BG.18.66. Surrender to Krishna
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · London · 2022
Chapters
Omnamo Bhagavate V Sudevaya Sudeva, Omna mo Bhagavate Vudevaya Omnamo Bhagavat Narayanam namaskritya, narayanamaskritya, naramchayva narotamarottam, devim Saraswatiasam Devi Saraswatiasam Tatojayamiray Tatojayamiray Okay.
So we will do line by line. Okay. S I'll speak English and you'll speak Russian. No. Up to you guys have this English. Okay. So I'll speak English. It's my duty to serve the translator.
Otherwise otherwise I will have to help him and that will not be very good for me.
End-of-year introspection and surrender
Okay. So because we are celebrating Christmas. And upcoming new year no see that's it. I thought I will speak on the last instruction which Krishna gives in Bhagavad-gītā. Because the New Year time, Christmas time is the
time when we kind of make some resolutions and see back and see what we did right, what we did wrong during the year. It's a good time for introspection, for looking inside our heart. Well, Radson
we're looking back in the past year, we should really ask ourselves, did we do this or not. And how complete our surrender was. And as well, Sila Jivagaswami in Bhakti Sandharba
says that the results of surrender are proportionate to the extent of surrender. Sila Jivagasami Bhakti Sandharbi showed Resulta pronta stepy nash of prida if the surrender is
incometepl, the results of surrender will also be incomplete. Otherwise, we can achieve everything just by surrender. Krishna is all powerful, and he can give anything to us.
Krishna simugus, one more shit happened so. Like Krishna it's not the problem that we see, but it's all deal of us. Krishna could not reach out to that. So the purpose of my uh little talk
today is exactly that to understand what does it mean to surrender and what it requires from us, and what else we should do to surrender more completely.
Reciting and translating Bhagavad-gita 18.66
...stonch, 30-7. Sarvadharman Parityaja, Sarva Dharma Paritaja, Mamekam Saranamraja, Mamakam Saranamraja, Mam Aham tam sarvapape, Moksasyama sucha, moksasy masucha, sarvadharman paritya ja dharman paritya ja
mamikam saranambraja, aham sarva papeby Mokshesya mima sucha mimasu sarvadharman all varieties of religion. All varieties of religion parityajya abandoning. Mam unto me. Ekam only. Sharanam for surrender Vraja Go
Aham I Tvam U Sarva all papebya from sinful reactions will deliver. Ma do not. Shucha. Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.
The Lord has described various kinds of knowledge and processes of religion.
Knowledge of the Supreme Brahman, knowledge of the super soul, knowledge of the different types of orders and statuses of social life, knowledge of the renounced order of life, knowledge of non-attachment, sense and mind control, meditation, etc.
He has described in so many ways different types of religion.
Now, in summarizing Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says that Arjuna should give up all the processes that have been explained to him, he should simply surrender to Krishna. That surrender will save him from all kinds of sinful reactions, for the Lord personally promises to protect him.
God was Dunne o raznorch znani andi. socsiu obbestu andiam duchov 20,
Thus, one may think that useless, that unless he is free from all sinful reactions, he cannot take to the surrendering process.
To such doubt, it is here said that even if one is not free from all sinful reactions simply by the process of surrendering to Sri Krishna, he is automatically freed.
There is no need of strenuous effort to free oneself from sinful reactions, one should unhesitatingly accept Krishna as the supreme savior of all living entities, that face and love one should with that with faith and love one should surrender unto him that God
Six limbs of surrender from Hari-bhakti-vilasa
Krishna
Dassogorin priznat The The process of surrender to Krishna is described in the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, Anokulyasya Sankalpah prati Kulyasya Varjanam, Rakshishya Titi Vishvaso Goptritvevaranam Tatha, Atmanikshepa Karpanye, Sadvidha, Saranagatihi.
According to the devotional process, one should simply accept such religious principles that will lead ultimately to the devotional service of the Lord.
One may perform a particular occupational duty to his position in the social order according to his position in the social order, but if by executing the duty one does not come to the point of Krishna consciousness, all his activities are in vain.
Anything that does not lead to the perfectional stage of Krishna consciousness should be avoided. One should be confident that in all circumstances Krishna will protect him from all difficulties.
There is no need of thinking how one should keep the body and soul together. Krishna will see to that. One should always think himself helpless and should consider Krishna only basis for his progress in life.
As soon as one seriously engages himself in devotional service to the Lord in full Krishna consciousness, at once he becomes free from all contamination of material nature.
There is a different process of religion and purificatory processes by cultivation of knowledge, meditation and the mystic yoga system, etc. But one who surrenders unto Krishna does not have to execute so many methods.
