Hare Krishna! I wouldn’t like to turn our event into some formal lecture. I’d rather keep it as an informal talk where I am going to share what occupies my mind at the moment: some discoveries I have made recently. It might somehow inspire you making you reflect on something you have never thought about. 

When I started this lecture series in Moscow, we had completed a review of the first 3 chapters of the Bhagavad-gita and I originally planned to continue with Chapter 4 today. However, I would like to switch tracks and give you an overview of the whole Bhagavad-gita, its structure, but from a particular perspective. To start off, I will read one verse from Chapter 4 and will later come back to what I wanted to share:

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
bahūni me vyatītāni
janmāni tava cārjuna
tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi
na tvaṁ vettha paran-tapa

“The Personality of Godhead said: Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy!”

Purport

In the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.33) we have information of many, many incarnations of the Lord. It is stated there:

advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam
ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca
vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

“I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda [Kṛṣṇa], who is the original person – absolute, infallible, without beginning. Although expanded into unlimited forms, He is still the same original, the oldest, and the person always appearing as a fresh youth. Such eternal, blissful, all-knowing forms of the Lord are usually not understood by even the best Vedic scholars, but they are always manifest to pure, unalloyed devotees.”

It is also stated in Brahma-saṁhitā (5.39):

rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan
nānāvatāram akarod bhuvaneṣu kintu
kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṁ samabhavat paramaḥ pumān yo
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

“I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda [Kṛṣṇa], who is always situated in various incarnations such as Rāma, Nṛsiṁha and many subincarnations as well, but who is the original Personality of Godhead known as Kṛṣṇa, and who incarnates personally also.”

In the Vedas it is also said that the Lord, although one without a second, manifests Himself in innumerable forms. He is like the vaidūrya stone, which changes color yet still remains one. All those multiforms are understood by the pure, unalloyed devotees, but not by a simple study of the Vedas (vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau). Devotees like Arjuna are constant companions of the Lord, and whenever the Lord incarnates, the associate devotees also incarnate in order to serve the Lord in different capacities. Arjuna is one of these devotees, and in this verse it is understood that some millions of years ago when Lord Kṛṣṇa spoke the Bhagavad-gītā to the sun-god Vivasvān, Arjuna, in a different capacity, was also present. But the difference between the Lord and Arjuna is that the Lord remembered the incident whereas Arjuna could not remember. That is the difference between the part-and-parcel living entity and the Supreme Lord. Although Arjuna is addressed herein as the mighty hero who could subdue the enemies, he is unable to recall what had happened in his various past births. Therefore, a living entity, however great he may be in the material estimation, can never equal the Supreme Lord. Anyone who is a constant companion of the Lord is certainly a liberated person, but he cannot be equal to the Lord. The Lord is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā as infallible (acyuta), which means that He never forgets Himself, even though He is in material contact. Therefore, the Lord and the living entity can never be equal in all respects, even if the living entity is as liberated as Arjuna. Although Arjuna is a devotee of the Lord, he sometimes forgets the nature of the Lord, but by the divine grace a devotee can at once understand the infallible condition of the Lord, whereas a non-devotee or a demon cannot understand this transcendental nature. Consequently these descriptions in the Gītā cannot be understood by demonic brains. Kṛṣṇa remembered acts which were performed by Him millions of years before, but Arjuna could not, despite the fact that both Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna are eternal in nature. We may also note herein that a living entity forgets everything due to his change of body, but the Lord remembers because He does not change His sac-cid-ānanda body. He is advaita, which means there is no distinction between His body and Himself. Everything in relation to Him is spirit – whereas the conditioned soul is different from his material body. And because the Lord’s body and self are identical, His position is always different from that of the ordinary living entity, even when He descends to the material platform. The demons cannot adjust themselves to this transcendental nature of the Lord, which the Lord Himself explains in the following verse.

I thought it would be good for me to speak about Krishna a bit and share what I am thinking about at the moment. I would particularly like to speak about the different types of surrender that are described in the Bhagavad-gita. The Bhagavad-gita mentions four specific types of surrender and we know that surrender is the central theme of the Bhagavad-gita. At times, Krishna’s message of surrender may sound harsh. Actually, this message of surrender is present in all world religions. People in all religions keep saying, ‘Surrender, surrender, surrender.’ The very name of Islam means ‘one who must surrender.’ Surrendering means submitting, giving oneself up, it means… phew! Hare Krishna! And people are essentially allergic to such statements because everyone wants us to surrender. A wife tries to have her husband surrender. A husband wants his wife to surrender. The government wants people to surrender, submit and obey. People come to God and here they have to deal with the same thing. He tells us, ‘Surrender unto Me.’ And we are confused. At the same time we are scared to surrender. Surrender to anyone. 

