrender will be futile. We'll be wasted ultimately.
Will not bring the proper benefit. So that's the first very important teaching and in general this whole
first chapter of the Eighth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam shows that if you surrender to the Lord, to the proper source of everything, then he will protect you in any in all regards.
Svāyambhuva Manu is not trying to protect himself. Demons are rushing into him, trying to devour him from all sides.
And he's just standing there, īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat. And he's praying to the Lord. And the Lord himself takes the incarnation to protect him.
So this first chapter of the eighth canticle of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also shows very important two principles of surrender, two first principles of surrender.
Acceptance and rejection in surrender
Ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ prāatikūlyasya varjanam.
We know what are the six elements, six angas of surrender, first two angas of surrender, ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ, you accept everything which is favorable, you reject everything which is unfavourable.
And this is formulated by uh by Svāyambhuva Manu in his prayers in this verse, īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam, that's the principle.
Śrīla Prabhupāda says this. Take only that things which you really need. Don't take anything extra. Why the world is suffering so much nowadays? Why there is a destruction everywhere.
Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that one of the reasons for destruction of the world is uh that people waste uh many things which they don't need. So much waste is going on.
Because people are trying to get access of what they're not supposed to take and therefore all this calamities are there.
Coronavirus is about this, all these pandemics and wars and famines and everything else is just because people are not conscientious in their spending. You know, it's it's amazing how wasteful the modern civilization is.
So much waste, so much luxury, so much excess. People are just trying to get everything. So, this is two first principles of surrender. Reject whatever you don't need. It's not yours. Don't develop the thief's mentality.
I need more. I need more, more, more, more, more. You know, you will die anyway. So there's no need to get more than you need. You only need as much. He was always teaching his disciples, you know.
He was very angry when he would see that the the you know the tap the water is is dripping somewhere and was once in the last days he was in Brindavan he was going around the temple with the huge crowd of devotees.
And then all of a sudden he stopped. And the whole crowd behind him also stopped.
Somebody just rushed onto him, and you know, and they didn't know and he says he asked his disciples, Did you see? Do you see? Just looking around in the maybe Krishna is there or what's going on? On Nārada Muni and
then and then Prabhupada says, You're blind. And I can see. And then he goes again and he makes the second round around the temple. And he stops at exactly the same place. And he says, Do you see?
And again, everyone is looking and nobody can see anything. And then Prabhupada points out there is a lamp there. It's a daylight and the lamp is burning. He said, you're all blind, and only I can see. So we are blind.
We are blind. We don't see how we are actually encroaching to something which doesn't belong to us. We should be very conscientious in this regard. Very, very conscientious. And that's basically the first rule of surrender.
Ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ prātikūlyasya varjanam. And again, uh, this first chapter of the Eighth Skandha is the first like general surrender.
It's not surrender for specific need and it doesn't describe surrender very vividly.
Gajendra and the crocodile of time
But the very next chapter, when the story of Gajendra, the elephant, is being described, is of course a very vivid description of surrender.
That's the famous story of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Gajendra-mokṣaṇa Leela, and the prayers of Gajendra.
And of course Ganjendra exemplifies somebody who surrenders because he is suffering, because he is in this precarious condition of material life. So Gajendra being devoured by the crocodile.
And it is specifically said by Shukadeva Gaswami that Gajendra is being devoured by the crocodile of time.
And if you think that Gajendra is a just nice story about some foolish elephant who was somewhere near Trikutam Mountain, you're mistaken because Gajendra is you and you are devoured by the crocodile of time.
The crocodile of time is uh you know is joining his jaws and your leg and trying to devour you. So and this is the time. The time is the cause of suffering. Why we suffer in this world? You know, because of time.
The time comes and the suffering comes, the disease comes, the problems comes, tribulations comes, so many different things comes and ultimately
all these anxieties which are caused by the time they they waste our life and the only the only solution to all the problems in our life is to surrender to God. And this is what we have to understand.
But it's very interestingly described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the eighth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is specifically said that it took a long time for Gajendra to understand that he has to surrender to the Lord.
Does it sound familiar to you? You know, we suffer and suffer and suffer and suffer and suffer and suffer, and then you know it dawns to us. Maybe I should surrender to the Lord. Maybe this is the solution.
But before that, what he was trying to do? He was trying to do exactly the same thing which we are trying to do. He tried to find another solution to all his sufferings. He thought, I'm powerful.
Look at me, I'm such a big elephant. You know, and this little crocodile, what he can do to me. And crocodile said, let's see what I can do to you.
But he's pulling and pulling and pulling, and in the same way we are struggling, we are fighting.
But the teaching of Srimad Bhagavatam is that the sooner we understand this, the less blood will be shed from our from everything which we have. You know, because otherwise we're just suffering uselessly.
Realization of exclusive divine shelter
And it's very interesting because Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī again in Bhakti Sandarbha Sandarbha he describes the signs of surrender and he says the uh most important condition of surrender is called in Sanskrit Ananya Gatitva.
Ananyagatitva means this mentality or this consciousness is that I don't have any other shelter, any other Gati, any other shelter than the Lord.
Unless, basically, unless you're pushed in the corner, you will not surrender.
If you still have, if you still think that there is some other upāya, you know, my dear jyotiṣī, give me some ruby or whatever, some upāya, this upāya or that upāya. You know, people always trying to find some upāya.
So when you, some means to save themselves, when you have this mentality, when you ultimately come to this conclusion, Ananya Gatitva,
there is no other upāya, there is no other way, there is no other way. Then only you surrender. So that's the mentality, and that's why surrender takes time.
It really takes time before we really understand, before we exhaust all other possibilities of saving ourselves.
And therefore it is said, it's beautiful in the before Gajendra starts his praying. Before he remembers him in the prayers. It's interesting. It's also a very interesting element of this whole dynamic of surrender.
It's very difficult for us to surrender when everything is fine with us. You know everything is fine, yeah, right, very good. It's very difficult for us to pray to the Lord sincerely.
We come to Him, yes, yes, yes, right. Very good, very good. Hare Krishna. How are you? So, but the prayer comes from the heart naturally when we feel that yes, yes, I mean yes, right, Hare Krishna.
I have to take shelter of you. You're really my protection. Then the prayer comes. Before that, the prayer will not come.
And therefore, it is it's interestingly, very interestingly, Sukhadev Gaswami says how Gajandra sings before he starts praying.
He says Namameh Yataya Aturam Gajah, Kutak Karinyakh, Prabhavanti Mochi tum Graheena Pashana Vidhatur Abrito Pyaham Chatam Yami Param Parayanam.
The other elephants who are my friends and relatives could not rescue me from this danger. What then to speak of my wives? They cannot do anything.