That simple surrender unto Krishna will save him from unnecessary wasting time. One can thus make all progress at once and be freed from all sinful reactions.
...sankopa, rakšia titul, tava nam tcha, admani, šhapa karpani, šadvitha šarna. Put pre-dangen
šna.10
One should be attracted to the beautiful vision of Krishna. His name is Krishna because he is all attractive. One who becomes attracted by the beautiful, all-powerful, omnipotent vision of Krishna is fortunate.
There are different kinds of transcendentalists. Some of them are attracted to the impersonal Brahman vision, some of them are attracted by the super soul feature, etc.
But one who is attracted to the personal feature of the supreme personality of Godhead. And above all, one who is attracted by the supreme personality of Godhead as Krishna himself is the most perfect transcendentalist.
In other words, devotional service to Krishna in full consciousness is the most confidential part of knowledge, and this is the essence of the The whole Bhagavad-gītā.
Karma yogis, empiric philosophers, mystics, and devotees are called are all called transcendentalists, but one who is a pure devotee is the best of all.
The particular words used here mashu chaha, do not fear, don't hesitate, don't worry are very significant. One may be perplexed as to how one can give up all kinds of religious forms and simply surrender unto Krishna.
But such worry is useless.
Consequence of no researchare-nous, precaston, obrazu Krišne. pre-dained Surging Krishna, but Razumeway Pollue Sreadtočenes Soznom Nom's Samoa Sekrovener Cause Duchovnego Zania Visual Up Git. I karma-yoga, iloSof, empirico, and my stick, i preda-nokentent, catri transcendentali stov. Nou, lodge is sech - to chisty predain God. Krishna given: Machu Chamu: Ni-Gu ne boyce, atbrossi something, nicm
Eti slowa aussi wažny. Kto-tomot niet umebight. Cactus, sech forum duhoffner practice, if prosthetic višni. Addical points is pokojsto no prazzan.
Sarvadva darharman paritya dya ja, mamakam saranambraja, aham tvam sarva papi by Mokshasya
Mashucha Mimasha Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions, do not fear. Shila Prabhupada Kita.
Na mall Vishnu Paday, Krishna, Preštay, Butale, Sri Mate Bhakti Vidanta, Sami Dinami, Na maste, Sara sati, Gurani Pracharine, Nirvisa Sunya, Paschatya D Satari, Vanchakal Pataru Biachak, Vacha, Patiana Pavane Byovaisnyave Bona Monamaha,
Jai Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhitananda Sri Adwaita Gadhatara, Sri Vasadhi Gora Bhakta Vrinda, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ramahare Rama Rama Ramahare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ramahare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ramahare Rama Rama Ramahare Hare Nama
Switamanu Mapisa chi putramatraswarupam rupam tasyagrajam urupurimadhurim Gostavatim, Radakundagi Waramaho, Radikamadavasam, Prabtoyasapratid Kripaya, Sri Gurum Tam Natos me.
It can be ways of salvation in material sense people are trying to relieve themselves from some material pain, people are trying to relieve themselves from some tension, emotional problems, or it can be more radical ways of salvation when people are trying to invent some ways of spiritual salvation by realizing them as spirit soul This isn't not fair.
I have to switch gears all the time.
And therefore uh when we look around on when we you know come to uh to this market which offers different means of salvation, we have huge varieties of different methods and sometimes we become bewildered and perplexed.
People develop different different ways, some methods of psychology to relieve you from emotional pain, you know, and all kinds of diets.
It's also some sort of upayas, some sort of salvation. You know you you have some problem here is the method research psychologically. emotional.
And here Krishna makes a very radical statement. He says this is all useless. And actually deep down we all know that it's all useless.
Uh we all understand that uh all these methods uh will not give us the complete solution to all our problems. We know that the method needs to reach problems.
Yeah, they may give some temporary relief to our problems, but the ultimate solution is not in them.
I think that's the blanket problem, no one do you go past the And Krishna makes this statement to give us the complete understanding of what we intuitively already know. to, what's, intuitive.
Krishna says that I'm the source of all this creation, and only I can give you relief to all your problems. Only I can solve all your problems. Krishna Gabriel is told.
It's funny because before that he was elaborately discussing different methods of salvation, different methods of Upaya, different Upayas.
widde is blah at problem as listening to it's as if you know you're talking for long time and you're describing this and that you can go to you know to psychotherapies and uh you you can do this and you can do some physical exercise and you can do employ this uh diet and then at the end you say actually this is all useless. There's no point.