Being independent living beings, we value our independence. Especially when we hear about complete surrender. Gaudiya-vaisnavas have a ready tongue. On the slightest pretext they require surrender, and not just surrender but complete and utter surrender: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. And many people feel feared. Or there are two types of response to such statements. The first type of response is that one gets frightened and leaves. Only because some immature preacher emphasizes this very point. The other type of response is, perhaps, even sadder. This person, who has however developed belief in Krishna and the process, fakes surrender. He pretends to have surrendered and completely at that; performs some crazy austerities; does something that clearly doesn’t correspond with his spiritual level, his spiritual nature; goes against his nature to end up wondering and blaming others, ‘I surrendered, I did everything. Why didn’t I get what I was supposed to, what was promised to me?’ And so forth. So, these are the two types of response to the demand, ‘Surrender unto Me, give up everything!’ And people literally give up everything acting absolutely immaturely being unaware that Krishna doesn’t mean that. I walk around Vraja watching people surrendering naturally. We have a purely mental habit of trying to model some perfect surrender and imitate it when seeing it, because we want to be the first. If we failed to be the first in the material life, we will be the first in the spiritual life. On the other hand, I am watching one making 552 dandavats at the same place circumambulating Govardhan in this way and someone just milking cows. And I can’t say one is dearer to Krishna than the other. Krishna accepts everything. We are prompted by fear. In our attempts to perform some sadhana we are impelled by fear and such surrender is likely to add fuel to the fire of this psychological pattern we have. Surrender, surrender. If you don’t surrender, you will only make it bad. But surrendering unto Krishna is not about that. He says, ‘Do whatever you can and you will achieve Me. There is no doubt about that. Do not worry. This is not your fault. This is not your problem.’ Here lives one wonderful Vaisnava. We once discussed it with him. He says, ‘Krishna is kripa-sadhya’ and sadhya means the aim of our efforts. But sadhya is usually what is achieved by sadhana but He is not sadhana-sadhya, He is kripa-sadhya. He can only be achieved by His mercy. And this Vaisnava told me one simple thing, which moved me greatly, ‘Do your best.’ We should do what we can but only what we can and no more than we can. And this is a very important point. Surrendering means doing our best. The rest does not depend on us. The rest depends on Krishna. He sees what we can and what we can’t. 

So now I would like to tell you in this small talk how Krishna being aware of Arjuna’s state of mind and reluctance to surrender, accepts the degree of surrender Arjuna is capable of. And while accepting that degree of surrender He tries to gradually deliver him from fear. Arjuna takes the first step, a small one, and Krishna says, ‘That’s okay. Everything’s all right. You’ve taken the first step.’ This is the point, which shows that Krishna accepts any kind of our surrender and that we shouldn’t try to pretend to be someone else. We should just do our best, honestly. The rest will be done by Krishna. This is a very important point. And here defining points make a great difference. As I have already mentioned, Bhagavad-gita shows four clear points where Krishna calls on Arjuna to surrender. And every time in a different way. In other words, to us surrender sometimes seems hard to understand. We think we should give ourselves over once and forever. But, basically, this is not so because there are sort of different degrees of surrender. 

Again, by promising ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham, ‘As one surrenders unto Me, I reward him accordingly’, Krishna rewards one and accepts this. And if He feels that one wants more, He helps one take another step and another one. And these four stages are of great importance because the process of surrender is gradual. And the attempt to punch above one’s weight can lead to tragedy. Srila Prabhupada quoted a Bengal saying ‘Bara bara bander bara bara pet lanka’, which goes something like ‘Big big monkey big big belly lanka jumping melancholy’. ‘A big monkey – a big belly.’ When one is trying to punch above one’s weight that results in melancholy. As a result, everybody falls flat on their faces lying there thinking, ‘What has gone wrong?’ But the thing is that we have set our sights on the wrong thing. And the first, clear point of Arjuna’s surrender is when he found himself in a difficult situation and speaks about that in Chapter 2, Verse 7 of Bhagavad-gita:

kārpaṇya-doṣopahata-svabhāvaḥ
pṛcchāmi tvāṁ dharma-sammūḍha-cetāḥ
yac chreyaḥ syān niścitaṁ brūhi tan me
śiṣyas te ’haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam

  

This is the first step. Krishna puts everyone in a difficult situation. Everyone has experienced them without exception. But there are people who turn to Krishna, God, for help. And there are people who try to solve these problems on their own or turn away from God, resentful. Here, in this verse there is one highly important thing. We know that Chapter One is called Arjuna-visada-yoga. Arjuna is in visada. Visada, visada-roga. This is visada-yoga but there is also visada-rogam, the disease of visada. Ayurveda calls depression visada-rogam. Arjuna is depressed: there are symptoms of depression up to trembling, when one is extremely tense, when one rejects with all his being some prospect one is facing. All of his body starts trembling: this is tension and rejection. ‘I don’t want it!’ because one sees nothing good. Arjuna says in this connection, ‘I see nothing good. There are only bad things in store for us.’ But, this way or other, he turns to Krishna. However hard it was, at a time like this, you should remember we must run to Krishna. Even if you know that everything comes from Krishna; even if you know that Krishna put you here, you should move towards Him. 