It is by the will of providence that I have been attacked by this crocodile, and therefore I shall seek shelter of the Supreme Personality of God here, who is always the shelter of everyone, even the great personalities.
So that's and that's the conclusion which we have to come to surrender. Nobody else will save me. My wife will not save me. Narendra Modi will not save me. So many powerful people are there.
But the they self need to take shelter of the Lords. You know, don't try to find some other shelter. The Lord is the shelter. Take shelter of him. Your friends will not save you. Nobody save you. Nobody will save you.
And then he says, very interestingly, that's the impetus of surrender. Why the surrender is there. And as I said, it's a conditional surrender. This surrender is because one is suffering.
And this is not the best way of surrender. This is not the first class of surrender. But it's better than nothing.
So in the next verse, he says, very interestingly: The Supreme Personality of Godhead is certainly not known to everyone, but He is very powerful and influential.
Therefore, although the serpent of eternal time, which is fearful in force, endlessly chases everyone, ready to swallow him,
if one who fears the serpent seeks shelter of the Lord, the Lord gives him protection, for even death runs away in fear of the Lord.
I therefore surrender unto Him, the great and powerful Supreme Authority, who is the actual shelter of everyone. So that's basically the motivation. If you're afraid of suffering, the fear is the motivation.
Why do we surrender to the Lord? And you know, in Kali Yuga it's most common. It's actually said that these four categories of people
who surrender to the Lord, of pious people who surrender to the Lord, are catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ janāḥ sukṛtino 'rjuna, ārto jijñāsur arthārthī jñānī ca bharatarṣabha. In Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna describes these four categories of pious people.
these four categories of pious people. Sukṛtinaḥ janaḥ. This sukṛti, when people acquire some sukṛti, it's also very interesting because Eighth Canto is describing surrender.
In Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna says why people surrender—because they have some pious credits, some sukṛti. And the previous kāntha, Seventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, was describing how to acquire pious credits,
that by association with saintly people and by following strictly the rules and regulations of varṇāśrama, you acquire necessary sukṛti which will help you to surrender when the need will be there.
So that's again a very important logical structure or logical flow of the narration of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
So the canto is describing how different people surrender and it is described by some ācāryas that these four categories of surrender, of people who surrender to the Lord, of pious people who surrender to the Lord, this motivation, is according to the varṇas.
Śūdras, they surrender only because they suffer. There is no other way for them to surrender. Vaiśyas, why do they surrender?
They surrender because they want money. Ārtaḥ, jijñāsur, arthārthī, they want arthārthī, they want money. Kṣatriyas, why do they surrender? Jijñāsu. They're curious. They're challenging. Let me see.
And then brāhmaṇas they surrender because they jñānī, they have knowledge, because this is the motivation. So because in Kali Yuga everyone is śūdra, why people surrender to the Lord, there's only one reason.
Because they suffer. There is no other reason. There is no other motivation. Because Kalau śūdra sambhavā, in目 the age of Kali, the main motivation, Why did we come to Krishna consciousness? Because we suffer.
And because we want to avoid suffering. That's why we surrender. So therefore, this Gajendra Mokṣaṇa līlā, even though it's not the best way to surrender to the Lord, still it's very instructive and very relevant to us.
And therefore, this eighth canto starts with this Gajendra Mokṣaṇa līlā, which explains to us the dynamic of surrender because of our fear of death.
And Prabhupada, of course, he quotes Taittirīya Upaniṣad, the famous verse from Taittirīya Upaniṣad, which said that the wind is flowing because of the fear of God. And the sun is uh only shining
because of the fear and uh Chandra the moon is shining because of the fear of the Lord, and Agni also emanates the heat and light because of the fear. And from From the Lord, even Mrityu, Mrityudavati Panchamaha.
Because of the fear of the Lord, the death runs away.
So the idea of this beautiful verse from Taittirīya Upaniṣad is that everything is working because the Lord is in control, but if you want to be protected from death, you should surrender to Him.
Because death personified runs away from the Lord in fear. Everyone is fearful of death, but death is fearful of the Lord.
Ocean churning and material motivations
So we will skip Gajendra prayers of surrender and we will come directly to the next story: very important story, yeah. Very important story of the eighth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
You know, after the Gajendra prayers of surrender, uh the story of the churning of the milk ocean is there. And of course the story shows what what kind of surrender? What is the motivation for this surrender?
Yeah, ārta, arthārthī, somebody who wants wealth. Somebody who wants the Lord to maintain himself and therefore so he surrenders to the Lord. And demigods who are praying to the Lord and
of course yes as we said that first two angles of surrender, Anukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ prātikūlyasya varjanam there in the first chapter of the 8th Kanto in the prayers of Swambu Manu.
And then rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāsaḥ this trust that the Lord will protect me is in is depicted in this Gajendra story. Gajendra realized that the Lord will protect me for sure. So that's the next element.
And then then uh goptṛtve varaṇam tathā. The next element of surrender that the Lord is my maintainer is exemplified by the demigods who come to the Lord and say, my dear Lord Hare Krishna, we need something.
Please give us what we need. You're maintaining everyone. Please give us back all this heavenly planets. So that's a long story and but it also has very important lessons of surrender.
Again, as I said, this whole Eighth Canto is teaching us how to surrender, why to surrender, what is the dynamic of surrender.
And the next motivation for surrender is very common motivation for surrender is that you go to the Lord and you say, My dear Lord, I need some money. Come on, Hare Krishna. So I need it. I really need it.
Please give me something. Dehi, dehi, dehi, this dehi, that dehi, give me, give me something. And this whole story very interestingly describes that the Lord gives.
But He gives in such a way not to make you lazy, not to make you irresponsible, not to make you you know that you know, oh it works, you know, I I don't have to work anymore, I have to go to the Lord, just put some five rupees into Hundi and then we'll get big interest from my investment.
No, it doesn't work like this.
Patience and hard work in devotional life
It's very clearly said here. Yes, Krishna will give you. But how He will give you? He will tell you, go and work.
The demigods they come to the Lord and they say so many good prayers and they say, please, please, we surrender to you, please give us, give us. Lord says, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Go to the demons, make truce with them, work hard, work to your sweat and you know till your blood is coming out, oozing from your ears. Do work very hard.
And he said, he specifically said: it's very interesting: the instruction of the Lord to the demigods. If you want that the Lord will fulfill your material desires, He will fulfill your material desires.
You go to Him, you pray to Him, He will. But it implies, it doesn't imply that you don't have to do anything, you have to work hard. That's the first thing. The second thing, you have to be very patient.
The Lord Himself says, I will fulfill your desires, I will give you money. But not immediately. Not so soon. You have to really with patience and diligence, uh work, apply your intelligence, uh surf and you know work hard.
And you know, we know that demigods they they they really worked hard. They were fainting and they were dying basically. While they were carrying this Vasuki, the serpent that was so heavy.