There is only why to solve the only way to solve the problem. Just to render it to me, he says. But you can reject the problem: the dice are? Because God by definition is all powerful.
Two paths that lead to surrender
But because we don't have trust in the all-powerful being, it's very difficult for us to surrender.
We uh don't have the complete understanding of the nature of God and the nature of this reality, therefore we're trying to employ some other methods.
Therefore, Siladivaswami makes a very interesting point. He says that there are two ways or two reasons, two causes by which people surrender.
He says that one way of surrendering to God is when you completely understand by studying the scripture, you study the scripture and by studying the scriptures you completely understand that there is this all-powerful being who says, you know, there is no truth higher than me.
And while studying the scriptures, we get very strong faith that he is there, and then we get some impetus to surrender.
So by strengthening our faith in Krishna which is coming through the through studying of the scriptures we can get or develop this desire to surrender to To
But then he says there is another method of surrender when we just without knowing very clearly the nature of God see a devotee and by seeing the devotee we feel that there is something in what he says and we surrender to this particular devotee and this surrender to the devotee is accepted by God as surrender to him directly.
It's difficult for us to surrender to God because we didn't see Him. We don't have this direct experience. The only thing which we can employ in this case is to study the scriptures, read it carefully, and understand in a rational way. Yes, he must be there, there is no other way, and in this way develop desire to surrender.
But we can see directly the devotee of the Lord. And we can see how surrendered He is. And in one sense, even though the devotee of the Lord doesn't claim to be omniscient, omnipotent, or whatever, in one sense it's
easier for us to surrender to Him or to develop trust in Him. We can't just smile. Two pre-n one news can seemocim, sebedim, Emu, porque we'd ,
The comparison which is given in the scriptures is that Ganga, the holy river Ganga, is coming directly from the lotus feet of the Lord.
And when we take bath in Ganga, it's the same as if we are taking bath, but it's easier to take bath in Ganga. She's easily available, you know. You just jump in it, no problem.
Lord is very high, you know, whether He is there or not, we may have different doubts, but Ganga is just in front of our eyes.
And by entering into all purifying waters of Ganga, we get the same result as surrendering to the lotus feet of the Lord. In the same way, when we see the devotee, what does it mean? Why the devotees compared with Ganga?
You know, he has his consciousness, and when we enter his consciousness, it's the same as if we would enter into the waters of Ganga.
This flow of his consciousness, if we somehow rather catch this very purifying streams of the flow of his consciousness, it's extremely beneficial and it's an easier way method of surrendering to the Lord.
Ifchodem vot, we'll say okay. Yes.
Understanding the internal attitude of surrender
Don't worry, mushroom. And when we have this concept very clear, what does it mean to surrender to a devotee, we can also much more clearly understand what does it mean to surrender to God.
We pronounce predats a goosy because especially for people of the modern modern day and age, this concept of surrender is very foreign.
You know, everyone claims to be independent, everyone wants to, you know, to stress his independence. Nobody wants to surrender to anyone. You know, wife doesn't want to surrender to husband, and husband doesn't want to
surrender to Niezimo
of our heart and we do like this. But the Sanskrit word anjali means am jalayati it anjali. Am means tears. Jalai means to cause to flow.
Anjali is the posture which causes tears to flow from the eyes of the person to whom we're doing like this. Am such it slose, anjali such it. Jalayati. Am JalayatiT
Story of the hunter and the surrendered rabbit
So if we sincerely fold our hands standing in front of the person and inside our heart, begging him, you know, to accept our surrender and to give us shelter, this response is being naturally invoked in There
is a beautiful story in this regard from Sri Sampradaya. Once, uh, Parashara Bhatta, the successor of Ramanuja of the founder of this sampradaya, Parashara Bhatta approached Parashara Bhatta met a cruel hunter.
Uh and this hunter, very cruel person. Hunters are usually quite cruel. out hunting and stocking children. But this hunter was very, very surprised and he started telling Parashara Bhatta the story which happened to him.
No, that will never respect the story that was him.
He said that he he caught a rabbit or you know hare in the in the forest in his trap so the rabbit was there. So I was causal to slavery crollica of the Loveless. And he wanted to kill this rabbit as was his custom But this rabbit started circling around his feet and ultimately came to his feet, put his little face onto his feet, put his big ears onto the feet, and remained like this.
And this rabbit, he said, I started crying, I took this rabbit, I released him from the trap, and I said, be free. And when Parashara Bhat uh heard this story, he started crying himself.
And not only he was crying, he fell unconscious. And when his devotees relieved him from this uh swoon and he came back to his senses, they asked, What happened to you?