It took Krishna only a few words to bring Arjuna to his senses. He gave him a couple of slaps anārya-juṣṭam asvargyam akīrti-karam arjuna... klaibyaṁ mā sma gamaḥ pārtha. “How could have this weakness come upon you? You are strong!” But at the same time He knows that even the strongest man may fall victim to weakness sometimes. Arjuna was overcome by weakness: klaibyaṁ mā sma gamaḥ pārtha. Arjuna’s strength in not that he is strong. His strength is that he seeks shelter of Krishna. There is a very important word kārpaṇya in this verse 2.7. We know that kripana is a miser. I’ve been thinking today why Arjuna says kārpaṇya-doṣopahata. ‘I have been overcome by the miser disease.” I have clearly understood this point. When we are in our normal state of mind we can think about others. This is called generosity. Generosity of the heart. We think about others, we can help others, we like helping others. As I have already mentioned, this word kārpaṇya-doṣa is used when one is focused on oneself. When one’s consciousness is focused on oneself, one can only think about oneself. One feels bad. One goes crazy. One doesn’t care at all about others. One just doesn’t have this generosity of heart, he can’t help others. One is ashamed. 

And Arjuna is in this state of mind. He says, kārpaṇya-doṣopahata: I am in this compressed state of mind, where I can’t think of anything or anybody. This is how fear shuts one’s heart. It is scary. One is fearful of the future. And in this state of mind one becomes a miser only thinking about oneself. One feels bad and one says: pṛcchāmi tvāṁ dharma-sammūḍha-cetāḥ yac chreyaḥ syān niścitaṁ brūhi tan me śiṣyas te ’haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam. This is the first surrender or, so to say, the first relative surrender. Because it’s already in the following verse that he will say na yotsya iti govindam, ‘I shall not fight. I shall not fight. Do whatever You like to me but I shall not fight. And what is even better: don’t do to me whatever You like because I know what You should do to me.’ He is fearful. He is still fearful of Krishna. He is afraid to hear something he is not going to like. He is very scared. For this reason Krishna doesn’t begin by telling him about complete surrender. Krishna could have said straightforwardly: man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru...sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. I did my job. I said it. Do what you think is right. Basically, this is what He means to say. He says, ‘No, no, no, no. This is not the right way. Let’s figure it out, Arjuna.’ And He gradually starts unreeling him. 

He says one important thing, ‘Arjuna, you are good. You know all. You are nice.’ And, actually, in Chapter 4 there’s Krishna’s second call for Arjuna to surrender. It’s like He is introducing him to the idea. Actually, what does He say one should do in a situation like that? One should do good things. One should perform one’s duties and one’s dharma. And, intuitively, we are going to feel like we are getting some prop. Yes, yes, yes. This is it. That’s what I am supposed to do. I am overwhelmed by this visada, by this despair and I am being told, ‘Well, do whatever you are capable of, what you are good at. Here, He speaks about that in Chapters 3 and 4. He says, ‘Look! If you do it well, you’ll be fine. You’ll benefit from it. Follow the rules.’ And Arjuna is thinking, ‘Yes, I can do it.’ He makes one important point: if you follow the rules, you’ll benefit. In fact, we know anukulyasya sankalpah pratikulyasya varjanam. This is what Krishna begins His preaching to Arjuna with among other things. Follow the rules. Follow the rules. Why? He Himself says: because Brahman, spirit, eternally resides in the Vedic rules. And you are going to get in contact with these rules and benefit from them, because your heart will be purified. Just do it. This is a way to somehow experience the spirit: brahmarpanam brahma havir brahmagnau brahmana hutam brahmaiva tena gantavyam. He says that everything is brahman. When you are doing something as sacrifice, you come in contact with the spirit. You get to feel the eternal nature. You are now being eaten away by your fear from within because you have felt your mortality and the ground has shifted beneath you. He explains different types of sacrifice, pranayama, family life, brahmacarya, this and that – here they are, the vidhis. Do it properly. Do it the right way – everyone can do something. Then He says: tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya upadeksyanti te jnanam jnaninas tattva-darsinah – this is the second defining point, the second point of surrender. At first Arjuna didn’t intend to surrender – he had just come to Krishna for advice. Give me some advice and I will choose to do it or not. I will make my own choice. The second time Krishna says, ‘No, no, wait a minute! Now you should surrender to a spiritual master.’ And the master – and He makes a very important point here – will teach you these viddhi, the rules. 