And uh not only they were carrying this Vasuki, the serpent, the serpent is was emanating, was you know was burping with fire and you know it was very hot, especially when they started churning.
You know, it was a difficult task. And then this mountain, mandara mountain, they had to carry this mandara mountain to the whole thing.
It shows actually that if you want money from the Lord, He will give to you, but first you have to work really hard. Really hard.
Very patiently, with a lot of diligence, you have to do, and he says also, you have to give up three things. You have to give up greed. He will give to you. But you have to be very generous.
You know, if you want uh to achieve some benefits from the Lord, you have to be generous. You know, you have to share whatever you get with others you have to donate. This is you have to give up your greed.
The Lord doesn't give money to greedy people because, you know, he says what is the use to give money to greedy people? It will be just a waste of money. They will just sit on this money without you using it properly.
So you have to give up your greed, you have to give up your anger because sometimes when we work we become really irritated, agitated. Uh this is uh another thing and what else was there? Huh? Huh? No, no, not last.
It was something else. Just one second. Your, uh, patient, yes. Patient, I already said. You have to be patient, you have to give up your greed, your anger, and your—before— Yes. Fear, yes. You have to give up your fear.
You have to be, uh, so you have to be fearless, you have to work also with, with a lot of conviction, with, with a lot of—that ultimately the Lord will protect me, the Lord will give. This is this is how it is.
The life is difficult. The Lord is teaching us a very important lesson: that the life is not easy. Don't expect that you will have an easy life, you know. I'm a devotee, Hare Krishna, so I don't need to do anything.
You have to be very bold in your aspirations, you have to work hard, and you have to, uh, give up your anger because sometimes it will not be the way you want.
It's not going to be always the way you want, even if you are a devotee, believe it or not. So you have to give up all these bad qualities and work diligently, and ultimately, uh, you will get, uh, what you require.
Uh, the main thing is, of course, you have to be surrendered to the Lord. And uh yeah. And, uh, yeah, and we all know that after working hard and churning this milk ocean, the poison first came.
And after poison, and the poison was drunk by Lord Śiva, and after poison, so many good things came, and only at the very end, the nectar of immortality came.
And the demons, they immediately rushed to get this nectar of immortality. They were rushing, and they started quarreling with each other, with each other.
It's again, it's a very interesting point because when people in this material world are working hard, they have this competitive spirit, this mentality, aham pūrvam, aham pūrvam.
The demons were rushing, and they were saying, I'm the first, I am the first, I am the most worthy of getting this nectar.
And Lord, the Lord doesn't like it. This competitive spirit is something which in the eyes of the Lord is not something valuable. So we have to work very diligently, but we don't need to develop this mentality. I'm the first one.
Because those who have this mentality, they will have an illusion that it they will get their results, but ultimately they will be deprived of it.
They will get for a short while, they will have this illusion: yes, yes, I got the nectar, I got what I need. But they will be deprived.
Contrast between demigods and demons
Only those who are very humble. Like demigods in this story, when Dhanvantari came with the pot of nectar, and you know the demons snatched away.
Here's the God Himself. He is He's carrying the pot of nectar. They cannot care less about the Lord.
They just snatch the pot from His hands and run away and say, I am the first and start quarreling with each other. They will not get anything.
And the demigods, they were sitting, you know, they were standing there looking what's going on. Will they get anything? And they did. They did get everything because the Lord, He doesn't like this greedy attitude.
You have to give up your greed, you have to give up your anger, you have to give up your competitive spirit, and you have to follow the Lord. He says, do this, you will be successful, no problem. You will be successful.
You need it, you will get it. If you want some, you know, high position, whatever, money, you will get it, no problem. Just surrender unto me. And therefore while describing or finishing
this story, how the Lord incarnates as Mohini-mūrti, we know that the Lord came as a Mohini-mūrti and He says, oh, my dear demons, you know I will choose and I will I will distribute this nectar to you. Give this pot to me.
I will be, you know, the judge. Don't worry about this. And demon says, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. You're the f you're the best. Take it. And she says, do you really believe me?
How you can believe some loose woman who is just wandering here without any protection and says no no we believe you.
Anyway, Mohini-mūrti, he or she—I don't know, she bewilders demons and snatches all the nectar and ultimately distributes all the nectar to demigods and deprives demons from it.
But a very instructive and important lesson at the end of this story in the ninth chapter of the eighth canto, 28th verse, it is said, the place, the time, the cause, the purpose, the activity, and the ambition were all the same for both the demigods and the demons. But the demigods achieve one result, and the demons achieve another.
Because the demigods are always under the shelter of the dust of the Lord's lotus feet.
They could very easily drink the nectar and get its results. The demons, however, not having sought shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord, were unable to achieve the result they desired.
Again, the same point, very important point, is that uh if you want to achieve result, you should take shelter of the Lord. The lotus feet of the Lord ultimately give. It's the Lord who gives.
You may apply the same endeavor, the same time, same place, everything was the same, but demons didn't get anything. And demigods got everything. Why? Because internally they were surrendered to the Lord.
It's important to keep this mentality. I'm surrendered to the Lord. And therefore I'm not angry. Whether I get it or not, ultimately I am ready to receive any results He wants me to give. He wants to give to me.
And uh uh that's that's the main point is that this mentality that I'm surrendered and I'm working hard and ultimately I'm ready to receive any results is the key for success.
That's actually the whole management course which is given here in the eighth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. How you should manage your affairs to ultimately be successful beyond your expectations.
Your success will supersede your expectations if you do everything properly according to the desires of the Lord and according to His instructions.
So now we have we covered in this eighth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we covered two motivations, ārto jijñāsu, not, ārto and arthī. We covered four elements of surrender.
Ānukūlyasya-saṅkalpaḥ prātikūlyasya-varjanam rakṣiṣyatīti-viśvāso goptṛtve varaṇaṃ tathā. So these four things uh are described in these stories.
Inquisitiveness in Lord Shiva's pastime
And now we come to a very peculiar and amazing and even hilarious story about Lord Shiva. After this whole story of Lord Shiva, Lord Shiva was uh you know after drinking poison he probably you know got you
know he was a little sick, therefore he was not present during the Mohini mūrti. He got he went home for he went home for his recovery. Drinking this hala-hala poison was difficult.
So he was not present while Mohini mūrti was there. Therefore he approached the Lord and he said, My dear lord, I heard that you came as a beautiful woman. I really want to see you in this form.
And the Lord looked at him and said, Do you really want to see me in this form or not? Are you sure? So that's a very interesting story, and why is this story there?
Because actually it exemplifies the third motivation for surrender inquisitiveness. Lord Shiva was very curious. What is going to happen?
