Six Guidelines for Surrender

by mahananda dasa

Surrendering to Krsna is an ongoing process. It is not a dramatic emotional event where you just give up your self-motivation and become passive. Of course, sometimes when we are in a hopeless situation of material and mental impoverishment, at the "end of our rope" so to speak, we may call out to Krsna in sincere frustration and offer our lives to Him in full surrender. This can be quite heart-felt and "emotional," and this is a good platform to begin our new devotional life. From this point, one learns how to surrender to Krsna on a daily basis. So, surrender, what does this word mean in spiritual terms? We experience that it means different things to different people. To the bhakta who is following properly in the footsteps of the Vaisnava acaryas, the concept of surrender is different from others, such as impersonalists and voidists.   Nowadays, some think that surrender means something passive, to become free from your "ego." Their misconception is that if you want to do something because it is your desire, to do it because it's your own decision, it is egocentric or wrong. To do it properly somehow you need to be told by an "authority" and only then is it connected to Krsna. At least, many years ago this party line was very popular. I don't know if devotees have finally gotten beyond all that.                                                                                                                          But a bhakta is not interested in this type of impersonal thinking, and is never interested in doing away with his "ego." In his preaching, Srila Prabhupada never used this idea of ego as something to destroy, but rather he always referred to this idea of false ego as referring to this false identity of the embodied living entity with the material body as the self.   So, from studying Srila Prabhupada's words it becomes clear that there is no need to embrace this destructive philosophy of becoming selfless, because it is foreign and counter-productive to developing love of God. As we have heard a thousand times, identity is always there, we just need to change with what we identify. Change from "I am this body, and this is my family, this is my country," to a more enlightened "I am an eternally existing individual spiritual entity, whose sole purpose is to serve the Creator."   We are all expansions of Krsna, teeny little spiritual sparks identical to Krsna qualitatively -- eternal, full of knowledge and bliss -- and we were created by Krsna (everyone of us) to serve Him for His pleasure. Krsna is omnipotent and complete, so He requires nothing outside to be happy. Yet He creates unlimitedly to enjoy loving experiences with His devotees.   The idea of becoming "egoless" and passively surrendering our will in order to somehow act selflessly is not very appealing to the devotee of Krsna. It is like death, passively waiting for God to act through you, always afraid to act on your own initiative. Krsna did not want Arjuna to be like that. He wanted him to use all of his warrior skills and intelligence to fiercely kill the enemy. His surrender was that he did what he did, and what he did best, because it was exactly what Krsna wanted him to do.   We have in our philosophy six guidelines to follow so that all of our activities can lead towards Krsna consciousness and will bring the proper attitude and mental state to serve Krsna. It was Rupa Goswami who described these six guidelines of surrender in his book on bhakti-yoga, called Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, the authoritative how-to handbook for the science of devotional service. Later it was translated into English by our beloved Srila Prabhupada.   The first guideline listed is for us to accept whatever activity will advance us in Krsna consciousness. Forget asking, "Is this Ego?" Instead ask, "Will it advance me in Krsna consciousness?" If it will advance you and if you chose to do it, then you ARE surrendering to Krsna. If it purifies you rather than increases your bondage, then do it.   On the other hand, the second guideline for us to follow is to be determined to give up what does not bring us to Krsna. If an activity that we have an occasion to do will entangle us or further implicate us in material nature, then willfully deciding to give up that activity for the benefit of our God consciousness is surrendering to Krsna.   Everyday there are innumerable choices to make. So to develop this mood of surrender to Krsna we can practice making the right choices, though some of them can be difficult. Krsna informs us in the Bhagavad gita that our activities in sense enjoyment and our attraction to material opulence bewilders us, and undermines our determination to serve Him. Practicing giving up these things that bind us to the material world and separates us from Krsna will develop our surrendering mood and will help us to be determined to perform more devotional service.   The third guideline for us to follow is to become firmly convinced that only Krsna can protect us, and have firm faith that He will always give that protection. The realized devotee knows fully well that though he is constitutionally spiritual by nature and his identity is in awareness and consciousness, still he is temporarily covered by the material elements in the form of his present body. The Vedic scriptures warn that the material world is a very dangerous place. Krsna promises His devotee in the Bhagavad-gita that if he takes complete shelter of Him and fully depends on Krsna for protection, then He will certainly protect His devotee without a doubt. One should be convinced of this.   The body is not free and independent, but is under the strict laws of material nature and is in the tight grip of the three different modes of nature. The body is in the midst of this vast ocean of material energy and is part of it. It is constantly being tossed about by these three modes. Everything is completely out of the control of the teeny spirit soul. We only think that we have control, but in reality we have no control. We are helplessly being dragged about through dangerous situations, which are ever changing due to the constant interaction of goodness, passion, and ignorance.   Following our endless desires, Krsna, through the agency of His material nature, creates situations that satisfy those desires to falsely lord it over material nature. Not knowing what desires will actually satisfy us, we receive both good and bad results and suffer perpetually. But when we surrender to Krsna, He protects us from all those reactions that have accumulated for millions of lifetimes. Part of that surrendering process is becoming convinced about Krsna's firm promise to protect us under any circumstance.   We are always forced to accept the reactions of our material activities. This is due to ignorance. Out of ignorance the conditioned soul identifies with the action as the doer, therefore he is bound to accept the effect of that action. There is no escaping this law of cause and effect. For example, a foolish man not knowing the principles of religion, may decide to kill his business partner and take his share of the profits, which will increase his happiness when he spends that money. But, unknown to him, when the natural and fixed reactions are carried out by material nature, his future is very dark. Rather than more happiness he has created much suffering for himself. So, a conditioned entity does not know for sure what will be the results of his actions.   Understanding the helpless condition of each individual in the material atmosphere, it will behoove the bhakta to surrender to Krsna, Who is the source and controller of this energy, and beg His protection. If Krsna wants, He can pick us up from this vast ocean of illusory energy. Otherwise, though we are part of the superior nature, we will constantly be overwhelmed by these three modes, even though they are inferior by nature, due only to their immense vastness. (To be continued…)