Sometimes I hear devotees say, ‘We were only taught these rules and these rules just screwed up our lives. Always these rules. They instill fear. Don’t do this, don’t do that. You are going to slip up.’ Yes, fear. Sure, there is fear. But one should start somewhere. Arjuna is overwhelmed by fear and he can’t fully surrender. If he attempts to fully surrender, it won’t seem natural. Therefore Krishna says, ‘You follow the rules and take shelter of these rules.’ If we take a look at the Vedic culture, we’ll see there are only rules and nothing but rules. Don’t go this way or that way. That’s another matter that one shouldn’t fixate on them for long and only take shelter of them. One should understand how rules work. 

What happens next is very interesting. Krishna says: tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya. He explains in Chapter 6 how it is going to save one. But in Chapter 5 He gets to explain what happens when one follows rules properly. Listen carefully – this is an important point. When we don’t follow rules… why so many small details? Literally, truly small details. Here is like this, here is like that, here is this stick. Sanatana Goswami speaks on that in Hari-bhakti-vilasa. It would seem that Hari-bhakti-vilasa is our book: ‘Just surrender. Don’t need to do anything else. Everything else is nonsense.’ No, and he explains. God forbid to clean your teeth with the wrong stick on the wrong day… of course it doesn’t apply to us – nothing to fear. But what is all this mechanism about? Krishna explains this mechanism in Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 5. He says, ‘Gradually, step by step, if you act like that, you will take the observer position, you’ll begin to observe.’ Because when we are doing something automatically, our mind keeps on thinking and thinking and thinking. And here we have to be in the here and now in order to do everything properly. Why is it said that the master can teach these viddhis? Because the master mentions details that are even absent from books. In those days books were few and they were short. The master explained and showed with all small details so that the result was achieved. Take pranayama, for example. There are so many small things and details. What’s the point? To help one get out of the broth of one’s mind that is bubbling there. We have broth there, which keeps bubbling all the time. And it goes on and on. The heart doesn’t get purified. The heart doesn’t get purified because one generates the same desires, walking the circles of one’s thoughts. One is unable to shift into the present moment. The mind won’t take a break. Therefore Krishna describes this observer position in Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 5. If you do things right, you will be able to observe your body, you’ll be able to feel yourself as a soul, you’ll be able to realize that this is not you. Just step back. 

Arjuna is afraid all the same. He is still frightened. He continues in Chapter 6 by saying, ‘What if I don’t reach the end? What if I can’t? I should be fully focused. I should quiet my mind: citta vritti nirodhah samadha, samadhi. What if I can’t?’ Krishna says, ‘Never mind. No problem.’ And He says four verses. I would like to speak on these four verses or four comfort verses that Krishna says. In the first of the verses He doesn’t console Arjuna much. He says, ‘Come on! Stop being hysterical!’ In the second verse when he is saying tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya He is saying na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid durgatiṁ tāta gacchati. He says a very important thing. What is going to save you? Don’t be afraid. Arjuna says, ‘What if I am like a riven cloud. I abandoned that, I started here but it brought me nowhere and I haven’t achieved a thing. Did I perform my duties? I did. But I failed.’ Krishna gives comfort, which is very important: vinasas tasya vidyate na hi kalyana-krt kascid durgatim tata gacchati. He says the word ‘tata’. ‘Tata’ literally means ‘a little child’. As if He is stroking Arjuna saying, ‘Silly boy.’ 

I have recently spoken with Arca-murti, so she calls everyone silly children, including herself. She says, “I like the word ‘silly boy’”. And here Krishna says ‘tata’. What’s His logic? If you did good things, how can you possibly end up getting a negative reaction as a result? Kalyana-krt – you did good, you took care, you fed someone, did something. Relax! How can you possibly get something bad? Durgatim – you’ll be rich, you’ll be born into a brahmana family, you’ll continue walking your path in the next life. 

But there’s a very interesting point to make – since this is the first stage of surrender, this is karma-misra. Vamsibihari reproves me for using too much Sanskrit, but I can’t resist the temptation. In technical terms, what we call bhakti is what Jiva Goswami calls aropa-siddha-bhakti or, let’s say, attributive bhakti. This is no bhakti yet, although it looks like surrender, like bhakti. But we just call “bhakti” what we do for our own sake. Sacrifices, all of these other things – we just do them with an apparent tinge of karma. Therefore He is saying, ‘What is going to save you?’ Na hi kalyana-krit kascid. What will save you? Kalyana-krt – auspicious activities. Your auspicious activities are going to save you. Don’t worry. Take it easy. Do kalyana, do something good. What do you fear? Don’t you fear! Do auspicious things. Never, never is one who does good overcome by fear. Arjuna, everything’s fine. Because, you know, Arjuna is looking for shelter by doing things. And Krishna knows this and says, ‘Everything’s alright. I accept it. Do this. No problems at all.’ 