As I said, this inquisitiveness, jijñāsu, as a motivation for surrender, it's a motivation of very strong people, strong-willed people. kṣatriyas. That's the motivation for kṣatriyas.
And kṣatriyas, they're very, you know, they like challenges. And they have this inquisitiveness and they have very strong will. So Lord Shiva is actually displaying this attitude.
My dear Lord, you know, I heard that you're very powerful. Can you show me your power and let's see whether you are really that powerful or not?
So basically, that's the motivation behind this request this very strange request of Lord Śiva. But he actually wants the Lord to prove that he is superior to him.
He wants to be defeated by the Lord, but he wants the Lord to show the maximum extent of his power.
So in somewhat challenging spirit, not in a wrong way, not in a bad way, but with little challenge in his mind, he says, let me experience the full extent of your power.
And that's sometimes what people do when they they surrender to the Lord, they know the Lord is there. But But they're really not hundred percent sure how powerful he is. They want to really test his powers or whatever, you know, and sometimes they do some strange things. It's it's wrong motivation.
Ultimately, uh Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam wants to say that this is not the best motivation. Even though the great Lord Shiva is doing this, still it's not the best motivation, and therefore it's very interestingly depicted there.
Again, just one second. First, Lord Shiva, when he's praying to the Lord, when he's asking the Lord, please show me this form of Mohini Mūrti before asking the Lord to show this form of Mohini Mūrti.
He says in the eleventh verse of the twelfth chapter
of the eighth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, my Lord, you are the supreme knowledge personified. You know everything about this creation and its beginning, maintenance and annihilation.
And you know all the endeavors made by the living entities by which they are either implicated in this material world or liberated from it.
As the air enters the vast sky and also enters the bodies of all moving and non-moving entities, you are present everywhere and therefore you are the knower of all. Basically, that's the expression of His inquisitiveness.
He says, Lord, you're knowing everything. And in the next verse, he says, and I don't know much. But I want to know, I want to experience or know actually in the previous verse.
In the previous verse, he says, I do not know you, the Lord. I want to experience your powers, which I still don't know. You know everything. So that's the motivation.
It's not such a common motivation, it's not as common as the motivation for wanting money from the Lord and therefore surrendering to the Lord. But it's a motivation to experience the Lord's power.
When somebody has this inspiration, I surrender to you because I want you to manifest all the powers which you have. I want to experience your presence.
Like sometimes people believe in God, but they want God to manifest some miracle. My dear Lord, please, please do something, you know. Otherwise, I will not be peaceful. Just manifest something, something miraculous.
You know, that's that may be the motivation. They come to the Lord and they say, please show me the extent of your power.
And that's exactly what is uh going on in this twelfth chapter of the eighth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In other another wrong, not exactly not 100% correct attitude towards the Lord.
Therefore those people who really surrender, they don't need the Lord to manifest his powers.
You know, those people who are not 100% surrender or not 100% selflessly surrender, they always need, they're dependent on the miracles of the Lord.
But those people who are surrendered, uh, they they say that if Lord wants to show his power and his miracles, he will do it. If he doesn't want, he will not do it.
I'm not dependent in my surrender unto him upon his display of miraculous powers or mystical abilities. So that's the 12th chapter of the Eighth Canto. Canto. And of course, the main story starts now.
Unconditional surrender of Bali Maharaj
The main story of the whole eighth canto is the story of Bali Maharaj.
And the story of Bali Maharaj exemplifies or depicts very clearly, and therefore it's the most important story: the proper way to surrender to the Lord.
As I said, Gajendra surrenders to the Lord because he is in need, because he suffers. Then we got to surrender to the Lord because they need some wealth.
And Lord Shiva surrenders to the Lord because he wants to see the power of the Lord. And it's interesting, actually, Lord Shiva, this whole story depicts humility, which is also a characteristic of surrender.
Lord Shiva, after being embarrassed by the Lord, Mohini-mūrti is running and Lord Shiva is running after her naked overwhelmed with lusty desires, trying to embrace her. And before he said, no, no, I'm cool.
Demigods were not lusty, you know, and I'm so cool. And Mohini-mūrti said, let's see how cool you are. And he was not so cool at the end of the day.
So but then he starts praying to the Lord, Oh my dear Lord, you're so great. And I'm so small.
And he's he's actually he's humiliated by the Lord in one sense, but he is very grateful. He's still he's full of gratitude for the Lord. That's the surrender. That's the glory of this whole story.
But again, the main story of this eighth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the story of surrender of Bali Maharaj, which is the proper surrender, Bhagavatam is the story of surrender of Bali Maharaj, which is the proper surrender, the surrender proper, which is the causeless surrender, which is the surrender against all the benefits.
You know, because Bali Maharaj, he was uh you know, he gave everything, uh he was deprived of everything, he was rejected by everyone, including his own soldiers, uh and still he was insistent on being surrendered.
That's the the main idea of this whole eighth canto is to glorify the surrender of Balimaraj. How he was truthful to his word, how he was truthful to his surrender. You know, because we're all trying to surrender, right?
We're trying to surrender, but sometimes we're not so consistent in our surrender. We are not really consistent to the letter of everything which we are doing.
We sometimes, you know, our mind is chanchala, our flickering mind. Sometimes we surrender, sometimes we not surrender, sometimes we surrender less, sometimes we surrender more. You know.
Sometimes we give the vow, sometimes we take the vow back. After all, I'm the possessor of my vow. I want to give and I want to take it back. No problem.
No, but uh what this whole the main teaching of the uh eighth skandha of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is that be like Bali Maharaj.
Whatever happens with you, if you understand that the Lord is there and He is the only shelter, He will give everything to you. No problem. He gave everything to Bali Maharaj, including Himself.
He himself became the doorkeeper of Bali Maharaj. But not immediately. To glorify Bali Maharaj, he deprived him of everything, he humiliated Bali Maharaj just to show everyone how he is truly surrendered.
And therefore Bali Maharaj is the personification or the best of this ātma-nikṣepa, kārpaṇya. He is the description of this very glorious element of surrender when one is completely surrendered to the Lord.
Everything which He has, which He possesses, he gives to the Lord.
Surrender to guru through Aditi's vow
So this whole story: it starts with demigods who are conditional and fruit, deprived of their position in the heavenly planets and Aditi, mother of the demigods, she starts praying to the Lord.
With again the same sort of attitude. Give me. Give to my sons back their kingdom. Give this, give that. But because she follows very diligently the instructions of her husband.
Kaśyapa muni gave her this whole prescription of payo-vrata and she follows everything and she follows with the proper attitude she gets what she wants.
She gets Vāmanadeva. Lord Himself incarnates as her son to come to her being pleased by her surrender to Guru. The difference between her and demigods in the previous story. In the previous story, demigods they go directly to the Supreme Lord. And therefore, they get the instructions of the Supreme Lord, they get the benefits of surrendering to the Supreme Lord.