He said when this hunter, living being told this story, I was thinking, you know, this hunter, he never promised that he will save anyone who surrenders to him.
He never promised that he will save anyone who surrendered unto him. He is not, you know, he is not kind by nature, he's cruel, he is not omniscient. And still he saved this rabbit who surrendered unto him.
And Lord, He promised that He will save anyone who surrenders unto Him. Lord is all kind. Lord is omniscient, and still we don't want to surrender to him.
Lord Rama accepting the surrendered Vibhishana
There is another very beautiful story in this regard in Ramayana.
This is an incident in the story, as we team is Ramayana. This is a famous story when Vibishana flew from Lanka when Lord Ramachandra was standing on the seashore before
coming to Lanka, before the bridge was built, and all of a sudden, this demon, you know, with very clear features of the demon flew in the sky, and the monkeys caught him and took
him to Lord Rama, Vibhishana. It's a history, Vibhishana left Lanka.
It's interesting, you know, when he was captured by the monkey soldiers, Sugriva came to Lord Ram to report that some spy from the demon's side was captured and you know he came. And when he came to Lord Rama, Lord Rama was sitting alone there, and not alone, with Jāmbavān, with Lakṣmaṇa.
And Sugriva started saying. Sugriva entered to the room where Lord Rāma was to the place where Lord Rama was sitting and he said, Oh my Lord, Ravana—and he wanted to say, Ravana's brother came to us.
And when the Lord heard—when Lord Rama heard this name, Ravana, and he saw that Ravana himself came to surrender to him, the Lord became very joyful. He said, Ravana! Ravana is coming! Ramachandra, He was—he was very happy.
But then Sugriva said, No, not Ravana, Ravana's brother. And they submitted to Lord Ramachandra.
This Ravana's brother is there, and Lord Ramachandra said, What would you say? And then I dare to put Vibhishana to Ramachandra,
and he said, So you know, most of the monkeys, you know, Sugriva, Angada, Jāmbavān—they said, Kill him, kill him, just in case, you know, you never know, this is a demon. And they're saying we're suspicious and...
Hanuman, he said, No, no, don't kill him because he's a demon... And Hanuman says, No, no, don't kill him because he's good, I know, I saw him in Lanka, and he is a good person. Don't kill him because he is good.
Now, Hanuman took a big part at the end as well,, you know how it is. And
Lord Rama, when it came to him to give his final verdict, he said, I will definitely accept him, not because he is bad and not because he is good, but because he's surrendered. Well, because on the premises...
So that's the point. If we surrender sincerely, you know, it basically means that we are invoking in the Lord his natural tendency for protection.
If this tendency is there within our heart, how much it is there in the heart of Krishna? Quand we preda
actually, in one sense, surrender, it's—it's the most simple process which is there, because basically surrender means that you stop worrying yourself and you supplicate yourself to the Lord, you give yourself to the Lord. And as Śrīla Prabhupāda says, we don't have to worry ourselves, let the Lord worry about us.
And the Lord Himself says, don't worry, it means that you know somebody should worry, so it means that I will worry about you. You don't have to worry about yourself. Prosto se ga, you won't be spoko's same season. Śrīla Prabhupāda government ne bespokoite, Vishna be spokoid.
So uh but we really have to clearly understand what but it's difficult because it's difficult for our ego to do it. We are very proud people, and you know even when a little child is trying to do something and you try to help him and he will say no no I will do it myself don't don't help me It's easy from the from the external point of view, but internally the sincere surrender is not an easy process.
Because uh the uh dependence on somebody is the death blow on our ego. It's uh it's a very it's it's a death blow, it's just heavy. No, no, no, not this.
Because you know our ego becomes very bewildered, you know, how is that I I'm you know I'm dependent? It's very humiliating for our ego because we don't want to depend on anyone.
Purifying the mind, intelligence, and false ego
So and here Śrīla Prabhupāda quotes this famous verse from Tantras which explains uh technically speaking what does surrender mean.
Anukulyasya sankalpah pratikulyasya varjanam rakshisyatiti visvaso goptrtve varanam tatha atmanikshepa-karpanye sad-vidha saranagatih. Saranagatihi. So it's interesting.
Anukulyasya sankalpah pratikulyasya varjanam. And the first two elements of surrender is to accept everything which is favorable to the Lord and to reject everything which is not favorable.
constantly in this material world we constantly accepting and rejecting things. This is the business of our mind. The mind is accepting and rejecting all the time.
This I like, this I don't like, this is good, this is bad. Yeah, and this is the constant process which we do.