Then there is Chapter 7 and here comes the next round of surrender. And it explains what is going to save us at this moment. In Chapter 7 Krishna keeps talking about surrender: daivi hy esa guna-mayi mama maya duratyaya mam eva ye prapadyante, ‘One who surrenders unto Me is bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma su-durlabhah.’ He says that very rarely does anyone know Him, explaining that everything rests upon Him, as pearls are strung on a thread. He mentions the four types of people who surrender and four types of people who never surrender. This is the next point of surrender: daivi hy esa guna-mayi. Basically, what does He mean to say? Listen very carefully to what befalls one next. For some time one performs karma, Vedic sacrifices, yoga, takes up astrology, ayurveda etc. If everything goes the right way, if his heart purifies, if he gets to perceive that he is not the body but the soul, at this very moment he wants to get in touch with the spirit beyond the gunas of the material nature. Since karma is still within the gunas of the material nature, Krishna says in Chapter 7 ye caiva sattvika bhava, that there is a veil there. And he repeats this word “veil” several times. Later He will say that yoga-maya … mam vetti tatvattah – that human consciousness is covered by the gunas. And one develops a very strong desire to go beyond maya – desire for liberation. 

Most devotees are sure to have taken up devotional service because they had a desire for liberation in their previous life. It becomes obvious when you see devotees’ horoscopes, which seem to cry out, ‘I want it!’ and Krishna says: daivi hy esa guna-mayi mama maya duratyaya mam eva ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te. ‘You will be liberated, just surrender. Surrender unto Me.’ This is jnana-misra-bhakti. Or, in technical terms, sanga-siddha-bhakti – it’s when one, actually, wants liberation. “I want liberation. I am tired. I can’t bear it anymore. I have no strength at all. When will it all end?!’ And Krishna explains what should be done to achieve it, how He saves us and what saves us. In Chapter 8 of Bhagavad-gita He says: yam yam vapi smaran bhavam tyajaty ante kalevaram – ‘work on your consciousness.’ One is on the level of this jnana and He is telling one, ‘Jnana. Focus. Meditate. Remember Me at the time of death and it will save you. Remembering Me at the time of death is going to save you. If you surrender unto Me in this way, if you want liberation, remember Me: mam anusmara yudhya ca mayy arpita-mano-buddhir … yam yam vapi smaran bhavam. Remember Me – tasmat sarvesu kalesu. Therefore you should remember Me. Remember Me. Remember Me.’ 

Devotees sometimes tend to think, ‘That’s what I should keep doing all the time. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.’ God forbid to drop the beads! Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare. This is fear – the same old fear. But surrender hasn’t taken place yet. And they are trying to chant lots of lakhs. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Yet there is no remembering. You chant lots of lakhs but who are you thinking about? And this is not Krishna. You are thinking about liberation. ‘When? When? God, when? Please, deliver me sooner! Let me die. Hare Krishna. I should remember at the very last moment. Hare Krishna. I will not forget. That’s for sure.’ 

These are Chapters 7 and 8, where there is another attempt to surrender. Or, to be more exact, a call to surrender to Krishna. It is explained there why one should surrender and how it all eventually saves one. Further, Arjuna asks what one should be focused on during the battle. Krishna explains what one should be thinking about. He is aware that Arjuna wants liberation. He says, ‘If you take this path – the path of light – you will be liberated. If you take the path of darkness, you will be back.’ He explains these things in Chapter 8. He knows that Arjuna is striving for liberation. And He is well aware of what we want – we want liberation. This is sanga-siddha-bhakti. This is the type of bhakti that we develop based on certain association. On this level one starts working on oneself. Relatively speaking, I have been thinking how to draw a parallel between this and the stages of our spiritual development. Actually, everything is very simple. What we call sraddha and sadhu-sanga – are the first elements of surrender. The next stage is bhajana-kriya. This is the next point where we start doing bhajana-kriya according to rules and surrender unto the guru – tad viddhi pranipatena. The next point is anartha-nivritti syat, which is sanga-siddha-bhakti – bhakti mixed with the desire for liberation. ‘I want liberation, I want to purify my heart.’ And it would all be good but Krishna wouldn’t settle. 

He says, ‘No problem. Think.’ Again, just like people mess up their lives with rules by becoming their slaves in the beginning, believing that rules are going to save them. But there is freedom missing. Therefore, it is said that these first stages like aropa-siddha-bhakti and sanga-siddha-bhakti are fine but they should be passed as soon as possible. They themselves do not turn into true bhakti. Bhaktivinoda Thakura writes that they should be passed as soon as possible. By no means should one linger. Yet one lingers on the stage of rules. To him bhakti is all about rules. One lingers or gets caught on this stage of liberation, on his desire to purify his heart. And one purifies oneself, and gets to do some things, one gets to do charity work or other things to get liberation, one starts fasting. There is no limit to what people do to get liberated. They serve as well as they can, ‘Yes, yes, I am like that! Krishna, take notice of me, find me, recognize me. You see my feats. Here I am.’ 