But this story, when uh Aditi surrenders to Kashyapa Muni, shows that surrender to Guru is actually more important than surrender to the Supreme Lord.
She surrenders to Guru and follows his instructions in a very proper way with a proper etiquette.
It's actually the ideal family life as described in this chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam where, Aditya and Kashyapa are conversing with each other, and Aditi is expressing in a very humble way her grievances. Aditi is expressing in a very humble way her grievances.
So if you surrender to Guru, you will get the Lord Himself as a result. The Lord Himself comes to you.
If this is genuine surrender to Guru and you follow very strictly your spiritual master, that's the teaching of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, of the sense section of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And then of course Vāmanadeva appears.
And it is said, it is explained that different avataras of the Lord, different incarnations of the Lord, they personify different qualities of the Lord. Like we know that the personality of God has six main qualities.
Aishvariasya Samagrasya Virya Sayasya Sakshriya Jana Vayagyayos Chayva. The six qualities are there, starting with Aishwarya, Aishwarya, Virya, Yasa, Sriya.
So Vāmanadeva, according to this scheme, is the personification of Lord's beauty. In this 8th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there are two personifications of Lord's beauty, that's Mohinī-mūrti and Vāmanadeva.
And we have Shiva, he is uh his his his pastime with Mohinī-mūrti and we have uh Vamanadeva uh his pastime with of course Bali Mahārāja and And uh the first thing
which is said here when uh when uh when Vāmanadeva comes to the sacrificial arena of Bali Mahārāja, the first things which Bali Mahārāja appreciates is his beauty.
He sees his beauty and he surrenders not because of anything else, because of his beauty, because of his attraction.
Tests of surrender in Vamanadeva pastime
The proper way of surrender to the Lord when we really start appreciating Lord's beauty, Lord's kindness, Lord's mādhurya, Lord's sweetness ultimately. That's the beginning of this story.
And Bali Mahārāja is so enamored by the Supreme Lord, by his beauty, by his charm. As a young brahmacārī, he comes there and he speaks very witty words with Bali Mahārāja. Bali Mahārāja is surrendered.
He is ready to give everything which he has. And he gives the three steps of land to uh uh to Vamanadev and of course we know that Shukracharya says don't do it. You will be cheated, don't do it.
And Shukracharya he quotes the Shastra, he says, Shastra says, you know, don't surrender to the Lord. Shastra says that you know you don't have to give everything.
He quotes all these Shastras, and Bali Maharaj looks at Shukracharya and says, I don't care what Shastra says. I only see this beautiful boy, and my heart is attracted to his beauty.
And even if he is the Supreme Lord, it doesn't matter.
It actually doesn't matter for me whether he is Supreme Lord or not, whether he gives me something in return or he doesn't give or he will take everything from me. I told him that I will give him three steps of land and I will give him the three steps of land and he can do whatever he likes with me.
And we all know that Vamanadev cheats Bali Maharaj very in a very cruel way. Bali Maharaj says, and this little boy becomes very big. How come this little dwarf was really small becomes really big?
And he says, ha ha ha ha ha ha. And he covers the whole land with one step and then the whole universe with another step and asks where is the third step?
Actually, where is the third step and Bali Maharaj says, put it here and uh this is the moment of surrender and and you know the Lord himself says you know, you're a cheater.
Bali Maharaj, who is the most truthful person, and the Lord Himself is the cheater. And the Lord Himself tells him, you're a cheater. You know, does it sound familiar to you? So all the time like this, you know.
You're being accused of something which somebody else who is accusing you is doing to you. So he's trying to humiliate, he's testing Bali Maharaj in a very heavy way.
He's telling Garuda, Garuda just uh you know just bind him and Garuda is binding him and he's he's b he's brought in front of the Lord as a as an animal. You cheater. You didn't fulfil your desire.
Only because he wants to glorify Bali Maharaj. Surrender is not a cheap process. This is actually what this whole story shows.
Surrender is a glorious process. And the Lord doesn't expect from us the complete surrender from the very beginning, but He also shows that if somebody is completely surrendered, then the Lord gives to him everything at the end.
But in between he may go through different problems. Like Pandavas, they were very surrendered. But they went through difficult problems. Why?
Because people use this, because the Lord uses this people, the surrendered people, to teach other people.
To teach how to take difficulties, how to undergo all these difficulties and remain faithful and grateful to the Lord. Basically, that's the main important lesson.
Surrender means you know, the difficulties will come to us. They're inevitable. That's the nature of this world. We will suffer, there will be some difficulties with us.
But, you know, we should be steady in our attempt to surrender to the Lord. My Lord, I am yours. And then the Lord will save us, no doubt about it. Internally, He will give us protection.
And therefore, he glorifies Bali Mahārāja. At the end, the Lord Himself starts glorifying Bali Mahārāja. He says, look at Bali Mahārāja.
Other people when they get riches, wealth, when they get high births, when they get other such opulences, although aristocratic births and other such opulence, impediments to advancement in devotional services, because they are causes of false prestige and pride, these opulences never disturb a pure devotee of the supreme Personality of Godhead.
He before says that you know if somebody has aristocratic family or higher status of life, if he performs wonderful activities, if he is useful, if he has personal duty, a good education, a good wealth. If he is and if he is nonetheless not proud of his opulences, it is to be understood that he is especially favored by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Humility as the true blessing
So Vāmanadeva is teaching us which person can be surrendered. Why Bali Mahārāja surrendered. Why Bali Mahārāja was able to surrender to the Supreme Lord? Because he got blessings of Prahlāda Mahārāja.
And blessings of Prahlāda Mahārāja, you know, sometimes when it comes to blessings, what do you really mean by blessings? You come to somebody and say, Give me blessings. What is your conception of blessings?
Usually people think what is blessing? Blessing is material wealth, good family life, nice children. Good marks in my exams. So this is what people think what is blessings.
But here the, most important teaching of this section of the eighth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is that the real blessings of a saint is humility.
That you may get everything, or you may not get everything, but you remain humble. You know, this ability to remain humble is the most important quality.
Whether you get high position, whether you get wealth or not, if you remain humble, it means that the mercy of devotees is upon you.
And if you get something and you become proud and you start offending others, then it means that you don't have any blessings. No āśīrvāda was given to you.
Real āśīrvāda is this ability to remain humble in any position of life. That's what we need to seek. When we come to a devotee and we ask for for a blessing, we should ask for this blessing.
Please, please help me to remain humble. Please share your humility with me. This is what I need. Everything else will come automatically. The Lord will give to you if He if you are trusted.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, he he was humble all the time. He showed this constancy in humility. And that means that he got blessings of his Guru Maharaj and all of the whole guru Parampara.