But now surrender means that criteria for acceptance and rejection becomes completely different than we used to.
But since criteria at the moment I'm accepting and rejecting something on the basis of my understanding of what is good, what is bad for me.
But surrender means that I'm accepting something or rejecting something on the basis of what Krishna likes or Krishna doesn't like. Like for example, we fast on ekādaśī. And so many people fast.
And sometimes people fast on an ekādaśī because they heard that this is this is good from astrological point of view, from medical point of view.
And if you fast on an ekādaśī and you think I am a devotee because I'm fasting on an ekādaśī, you are wrong. If you think that you are a devotee because you fast on ekādaśī, then you are wrong.
Because it's not the question of fasting on ekādaśī, it's why we are fasting on ekādaśī. If I'm fasting because fasting is good for my health, and then the fasting will be good for your health, no problem.
If you're fasting because you want to get rid of some extra kilos of your weight, you will get rid of some extra kilos of your weight.
But if you are fasting because Krishna likes, likes living entities to fast on an ekādaśī, then only it becomes a devotional service.
I'm doing it not because it's good for me, I am doing it because Krishna likes it. And it's a completely different ball game, the consciousness is completely different. And the result will be also completely different.
The result would be that your faith and devotion to Krishna will increase tremendously if you're doing it because Krishna wants you to do it and you're doing it just because you want to.
So, and by doing this, if this is the guiding principle, if this is my motivation, if I am doing this because Krishna likes it, Krishna says very clearly that this should be done, then my mind will be purified.
Whereas if I'm doing it because it's good, because I heard some other good considerations, you know, somebody explained to me the astrological reasons why the fasting should be done on the 11th day of the lunar cycle, you know, then the mind will remain the same because the same good and bad. Therefore,
it's very interesting. In the śāstras, it's never said why you should do this.
Because the reason, all the whys, why you should do this, why you should do that, why you should do this thing or that thing, the reason is absent.
Whereas if the śāstra will explain this is good for this and for that and for this, your selfish mentality will only be empowered by this, will only increase. Selfish mentality, egoistic mentality.
So the idea is that we are suffering here in this world because this program of good and bad is deeply ingrained in our mind. And if we do uh according, the mind is not really purified from the program.
The program may become a little upgraded because you know now a little better what is good, what is bad. But the same program remains. I'm still program,
3:00 -
So how to get from this vicious circle of duality in Everything is the same. You know, myavadis say everything is the same. Maya vadis. Yeah, but then you know you ask them, please take this.
No, the the how to break this vicious circle of duality, good and bad.
There's only one way to break this vicious circle of duality is to say I'm I'm taking something which is good for Krishna and I'm rejecting something because Krishna doesn't like it. We'll be Krishna.
Not just abstaining from doing something because you cannot abstain, but you change your criteria. What is good, what is bad. My criteria is what Krishna likes, even though I may not like it. To jest And
if somebody comes to us and says to us, please take this poison, we will say no, because Krishna doesn't like me to take poison. Not because I don't like to take poison, but because Krishna doesn't like it.
Krishna didn't have to be attacked. So and this is a very important criteria and this is the beginning stages of uh of uh surrender uh and by doing this we purify our mind.
And then the two next uh stages or two next elements of surrender.
You know, to understand that Krishna is our He protects us in all circumstances, and it is Krishna who maintains us. He is our protector and our maintainer.
And have this great vishvas, mahavishwas, uh great faith and trust in Krishna, and that's the next element of surrender. And these two elements of surrender they purify our intelligence.
By accepting and rejecting what Krishna wants us to accept and what Krishna wants us to reject, we're purifying the program in our emotional mind.
By accepting Krishna as our protector and our maintainer, we purify our intelligence.
Town, what nice Krishn, 20, 2, 2, 1, 2, 8, 4. Because intelligence buddhi is that element in ourselves which by which we are interacting with this material world, by which we are ensuring that we are nicely situated in this material world by which we are protecting ourselves, maintaining ourselves.
This is all results of our intelligence.
But if we really understand that you know I cannot save myself, you know, I can of course I can try to protect myself, but ultimately it's God who is saving us, then the buddhi will become much more clear.
You know, with this clear intelligence. When our intelligence is cloudy, we are trying to protect
ourselves in a very imperfect way by adopting very, we may adopt for example we may we may believe or trust that uh you know some modern medicine, chemical medicine will help us.
You know all these results, uh all these methods of uh protection and maintaining which uh humanity uh developed or invented especially in the recent years, the result of very cloudy and dirty intelligence.