And then here comes Chapter 9 where He speaks about another phase of surrender. And there He makes an interesting point. Everyone knows this verse api cet su-duracaro bhajate mam ananya-bhak: ‘I will take care of him. Whatever he does, I accept him. If one wants to serve Me, I Myself will take care of him, however he is and whatever he commits.’ Later, in Chapter 10 He is going to say tesam aham samudharta: ‘I am saving him. It’s not his jnana that saves him, it’s not his thoughts that save him, it’s not his deeds that save him. It’s Me Who saves him.’ Mrtyu-samsara-sagarat out of this ocean of births and deaths. And what does such a man do? It doesn’t mean that one doesn’t have to do anything. He says: satatam kirtayanto mam yatantas ca drdha-vratah namasyantas ca mam bhaktya – that’s what these people do. Satatam kirtayanto mam: ‘They are chanting My glories and speaking about Me’; yatantas ca drdha-vratah: ‘They are performing severe austerities. They are acting.’ Namasyantas: ‘They are bowing down.’ But at the same time He says: tesam nityabhiyuktanam yoga-ksemam vahamy aham. It’s an important verse, the key verse in the whole Chapter 9 related to surrender. 

He says: mahatmanas tu mam partha daivim prakrtim asritah: ‘These mahatmas have taken shelter of the divine energy – asraya. They are heading towards the Personality of Godhead.’ And what does the Personality of Godhead do? He says, ‘I give them what they lack. Yoga-ksemam vahamy aham. You do not need to be perfect.’ Before that, in Chapters 7 and 8, where sanga-siddha-bhakti is explained, one is seeking personal perfection. ‘I should be perfect in order to be saved. I should be very pure. I should.’ But Krishna says, ‘Relax!’ Krishna says, ‘Yoga-ksemam vahamy aham. ‘I Myself will give you everything. You take whichever vows you can.’ We see that people here take vows. There’s recently been nirjala-ekadasi. The day of nirjala-ekadasi is the hottest day of the year here. I asked a local sadhaka whether he had observed nirjala. He said, ‘Yes, I did.’ I asked, “How is it possible?’ And he replied, ‘You’ll get used after thirty years.’ But, on the other hand, if you can’t, it’s not a big deal. Do what you can. If you can make do with a little fruit, eat a little fruit. Don’t you torture yourself! This sanga-siddha-bhakti – one should be perfect. No! Krishna says, ‘Mahatmanas tu mam partha daivim prakrtim asritah bhajanty ananya-manaso. They think about Me with love, therefore I tesam nityabhiyuktanam yoga-ksemam vahamy aham. They are always busy doing something. Being always busy doing something means being busy doing something one is capable of. You can’t always be doing what you are unable to do. That is natural life in connection with Krishna. In this natural life Krishna says, ‘They are within My heart. I am within their hearts.’ This is what he wants in the long run, therefore saying man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru: do whatever you can but do it for Me. If you can’t always be thinking about Me, do something. If you can’t always be doing something, bow down to Me. I will accept it. I accept you. And this is the principal point of Chapter 9: patram puspam phalam toyam yo me bhaktya parayacchati. I accept, asnami, bhakty-upahritam, do everything with love. This is Krishna’s acceptance – and this is the most important thing. Therefore, Krishna says this is the most confidential knowledge raja-vidya raja-guhyam. 

This is, so to say, the third type of surrender. And He says: tesam aham samuddharta mrtyu-samsara-sagarat … na cirat – swiftly deliver – o Partha. ‘I will deliver him.’ And Arjuna surrenders. This is the point of Arjuna’s surrender, where he says param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan… sravam etad ritam manye yan mam vadasi kesava, when Arjuna speaks these two verses. You are Parabrahman, You are the supreme abode, You are the highest attainment of all. This is Arjuna’s kirtana: You, You, You. He addresses Him as bhavan. Everything You are saying is true. He believed and his fear was gone. 

So, later he asks a very important question, ‘How shall I remember You?’ Arjuna says, ‘Fine. I’ve got it. I have realized that one should just think about You. And this is my form of surrender. My surrender is thinking about You. But how shall I think about You?’ And Krishna effects what in Christianity is called epiphany. Epiphany is God manifestation. And Krishna says, ‘Of elephants I am Airavata. I am the horse Ucchaisrava. Of immovable things I am the Himalayas. Of trees I am the banyan tree. Among the Daitya demons I am Prahlada…’ He is speaking about that for us to be able to always get in touch with Him. And Srila Prabhupada continues, ‘Of comedians I am Charlie Chaplin.’ If you see Charlie Chaplin, think about Krishna. If you see something amazing, something that impressed you, something wonderful, this spark of splendor, – this is Him, Krishna. He says, ‘I am all around within these sparks. I am here.’ It’s not that it’s always Hare Krishna Hare Krishna… This is no bhakti. This is sanga-siddha-bhakti – an attempt to become perfect through sadhana, through some extreme austerity or something like that. Here, a small boy has approached you – this is Krishna approaching you. A dog has come – there is also something about it. Krishna says, ‘Here I am. You need not look far to see Me.’ 