This is what blessings really is what it's all about. And actually this whole surrendering process. The pure surrendering process is only possible for humble people.
Only humble people will be able to undergo through this surrendering process and achieve the result of this surrendering process.
If you're proud uh it will be very difficult to to do the real surrender, the sincere surrender. It will be something. something. something fake, not exactly what it is.
And therefore, the Lord Himself glorifies Bali Mahārāja. Although bereft of his riches, fallen from his original position, defeated and arrested by his enemies, rebuked and deserted by his relatives and friends.
Bali Mahārāja was attacked by his own demons by his own generals. You know, he was betrayed by them.
All the suffering, the pain of being bound, and all the rebuke and curse by his spiritual master, Bali Mahārāja, being fixed in his vow, did not give up his truthfulness.
It was certainly with pretension that I spoke about religious principles, but he did not give up religious principles for he is true to his world. So this is as the Lord Himself says, this is the real Dharma.
As we said, the whole eighth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the description of Sad Dharma.
This Śaddharma is described in this 29th and 30th verse of the 22nd chapter of 8 scanto, where the Lord Himself says that in any condition of life you remain surrendered.
If you remain surrendered, servant of the Lord, despite of all the reverses, despite of all the difficulties which you undergo, this is the real Dharma. And you remain truthful to this real dharma, Suvrata, satyam.
So then only your surrender is true, is real. And therefore this surrender is glorified by the Lord Himself. And the Lord Himself says, I become His possession. I become His doorkeeper.
I'll give you all the I give Him all the opulences. I'll make Him Indra next time. I'll make him the king of the heavenly planets.
I'll give him the opulences of Pātāla world and I become his constant companion because of his qualities, because of his sincere surrender. So that's the manifestation of pure surrender without any motivation.
Bali Mahārāja was deprived of everything. Still, he was surrendered. That's the difficult lesson of the eighth canto. And we only have one more chapter of the eighth canto, which is the story of, oh yeah.
Impartiality of the Lord as desire tree
One more very important verse which I wanted to show to you before we come to the next section of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It's the verse which is spoken by Prahlāda Mahārāja. Very interesting and very important verse.
Chitramtave aho Mita Yoga Maya.
It's the eighth verse of the 23rd chapter of the 8th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, where Prahlāda Mahārāja glorifies the Supreme Lord who dealt quite roughly with his descendant, his grandson Bali Mahārāja. He says that he compares the Lord with Kalpatarusva
Bhava, Bhakta Priyo Yadashi Kalpataru Svabhū. Prahlāda Mahārāja says, O my Lord, your pastimes are all wonderfully performed by your inconceivable spiritual energy and by your perverted reflections, the material energy, you have created all the universes as the supreme as the super soul of all the living entities. You are aware of everything and therefore you are certainly equal towards everyone. Nonetheless, you favor your devotees. This is not partiality, however, for your characteristic is just like that of desire tree, which yields everything according to one's desire.
So that's very important, also crucial verse for this understanding of the Eighth Skanda, because it shows why the Lord is supposedly partial to those who surrender to Him. Because He is like Kalpataru.
Kalpataru desire tree will give you everything only if you come to Kalpataru, take shelter of Kalpataru and ask something from Kalpataru. Then the Kalpataru will give. Demons don't get because they don't go to Kalpataru.
The Lord is impartial. He equally distributes goods to devotees and to the demons, but he has this nature of kalpataru.
Therefore, if you come to him, if you surrender to him, if you ask him the favor, being completely surrendered, he will fulfill your desires. And he will remain impartial.
And if you don't come, he will not fulfill your desires. It doesn't mean that he is partial. It just depends on you. We have to surrender. We have to come to him. We have to ask him something.
And this is the whole verse which the important verse which Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī takes in Bhakti-sandarbha, in, sorry, in Paramātmā-sandarbha to explain the impartiality of the Lord.
Very important for us, how it works, why the Lord remains impartial, even though He only reciprocates with the surrendered people. Because that's that's his nature, that's what it is.
He is like the desire tree, and you should ask the desired tree and take shelter of desire tree. Anyway, so that's uh we already covered uh six elements of surrender.
You know the first two elements: ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ prātikūlyasya varjanam. Mahārāja explaining Gajendra the elephant, he is explaining how to seek the protection of the Lord to be sure in the protection of the Lord.
Demigods and Aditi, they're explaining how to be sure that the Lord will fulfill all your desires and will maintain you. And then Śiva is very humble, being humiliated by the Lord.
And of course, Bali Maharaj was very humble, and he is the personification of ātma-nikṣepa, of complete surrender, including his own head.
So that's all being described and we described four motivations so far the motivation to surrender because we're suffering, the motivation because we need some money, inquisitiveness and the pure motivation.
Seeking knowledge through Matsya Avatara
There is only one remaining topic. The motivation to surrender because we want knowledge of the Lord. Because we really in the story of Satyavrata Muni and Matsya avatāra.
It is very interestingly again described there that Satyavrata
Muni: Oh Supreme Lord, for self-realization I surrender unto you, who are worshipped by the demigods as the supreme controller of everything, by your instructions, exposing life's purpose, kindly cut the note from the core of my heart and let me know the destination of my life.
This is a very clear description of this motivation to surrender for the sake of knowledge. Please reveal to me who I am. Please reveal to me what is my spiritual nature.
That's what I want, and therefore I surrender to you. This whole story about Matsya avatāra and Satyavrata Muni is about this.
Therefore, in the previous verse, he calls Matsya avatāra our guru, our spiritual master. His relationship with Matsya avatāra is the relationship of the disciple and the spiritual master.
Therefore, that's the fourth motivation from this verse of Bhagavad-gītā: ārto jijñāsur arthārthī jñānī ca bharatarṣabha. And in the next verse, 47th verse, he calls him naḥ guru, our Guru.
In the 48th verse, he says, Gurur Guru, he is the Guru of the Gurus. The Lord is the Guru of the Gurus. And because he is the Guru of the Gurus, please reveal to me my spiritual nature.
Please reveal to me the spiritual truths. 53rd verse of his prayers, Satyavrata Muni prayers.
So that's the last story of the Eighth Kanto which shows the surrender because of this desire to get knowledge by Satyavrata Muni.
So that's basically the short description, very cursory description of what Eighth Canto is about. It's the complete science of surrender.
And if you want to surrender, to know what it means to surrender, how to surrender... And of course, there is a side topic which is also there that if your surrender is not proper, then you will make the offenses.
And that's explained in the story of Indradyumna Mahārāja, how Indradyumna Mahārāja offended Agastya Muni. Of course, you know there was no there was no pride, but still,
you know it is actually described that in in this particular story it is described that why we we are suffering in this world? We are suffering in this world because of our previous offenses. And actually, Jiva Gaswami, he takes the example of a Gajendra,
the elephant as the story of Gajendra the elephant as the story or as example which shows what happens when we commit offenses while chanting the holy name.