Because the cloudy and dirty intelligence only see very limited uh segment of reality.
You know we only see very limited uh number of causes and effects, and we are trying to deal with this cause and effect things and the resultant invention which is there
it may uh solve the immediate uh effect uh but because the cause is not uh remote cause, you know ultimately the result will be bad.
If we understand that the ultimate cause of all causes and ultimate the cause of our protection of, our maintenance is this world, is the Supreme Lord, then our vision of reality is much broader and much more correct.
So, you know, we know all this uh you know Albert Einstein he formulated it in a very beautiful way. He said that usually the solution which people come, which people give to the problem is worse than the problem itself.
Because the solution is given from the same mindset which created the problem. So you try to solve the problem with the same mind, without changing the mind.
This mind created this problem, so you say no problem, with the same mind, we'll try to solve this problem, you know the solution. But the solution is usually worse than the original problem.
Actually, it's not Albert Einstein who said this. This is Prahlāda Mahārāja who said this. Way before Albert Einstein.
It's a very clear verse in the ninth chapter of the seventh canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to this effect. So So when we understand that there is the cause of all causes, the higher cause behind
everything which is there, then our intelligence becomes more, it basically means, by at least accepting this, it means that uh we are purifying our intelligence or our understanding of cause and effect relationship in this world.
...-dawning
The second two is the means to purify our intelligence and to give us more clear understanding of the complete picture of reality.
And the third two, ātma-nikṣepa, kārpaṇya, when you completely surrender your soul to the Lord and you feel that you're completely dependent on Him and you are very helpless it's actually the remedy for our false ego.
чтобы, I'm a pollution, mira. 7
much more healthy subtle body, antaḥ-karaṇa, your subtle, you know, your mind to know, and we all know that physical problems are problems.
surrender is actually a solution for all our physical problems and for all our mental problems. Because it purifies us on all the levels of our existence. And ultimately you become very happy when you are surrendered.
Because you know by surrender we invoking mercy of Krishna and His pleasure, and when Krishna is pleased, we become automatically pleased.
Just because we have Krishna's rays and shafts, we automatically start just living it. You know, if we have healthy mind, healthy intelligence and most important healthy ego.
That ego is not proud, is not really exaggerated, it's just a very humble and uh realistic ego. You know, I am a little tiny living entity which requires the protection. We become automatically happy. 10, it's really good.
Then we become very happy. Anyway, I don't want to make you suffer for too long during this class. So, but the point is that we have to very clearly understand that surrender is good for us.
We do nothing shotgun, so that's and of course surrender is very good. Krishna is very happy when we surrender. Krishna is just that we can deal with it.
And actually, it's the only way to deal with the problems of this world. Because ultimately behind all the problems of this world Krishna is there, God is there.
And and he is giving us these problems to make us surrender to him.
Ashvatthama unleashing the Narayanastra weapon
There is a very beautiful little story which I will tell, and then let's see if maybe I will finish after that. In Mahabharata. It happened when Drishta Dyumna killed Dronacharya.
And perhaps you know that it was a very dramatic element in the whole Mahabharata war. Dronachary was extremely powerful warrior and he uh had the secrets of uh secret weapons, divine weapons.
And at one point he started using these divine weapons against soldiers which didn't have the ability to protect themselves from these divine weapons.
It was completely against the code of a kṣatriya. Kṣatriya couldn't use the weapons of mass destruction against simple people, simple warriors. That was totally unethical. So by doing this actually Dronacharya invoked
his own death because when you uh when you do something sinful which something which is against your dharma. And
it was Krishna who actually said to Yudhishthira, Yudhishthira, you have to do something, because if this man will not stop killing innocent warriors on this battlefield, you know, you will be defeated in no time.
So you have to come to him and you have to lie in front of his eyes. You have to say that Ashvatthama is dead, because that was the condition.
Dronacharya said, only when my son Ashvatthama is dead, I will stop fighting and then somebody can kill me. Otherwise nobody will be able to kill me. ...bid, poxa, to było, które Garnachari, But
Of course, that Ashvatthama was not dead, and Yudhiṣṭhira was completely flabbergasted. He couldn't he couldn't believe. And And Kṛṣṇa said, "No problem.
Bhīma will now kill this elephant who is called Ashvatthama, and you will come and say Ashvatthama is dead. And you can add, 'This is an elephant,' no problem. So reluctantly Yudhiṣṭhira agreed to this trick.
So Bhīma killed the elephant Ashvatthama. And because Dronācārya could only trust Yudhiṣṭhira, he knew that Yudhiṣṭhira would not lie.