And further in Chapter 11 Krishna manifests this terrible universal form of His. Gosh! I’ve experienced various states recently and I read descriptions of people’s near-death experiences – what people experience during clinical death. They see the same universal form. They hear this voice. And here in Chapter 11 one very important point is made. At first Krishna manifests His frightful universal form, which scares the life out of Arjuna making him say, ‘Please, no, no, show me Your other look.’ And Krishna shows His four-armed form. Arjuna says, ‘Please, please, don’t show these extra arms. Just show me Yourself.’ Actually, all this chapter is about showing the supremacy of Krishna’s beauty, love of Krishna, His mercy, His compassion. But for Krishna to show it one should pass a certain test. Why doesn’t it happen so fast? 

When reflecting on it, I remembered the fairytale The Scarlet Flower. I even re-read it. It’s about three daughters, each of whom chose her own path. Their father is their guru giving them what they want. The first one wanted a golden shining tiara. He gave her this shining tiara, some material benefits – baubles. The second daughter wanted eternity, a mirror, which would always show her reflection as young and beautiful. And her father brought her this mirror. This is absolutely obviously jnana. The third one asked for a scarlet flower of unsurpassed beauty – neither tongue can tell, nor pen can describe. This is bhakti. This story also shows that this is only the third daughter who has a true relationship with her father, who personifies a guru. The first two daughters do not have it. And we know this story where she goes to this beast instead of her father and where all her desires were granted, which was only overshadowed by the fact that there was a beast who didn’t reveal himself to her at that. She asks, ‘Why don’t you show yourself to me?’ only to hear ‘I look terrible’ in reply. And at first he didn’t even talk to her, sending her text messages. Just like Krishna Who only writes letters in the beginning. And he communicated with her writing letters on the walls. So she said, ‘Come on, say something.’ He replied, ‘If I do, you will become fearful and run away.’ So it was. He said something and she got frightened at first. Then she got used and they gradually started to communicate. That voice was really terrible. But she got used to it and they kept talking. And after getting used to his voice she said, ‘Reveal yourself to me’ only to here ‘No, I won’t. If I do, you will flee.’ ‘Please, reveal yourself. I won’t flee.’ So he showed himself to her at a distance as dusk fell to prevent her, God forbid, from seeing everything. And she saw this shadow of a beast and it filled her with fear. Just like Arjuna was filled with fear when seeing the universal form. Later on he showed himself in daylight and she got used to his from. And what is notable is that she knew his heart, not his form. She learnt to talk to his heart, to talk to Krishna’s heart. And then He turned into a beautiful youth with a flute in His hands and a peacock feather in His hair. But not before she had loved Him in that previous form. And there it is. 

That’s, actually all. Later, in Chapter 12, Krishna again says that, ‘And bhakti will gradually come. But the main thing about bhakti is the faith that I want what’s best for you. I am here. I am by your side. I can hear you. I know how much you are suffering. I know how many worries you are having. I know all. You just have to go through some things in order to get rid of it all. I Myself am going to deliver you. Don’t you worry.’ Therefore, faith is very important. 

So, the point is that there are four types of surrender and four forms of Krishna’s involvement in our life depending on what we want. And Krishna accepts everything. He accepts everything we do. He says, ‘Silly boy. Sarva-dharman parityaja mam ekam saranam vraja.’ But it’s not going to happen all at once. Sarva-dharman parityaja is not going to take place immediately. One should first get rid of some things. 

Well, that’s, actually, all I wanted to say, something I have been thinking about. Perhaps, you have some questions. In fact, that’s where Bhagavad-gita ends and Bhagavatam begins. Bhakti only begins after that. Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo ’tra paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ. That is, there we already find a guide to the realm of bhakti. It begins when we get into this door, which is not so easy to enter. 

There is, perhaps, another small point I’d like to make. I think it may be interesting – it’s a kind of discovery of mine. I thought about it some time in the past and even explained it. Why does Bhaktivinoda Thakura begin his Saranagati with dainya or karpanya? Although the classical order given in Saranagati is anukulyasya sankalpah pratikulyasya varjanam aksisyatiti visvaso goptrtve varanam tatha atma-niksepa-karpanye the sixth stage being complete surrender. Bhaktivinoda begins with the sixth stage in the reverse order. I have read some of his songs like amara jivana sada pape rata and one explanation that just came to me why his order is different is that surrender begins when I honestly tell Krishna, ‘That’s how I am. That’s how I am.’ Amara jivana sada pape rata. ‘I am like this. Will You accept me like that?’ Krishna says, ‘I will.’ It’s like dainya, dinaya – I am fallen and I don’t want to pretend to be some sadhaka on a horse, a savior of the world, a savior of fallen souls. I am what I am. I can do this but I can’t do that. As Bhaktivinoda Thakura in the song Amara jivana says, ‘Now I am aged and I am honestly telling You everything. Here I am and here’s my record of service.’ He isn’t pretending, he is honestly saying, ‘Here I am. What can I do about it? You know me. Right?’   