He says, one of the results of the offensive chanting of the holy name is that we become very dull and slack in our sadhana. If we offensively commit our sadhana, the sadhana becomes very, it's not very exciting for us.
So, and he says this is exactly what happened with Indradyumna Maharaja. He was a devotee, he committed an offense, he became a dull elephant. And it required for him to suffer for some time to come
back to senses and to understand that he has to surrender. So this is what happens if we offend while the devotees, while performing our sadhana, then we lose interest towards sadhana.
And we become dull and we become less sensitive. And therefore, to wake us up, the sufferings will come. So that's another important lesson.
And of course, uh, demigods, they were deprived of their possessions because, because of the offence of uh in uh of Brihaspati, uh who was offended by Guru, by sorry, by Indra. So that's that's a side effect how this wrong desires in the process of surrender to the Lord comes due to the offenses. So it's important to understand that yeah, my natural position is to be surrendered to the Lord. And I have to do it because that's my nature, because the Lord is so nice and so beautiful and so attractive, like Bali Maharaj did it. And for that, to do this, we need blessings of the pure devotees, like
Prahlāda Mahārāja in case of Bali.
Questions on motivation and surrender
So that's in gist the description ofеме the message of the eighth kanto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So next will be the ninth kanto. Sorry for such a long class. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna Mahārāja. Thank you very much for yet another very in-depth though it is a structural overview, but actually it takes us quite deep into the elements and key characteristics of these uh cantos.
And as you rightly encapsulated, canto eight is the science of surrender.
There had been, there have been many notable quotes that came through in today's session. Uh, but the one that stood out was the real blessing of a saint is humility.
And the second was the part that why difficulties come to the fully surrendered souls is because they take those difficulties, live through it in humility to teach the ones who are not yet surrendered.
So on that note there are many more points that we can discuss but due to the paucity of time we won't be able to. So my question to you, Guru Raj, is can we take one or two questions at least? Yes. Sure.
So there is one question already from Anupama Radharani Madhavi, and the question is as follows: Parikrama Maharaj, please accept my respectful obeisances. Thank you for the enlightening lecture.
The demigods are known to be mixed bhaktas. When they approach Lord Vishnu for protection against the demons, they do so out of fear.
Is there not a component of their duties in their respective positions being hampered by the demons, those duties which have been designated to them ultimately by the Supreme Lord Himself.
How should or with what mentality should practicing devotees approach the Lord for relieving the hurdles in executing their duties to the Lord.
If this is the only motivation, our motivation, oh my dear Lord, please uh relieve me from all these difficulties so that I can execute my uh duties better, then it's fine. But you know oftentimes
it's not the primary factor. Let me execute my duties properly. We have some other factors when we offer these prayers to the Lord.
And therefore basically it means if we take something home from this lesson is that we should be very conscientious what is our motivation to serve the Lord and
the primary motivation should be: I'm the servant of the Lord anyway. And the Lord is so nice, He has already given me so many things.
So, yes, this motivation is certainly there in demigod's prayers because they are devotees. But because they are mixed devotees, there is also another motivation.
Yes, we want to serve, but we only want to serve in the heavenly planets. Please don't send us to hellish planets to serve to you because we are demigods.
So uh whereas for the devotee, as we have seen in in case of Citraketu Maharaj, Lord Shiva himself glorifies him. For devotee, it doesn't matter.
He says, you know, you can send me to hell, you can send me to heaven, I will anyway serve you. And this is exactly what Śrīla Prabhupāda said. He said that devotee is like a cow.
Cow, it doesn't matter what the cow is, she gives milk. Whether she is in earth, whether she is in the moon, if you send the cow to the moon, the cow will give milk in the moon. So that's what real surrender is.
But if we say, I will serve you, my dear Lord, but only if you make me the temple president or GBC or sannyāsī or whatever or you know guru Mahārāj.
So if if this is your prayer then it may not be the best type of surrender. I have I have a little friend, a little boy, and he was very little boy. Somebody asked him, whom do you want to be?
Because usually adult people they ask this question of small children, what do you want to be? And he looked around and he said, I want to be Guru Maharaj. This is my career pass. It's very surrounded.
Thank you uh so we have two more questions and we can take forward. Okay, let's do it. We have done. Yes, yes. Okay. Um this is a question from Arun.
By working hard, uh he's referring to what you said in your session. That if we work very hard, the Lord will fulfill whatever desires we have.
So on that the question is, by working hard can we achieve what is not there in our destiny? If we surrender to the Lord, yes. Because the Lord, you know, He's He's complete.
We are incomplete, we are limited by our destiny, but we can achieve um uh incredible results which are not within our destiny if we surrender to the Lord.
Because the Lord, you know, the Lord uses us as his instrument. And for him, it doesn't matter whether it is our destiny or not our destiny. He has his own destiny, so and for him there's nothing impossible.
So he can do. It's possible. It's quite possible. If we are completely surrendered, the Lord will do impossible things through us. And we will be wondering how is it possible? But through the process of surrender this.
Thank you. The last question. Um, how this is from Mohanakumar, how we should behave when we would work when we are working or dealing with outsiders.
Because when we are humble or servant or when we have a humble and celebrate mentality, then there is a chance that they put false allegations on us or they cheat us. What or how we act in such situation?
Yeah, there is this story about the snake which became the servant of Nārada Muni and the snake became really, you know, really beaten by other people because he was very humble.
And Nārada Muni met his disciple and asked what happened to you. You were robust and very healthy snake and you know, you became a very downtrodden creature. How did it happen?
He said, because I am a devotee, you know. I'm supposed to be humble. And Nārada Muni said, no, no, no. You can you can hiss. You don't have to bite, you can hiss.
And, therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda was telling the same, you know, uh one of his lady book distributors came and she said, Prabhupāda, how can I distribute books if I'm humble? You know, I cannot dis I I will not be able to distribute even one book if I'm humble. I have to be really, you know, proud and outgoing to deal with the outside people.
And Prabhupāda said, while distributing books you should be like a lion. But while coming back in the temple you should be like a lamb. So, so dealing with other people, you should be a lamb in a lion's skin.
Internally you should be a lamp, but externally you put lion's skin and say internally you know we're surrendered souls, but for the sake, you know, and Prabhupāda sometimes he would show, you know, externally he would be very proud. But internally he was always a surrendered soul, very humble.
But some foolish people by looking at him superficially
may conclude that, you know, he's so proud. No, but he was he was the servant, his consciousness was very humble. So it's a question of having proper internal attitude.
How it will manifest externally, it should be according to the time, place and circumstances. government who is requesting if possible can one question be taken though this was the last one from my side. Yes, sir.