If anyone else, if Bhīma will come in front of him and say that Ashvatthama is dead, Dronācārya says, okay, goodbye. No problem. He will not be impressed by this.
So Yudhiṣṭhira comes in front of Dronācārya, and he's very sad, and he says, 'Ashvathama is dead,' and then he says, 'the elephant.' And at that time Kṛṣṇa blows his conch, and nobody hears about...
And then Dronācārya sits in Padmāsana in the lotus posture, and you know, he puts down all his weapons, and he starts meditating on the Supreme Lord.
And in his meditation, voluntarily his soul is coming out from his body, voluntarily he left his body.
But after the soul left the body, Dhṛṣṭadyumna, who was destined to kill Dronācārya, he comes to him and he severs his head with his sword and takes, you know, by the hair and shows it to everyone: "This is the head of Dronācārya. Dronācārya, who is the general of the Kauravas, is dead now."
Dhṛṣṭadyumna...
Drišta Dümne, on sneus voł, mechan. Dranacha, And Actually, nobody approved of what Dhṛṣṭadyumna did, especially Arjuna. Arjuna was so disgusted by this. He said, "How can you do this? How can you do this? It's so mean."
And everyone actually didn't like it, even though Dhṛṣṭadyumna was the commander-in-chief of the Pāṇḍava army. And then, of course, Ashvatthama comes to the scene, the son of Dronācārya.
And Duryodhana tells him the whole story to incite his anger. And Ashvatthama becomes immensely angry.
He says, "I'm not sad because of the death of my father. I know that my father went to the spiritual realm. But I am extremely angry that this rascal Dhṛṣṭadyumna humiliated my father.
And because this Maharascal Yudhiṣṭhira lied to my father, I will kill them all now. I will kill Bhima because he killed the elephant called Ashwathama.
I will kill Yudhiṣṭhira because he lied to my father and I killed this Dhṛṣṭadyumna because he humiliated my father at the moment of death.
He's up, Nigel Himu, který Ubiu, Shadha. Ja ubijur, który obslava Megsa, and I'll be štiru, And then he said to Duryodhana, see what will happen now.
And so Duryodhana, Duryodhana, my father received a very powerful astra, a very powerful weapon from Lord Nārāyaṇa himself. Yeah.
And this Astra is called Nārāyaṇāstra. And nobody, nobody will be able to protect himself from this Nārāyaṇāstra.
No, uh because he is the Supreme Lord. And this is his personal weapon, and if I employ this weapon everyone on the opposite side will be wiped out.
So he he makes such a man, he He invokes mantra, he sits in meditation, he invokes special mantra to invoke this weapon. And horrible things starts happening.
From the sky start falling the blazing metal balls and nih rain of eros is going in this direction. It's just horrible thing. Naslične. Matrix, Izwiate.
Neutralizing the Narayanastra through complete surrender
The discs sharp as razor blades starts you know flowing in all directions and you know thousands of people started you know killed the in the split moment. And then Krishna he understood that something has to be done.
And he tells to Arjuna and he says Arjuna, you yell as loudly as possible that everyone has to just fall flat on the ground and put away all the weapons and stop defending himself.
He says it's Nārāyaṇāstra, and the only way to protect yourself from Nārāyaṇāstra is to surrender completely. If you try to protect yourself and use weapons, you will be killed for sure.
But only if you surrender completely and put aside all the weapons, then the weapon the Nārāyaṇāstra will fly over your head and go somewhere and will not even touch you.
And Krishna himself, the first one to show the example, he just falls flat on the ground, puts all everything, and just lays there. And Arjuna follows his example.
He puts his Gandhiva bow, which he said he will never put aside. He puts aside everything, falls flat, and lays down on the ground. And everyone follows their example and falls down.
And only Bhīma becomes very angry. He said, What are you doing, you guys? He stood up, he said, I will fight this Nārāyaṇāstra, don't worry, get up everyone, you know. He starts yelling.
So he stood up and was trying to resist this Narayanastra.
And the whole power of Nārāyaṇāstra is around Bhīma. You know, it's so he is just, you know, you cannot even see Bhīma because uh everything he's like in a blazing fire. The blazing fire is around him, and Arjuna is invoking some Varuna weapon to protect Bhīma, but it doesn't work.
So there is this dramatic episode. I wish I scoped it. Nicolas.
Arjuna is yelling to Bhīma, you know, you lay down, you lay down, you fool. I know I said I will not put my Gandhīva bow, but in front of Nārāyaṇa, there's no other way, so I put it in front of Nārāyaṇa. I am not going to protect myself from brāhmaṇas, from cows and from Nārāyaṇa. So if cow, brāhmaṇa or Nārāyaṇa will attack me, then I will put aside my bow.