Question: You said that other devotees want liberation. And it’s not the first time we’ve heard this. But if we speak to other devotees they are sure to say they want a loving relationship with the Lord. And, frankly speaking, I seem to want love, krishna-prema. But, on the other hand, logically thinking, if this desire was more sincere it would have been fulfilled. In other words, this relationship would already be there. How do we track down this desire because no one wants liberation consciously? How can one trace and identify it by external symptoms? 

Answer: It’s easy to track down if we blame Krishna for not giving us liberation when we are having a tough time. How can one identify it? Often we hear that devotees want liberation but when asked this question no one is going to admit it. Everyone is going to say, ‘We want love, we want prema, we want a relationship with God.’ How do I discern or track it down within myself? We can do it when responding to some tribulations that Krishna sends us and yet turning to Krishna for help. Rupa Goswami compares devotees with the cataka bird, that will not drink water that fell to the ground but only raindrops, in spite of lightning coming from clouds. But it will yet only drink this kind of water. It’s not so difficult to track down this desire for liberation in oneself. These attempts, again, to achieve some unthinkable perfection, to convince everyone of your perfection. This is also desire for liberation because we want siddhis. And even a desire to see Krishna may be a desire for liberation because this is a kind of siddhi that we want to gain. Here, in Vraja, there are people who have seen Krishna. They are very few and they are called siddha-babas because they achieved siddhis and were granted saksad-darsan. But Krishna appreciates that we are doing our best, trying hard.   

Yesterday while we were travelling we had some ethnological experience so to say. Our driver was a remarkable vrajavasi, who is proud of being one, really. He says, ‘Krishna is ours. He is here. Everyone calls Him Kanhaya. He is ours. We do not worship Krishna. You may worship anyone but Krishna is simply ours.’ And asked him, ‘What’s your caste? Are you a ksatriya?’ His surname is Singh. He said, ‘Ksatriya, but, actually I am a krishna-bhakta. Krishna-bhakta and no one else.’ And he doesn’t do much. We are used to comparing other people’s bhakti by some criteria: who does what, how many lakhs one repeats etc.’ He drives a car, he brings up his children. He works day and night, 18 hours a day. He has two little daughters and he can hardly make ends meet. He says, ‘I could make three or four times more money in Delhi but I will never go to Delhi. I am here. I get as much as I need, it works. I am a krishna-bhakta and I am not leaving this place. Do you think Krishna will not accept him because he doesn’t chant the Hare Krishna mantra? Although he sometimes chews betel so that not to fall asleep while driving? Of course, if we can, we should chant. Krishna accepts some purity and simplicity of the heart.

Question: How do I transfer from ‘must’ to ‘love’, to do something with love? You said that we just should do what we can, to serve. I am quite allergic to these words, “do” and “serve”. I am interrested with love? 

Answer: How to transfer from ‘do’ to ‘love’? From this type of motivation to the other one? I am going over what Krishna is saying in Chapter 9 and I can’t find an explicit answer to this question. So, the answer is that you can move to ‘love’ due to association with those who love. I can’t say exactly whether it is there. He says the great souls mahatmanas tu mam partha daivim prakrtim asritah. But this is so to say an indirect thing. There is only one answer: we see a person who is doing something not because he has to, but because he loves. And we see how internally pure, calm and happy he is. And we also see that he hasn’t exhausted himself even doing more than we can imagine. When watching him we get to want to be like him and he shares with us a little bit of his desire, of this innocence of his and of his sincere relationship with Krishna. You see that he is doing his best and feel that it’s not all that simple, that there is a connection behind it. And due to that you develop a desire to do something and think what else you can do. Satatam kirtayanto mam. I guess there is only this answer.  

Question: Can I say that if you wish to do more and you do not feel depressed, you can do more? In the context of you saying that one should do things within sensible limits…

Answer: Of course! As long as you feel happy. The point is that one should do as much one feels happy doing. If we feel at some point that the happiness is gone… That’s what happened to me. I was doing the same thing but at some point this feeling of happiness was gone. I started thinking about it and I couldn’t get it. It was like that happy background scenery was shielded, taking the back seat. And it’s time to wonder what you are doing, what motivates you? It you are motivated by the right things, you will feel happy. 

Well, OK. I guess that’s all for now. It’s already taken us quite long. Yes?

Comment: If you press and squeeze out happiness everything’s fine, but if it’s something else…

Bhakti Vijnana Goswami Maharaja: A pressing test. To press one and see what comes out. If it’s happiness, that’s fine, but if it’s anger, annoyance or resentment, something’s wrong. This is a fact.