So okay, this is really the last one. Uh, because we'll have a few little announcements after that. Uh, the question comes from Gaura Prabhu. Why we are not surrendering to Lord is because of fear.
Example, Kuntī Mahārāṇī, even Prabhupāda, etc. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī says that those who are favored by Lord, their path is smeared with thorns, with sorry, with uh with thorns. That's why we are not surrendering.
What are your thoughts on this, Mahārāja? As far as I know, everyone's path is sprinkled by thorns. I haven't seen anyone who is only walking on the carpet. Usually everyone has thorns, but if you surrendered, you can
you know, overcome all the thorns, difficulties. You will not even notice all the stones because you surrender. Thorns are there in everyone's life, you know.
Anyone doesn't have any thorns, whether he's surrendered or not surrendered, you know. It doesn't matter.
Everyone has difficulties, but the internal surrender helps us to undergo these difficulties properly, and moreover, you know, like if you're not surrendered, you undergo all these difficulties. The end result is that you become really miserable, and you get so many, so much, you know, negative emotions accumulated within your heart, and you become an old, unsurrendered, and you know, quite cranky man who is not happy with life.
And if you surrender if you're grateful at heart then you take all these lessons and these lessons become your actually your qualities, and you go through these lessons in a less miserable way.
Pandavas, yes, they had a difficult life, but at the same time, you know, they were blissful.
People, they only, when they see the sufferings, when they see the events of the life of the devotees, they only see external things. They don't understand what's going on internally.
When we are looking at the lives of other people, we should not only see the external events which are there, but what one is experiencing while going through these things.
For us, to go through the same events or through the same calamities would be very difficult. For them it was not difficult.
For them, they, as Kuntī Mahārāṇī herself says, you know, every time when we would experience difficulties, we would also experience your presence, and it would give us so much. And therefore, send these difficulties again and again to us.
So, but of course, we don't have to ask for this no-need. You know, the Lord Himself better knows what we need.
So, but uh it doesn't matter whether one is surrendered or not. Surrender is not by surrendering we are not asking for more troubles.
By surrendering, we are actually getting the relief from the calamities which we will anyway experience in our life. Hare Krishna. Thank you very much, Guru Maharaj. So on that note.
I have some other questions from the audience. Thank you very much for taking this question.
My question was like I wanted to get more light on the character of Bali Mahārāja. Because before surrendering we see him fighting with Indra, fighting with M- -and all that and taking the position and conquering all over it and falling to ālābhā.
But suddenly there is a change on his personality and his hands surrender to the Lord. Did he become a devotee? Was he always a devotee? No, he was a devotee. There are certain indications of this.
The question is about Bali Mahārāja, was he always a devotee? Even though he was behaving like a demon fighting with Indra and etc etc. No, he was he was a devotee always. He had this devotional attitude all the time.
It's an interesting methodology of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam wants to show to us that devotion does not really depend on the external things. Like Vritrasura was a demon, but he
he was a mahā-bhāgavata devotee and Bali Mahārāja also externally he was behaving as a demon, you know, fulfilling his duty.
But there are certain indications even there in the previous events of his life and he was already a devotee. He was a devotee.
Due to the blessings of Prahlāda Mahārāja, this powerful but see the blessings work like this. Why is it described in such a way in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam? The blessings is a seed. When you meet a pure devotee, you get a seed.
And it takes some time when the seed will sprout and then ultimately will grow into a tree. So this is this is what it is.
Like when we meet, when somebody for the first time met with Śrīla Prabhupāda, it's not immediately, not necessarily that immediately he would surrender or whatever. It would take some time.
The seed is there, the impression is there, but it takes some time for the impression to grow up So what happens with Bali Mahārāja, uh, when Prahlāda Mahārāja
blessed Bali Mahārāja, for some time this seed was dormant there and it didn't manifest but then uh actually because being pleased with Prahlāda Mahārāja, Vāmanadeva decided to come to Bali Mahārāja.
And because Vamanadeva knew, uh, that Bali Mahārāja was blessed by Prahlāda Mahārāja. Therefore he came. And at that moment the whole seed which was there, dormant, you know, sprouted.
But even before that, it was already kind of growing. But then when the result of these blessings came in the form of Vāmana Deva, Bali Mahārāja manifested his real nature as a devotee.
As opposed to other people who also saw Vāmanadeva, but were not attracted or didn't undergo the change of the heart. Because this is the powerful effect, but uh the effect of the blessings may not be immediate.
May not be instant. Usually it's not instant. Okay, it's all the okay. Could you tell us what the question was previously?
The question was that, uh, was ma the about the character of Bali Mahārāja, you know, he was demon and he was fighting with Indra and this and that and all of a sudden he became a devotee. How come it is?
You know, was he a devotee before or did it uh s you know immediately instantly manifest it? How was it?
So you can see he had a seed of devotion, in that sense he was a he had a seed of devotion, it may not it it it may not manifest to the fullest extent. But uh the seed of devotion is eternal.
If you get the seed of devotion, if you get the blessings of the pure devotion, it will be there with you. Sooner or later it will manifest, no doubt about that.
At this point it becomes a point it will become uh it becomes obvious. Because he felt attraction. Others didn't feel attraction to one another.
He sees the beauty personified standing in front of him and he is totally enamored. Others were not impressed. They were trying to fight.
Mahārāja, as a sādhaka, as we are practicing this sādhana-bhakti, we never know what exactly means this aspect of surrender or how we can examine our life, ourselves that am I surrendered or sometimes if you happen that externally you may be speaking humbly and like you may act as if I'm surrendered but internally you may be reporting or we're not surrendered.
So what exactly, ah, you can be sure that the extent of your external surrender is more than the extent of your internal surrender this much you can be sure uh uh but it's a dynamic process.
We are, you know, we are constantly reminded by Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, by the devotees, by the authorities that we should surrender.
It's uh it may be a struggle, internal struggle but you know how we can uh check ourself examine ourself whether we are surrendered or not you know there are the six lakshanas uh how strictly we follow everything
which is necessary, ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ, how strictly we are uh rejecting everything which is not good or not favorable. And we see that there are some deficiencies. We're not really as fixed up as we should be.
And you know how firmly we believe that the Lord will give us protection and how firmly we believe that the Lord is maintaining us, how humble we are.
Basically, the most obvious characteristic which are easily checkable by outsiders and by ourselves also is the extent of our internal humility, how humble we are.
And humility, how we how we check the level of our humility is how we take the difficult situation. If we take the difficult situation with the gratitude in the heart, that's humility.
Actually, gratitude is the main manifestation of humility. If we're grateful, we are humble. If we are not grateful, we are proud. Okay. Thank you very much. I guess that's it. It was quite long.