Surrender to Krishna Gives Life
In the Bhagavad-Gita (18.66), Sri Krishna told Arjuna, “Abandon all varieties of religion (sarva-dharman) and take exclusive shelter of Me. I shall deliver you from the reactions of your sinful activities. Do not fear.” sarva-dharman indicates “all kinds of religious attitudes.” This means that we must without hesitation reject all other methods of spiritual advancement other than surrender. Srila Rupa Goswami also recommends that we cultivate devotion free from personal interests (anyabilasita-sunyam) and the tendencies toward karma and jnana (jnana-karmady-anavrtam). Surrender is the primary characteristic of bhakti. It cannot be found anywhere else. Other attempts to reach the Absolute by adopting the path of karma yoga or jnana yoga, for example, are destined to disappoint us. Sharanagati, or surrender to Krishna, is the name Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur gave to a collection of wonderful songs of his own composition. In the introductory song of that book, Bhaktivinoda writes,
sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu jive daya kari
sva-parsada sviya dhama saha avatari
atyanta durlabha prema koribare dana
sikhaya saranagati bhakatera prana
Out of compassion for the fallen souls, Sri Krishna Chaitanya came to this world with His personal associates and divine abode to teach sharanagati, surrender to Krishna, and to freely distribute ecstatic love (prema) for God, which is ordinarily very difficult to obtain. This sharanagati is the very life (prana) of the true devotee.”
This song clearly says that without surrender, a devotee is without life (prana). Surrender to guru, Vaishnavas and Krishna will give us back our life. We have nothing to lose. This is the benefit of the bhakti process. On the other hand, if a person has a good character, but no devotion, he can be considered a moralist at best. The soul gives life to the body, which is otherwise dead. Similarly, a life of so-called devotion without surrender is like a useless corpse. It is impossible to achieve divine love (prema) without surrender. In this regard, we can learn a good lesson from the famous story of Ekalavya.
Haribol
HDG Srila Bhakti Bibudha Bodhayan Goswami Maharaj
President, Sri Gopinath Gaudiya Math
