Excerpt from a lecture by HH Radhanath Swami
“Srila Prabhupada stressed the urgency to surrender to Krishna. Every line of his books, every sentence of his tapes, you would hear him urgently, just pleading with you and me, to take Krishna Consciousness seriously. Death, tragedy can come at any moment. And the greatest tragedy is that our faith is stolen away by maya and her various representatives which can come in many forms. There is no comfortable position when we are secure in material exis
We often get questions about surrender, like “how can we surrender”. Recently I was reading one old BTG, 2001, and found a nice practical statement from Srila Prabhupada. If we search “surrender” on the vedabase we find 7445 hits, so we know it is an important topic. And we all know the conclusion of the Bhagavad Gita:
sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami mä suca
TRANSLATION
Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall de
Srila Prabhupada says that Narada is a great personality and he was so pleased by the devotional attitude of Dhruva, that he could have just given him everything. He could have given Dhruva exactly what he wanted. Why didn’t he do it? [a devotee replies that it was because he wanted Dhruva to surrender to Krishna]. Yes, essentially that’s correct. He wanted him to follow the correct path, he wanted him to engage in devotional service.
You see, and this helps us to develop our perspective about
From Back to Godhead
By Narasimha Swami Dasa
Lord Krishna’s main message in the Bhagavad-gita is clear: He wants us to fully surrender to Him. The most vital part of the Bhagavad-gita deals with the advice Lord Sri Krishna gives to Arjuna on the surrendering process. One of the dictionary meanings of surrender is “to give (something) up voluntarily to another.” Lord Krishna’s simple words of advice on surrendering are easy to understand. So why do most people, including those of us practicing K
Many people say “By your mercy, I will surrender” or “Give me your blessings so that I will surrender” or “When Krishna wants”. Srila Prabhupada says these are spoken under “FALSE PRETENSE”–These are just “PLEA’S” Not to Surrender.
Srila Prabhupada: Surrender is willing. If you don’t like to surrender who can make you obliged to surrender? Surrender is voluntary. “Yes I surrender.” Determination, “Yes I surrender.” Who can make you obliged to surrender? Nobody can make. Even Krsna can not work.
Somehow, we are struggling to surrender in this movement. And in the end, for our half-baked surrender which was there anyway, we get glorified for it. Who can say that they have surrendered out of pure love for Krsna? I was a pujari for three months and I fell asleep during the pujas. I kept nodding off. I was not a very good pujari at all. I was doing it mechanically, it was completely clear to me. I had no feeling there. I was just waving the lamp and falling asleep during an aarti.
However,
By Karnamrita das
PRAYERS FOR SURRENDER TO LET GO OF THE UNHELPFUL AND ACCEPT OUR CONTRIBUTION: I may die today. I may not be able to finish this piece of writing. I have an incurable condition which I was blessed to remember from my cancer diagnosis. I am a soul encased in a body that by identifying with gives me the view that I must suffer disease, old age, death, and rebirth. I have an ego that feels threatened by non-existence and sees others as competitors for what appear to be scarce resou
Srila Prabhupada letter to Rayarama, Oct. 22, 1971
My Dear Rayarama,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 11th October 1971 and have noted the contents. I welcome you for your coming back to our society and you are feeling very nicely the association of devotees.
Srila Rupa Goswami has described that devotional service can be advanced by six processes. Perhaps you know them. They are as follows: enthusiasm, patience, conviction, following the regulative principle
Many people say “By your mercy, I will surrender” or “Give me your blessings so that I will surrender” or “When Krishna wants”. Srila Prabhupada says these are spoken under “FALSE PRETENSE”–These are just “PLEA’S” Not to Surrender.
Srila Prabhupada: Surrender is willing. If you don’t like to surrender who can make you obliged to surrender? Surrender is voluntary. “Yes I surrender.” Determination, “Yes I surrender.” Who can make you obliged to surrender? Nobody can make. Even Krsna can not work.
We have to bring some goodness in our life and we have to invest in the mornings. Rise early and have a strong morning program. Chant good japa. Read more in the Srimad Bhagavatam. Get absorbed and that will drive out this mode of passion and mode of ignorance, which are still sometimes weighing us down and making it hard for us to follow the rules and regulations of Krsna consciousness. This is confirmed in the Srimad Bhagavatam: tada rajas-tamo-bhavah kama-lobhadayas ca ye ceta etair anaviddh