Storm Gandhiva, but take in, poor, put the Rayna astra, I Pered Nada sloping some. No, no, he said on Sasha, so you obsess, to slow. I ne slow, 2, 3, 9,
At the end, Krishna says you run to Bhīma and you put this fool on the ground. And they both, they both Krishna and Arjuna, they run to Bhīma and they just, you know, put him on the ground forcefully.
And all of a sudden, no āstra. Everything is peaceful, there is sun is shining, you know. Just moment before there was this, you know, horrible thing was going on.
But now it's the sun, the the sun is uh the sky is clear, the sun is shining, and everyone is laying flat on the on the ground. And only Bhīma is making some sounds but still ground.
And they got up, they kind of, you know, they got up mm and they came back to themselves, and you know Duryodhana sees that again this whole opposing army is there intact despite this, you know, know And then we'll
stay, atrichful, I do Rodh, and on Udili, because And he says to Ashvatthāmā, Ashvatthāmā, why don't you again send this Nārāyaṇāstra? Ashwatham, which would be you shouldn't wish this Narayanastra.
Yeah, Narayanastra didn't work. Do it again. And Ashwatham says, no, I can only I can only do it once, I cannot do it twice. I can invoke the power of Lord Narayana, but only once, not twice.
So Krishna He knew the trick how to save this. So he saved them from the annihilation. Anyway, the the point of this little story is that you know there is only one way to be saved from Narayanastra is to surrender.
And ultimately we should see that whatever is happening in our life is the is the you know the God is behind it. If consequence of Magnum village that so that's not prescribed, we're gonna be Gospel.
We may not understand why uh it's happening, but uh you know th there is a very serious reason why it's happening uh and this reason is that we're not surrendered to him.
This is a very serious reason, and Krishna wants us to surrender to him because he knows that this is our natural position. To be not surrendered to him, to be proud of ourselves is totally unnatural.
Measuring surrender by freedom from fear
And if we know what does it mean to surrender and if we know how actually it's a very happy and natural state of our being, then we will want to surrender.
And here Krishna gives a very clear indication how we should judge the extent of our surrender.
Because again, as I said in the beginning, we're here to see uh what we did right and what we did wrong in the previous year and uh we're here to make some resolution for the next year what we're going to do.
And uh the criteria by which we can measure the extent of our surrender is the level of our anxiety and fear. Stephen. Stephen Nashville. Criterie. She's we're stepping pre-monds, Krishna says here Masu Chaha, don't worry.
Krishna gave Masucha, we diskoposa. And if we surrender uh this uh this uh uh this This feeling of fearlessness naturally will come to us. No, like Śrīla Prabhupāda was asked how do you feel when you chant Hare Krishna?
And Śrīla Prabhupāda's answer was very, very important. He said, I feel no fear.
So you know, looking back in our previous year we should see how anxious, how fearful, how worrisome we were during this year. And perhaps that's some indication that we may work in surrendering more.
And if we make this resolution that every day of my life, I will try to meditate on these six points of surrender. You can try, not maybe one year, maybe too long time. You can try for one week.
But if every day of this one week or two weeks we will start the day by saying, you know, today I will do only what Krishna likes. And I will not do what Krishna doesn't like me to do.
And I will try to use this criteria before I do something. To you, we're going to get sort of dealing to, what likes Krishna, and Krishna, if you would explain the criteria.
of this one week I will say to myself in the morning, I will uh have a complete trust in Krishna that He protects me. He gives me protection. He is there to give me protection. And He is there to maintain me.
He will make some arrangement to give me some what I need. So, if we would be able, that Krishna knows what we're doing, and if every day of my life I will remind myself I am a part and parcel of Krishna. I belong to Him.
I'm His soul. And therefore, you know, I should not be proud. There's nothing nothing no no reason for me to be proud. Then you will see the result. You will really feel the... If you can do this, you'll have good results.
You know you will feel much stronger because in this material life we don't do things which we should do and we do something which we shouldn't do because of fear all the time.
And because we don't, we know that we should do something, and we don't do this. And we do something which we know we shouldn't do. Because of this, we feel we feel very weak. You know, we feel disgusted with ourselves.
We feel lack of integrity. the fear is our main enemy.
And if we are free from fear, if we're really free from fear by doing what Krishna wants us to do, just for one week, you will feel much more strength and more integrity in yourself and uh you will feel much more self-respect and uh yeah ...
ktoré Krishna