Surrender (The Most Auspicious Decision)

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Shrila Prabhupada

In the book Caitanya-mangala, by Srila Locan Dasa Thakur, it is recorded that Narada Muni, while visiting the spiritual world, came upon Lord Gauragga. The Lord told him of His mission to destroy the sinful activities of the Age of Kali. "With the powerful chopper of nama-sankirtana," He said, "I'll cut the hard knots of demoniac desires from the hearts of everyone. Even if the sinners reject religion or flee to foreign countries, still they will get My mercy. I will send mor senapati-bhakta to go there and deliver them."

Mor senapati-bhakta refers to that commanding acarya who will be empowered by Lord Caitanya to lead His sankirtana movement. That acarya, whom Lord Caitanya referred to, is Srila Prabhupada, who is destined to spread Krishna consciousness all over the world.

Shrila Gopal Krishna Goswami

He was born in Delhi on August, 14, 1944. He became an initiated disciple of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in 1969 and accepted the renounced order of life, Sannyas in 1982.

Currently he is GBC of ISKCON around the world. He successfully opened the Sri Sri Radha-Parthsarathi temple in New Delhi, amongst many throughout the world. Following in the footsteps of his spiritual master, He is spreading Krishna Consciousness all over the world by giving people, transcendental knowledge, and guidance resulting in solace, happiness and love of God.

Religion means to surrender unto God. At the end of Bhagavad-gita, Krsna, says, "Sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekarh Saranam vraja — give up all other religious principles and simply surrender unto Me.

Referring to this very verse, Srila Prabhupada in a lecture on May 8, 1976, Honolulu, says "Krsna has come to you to give you nice instruction how you can go back to home, back to Godhead.....If somebody says, good man, that "You surrender. I shall give you good instruction," "Oh, why shall I surrender to you?" That is material life. But this Krsna consciousness movement begins when you are ready to surrender. That is beginning.....To learn the surrender, it will take many, many births, bahainadm janmandm ante. But those who are intelli- gent, they will surrender immediately: "Krsna says ‘Surrender, and why not? Krsna is the Supreme Lord. Let me surrender." Then his life is successful, immediately. Within a second his life is successful. But we are not prepared to surrender. That is our material disease. So if we do not surrender to Krsna and take His instruction and make our life, that is our choice. But if you like, you can make your life successful within a moment simply by surrendering to Krsna."

If we follow Krsna’s instructions, these will eventually bring out the best in us and will make our life more enjoyable and blissful. Srila Prabhupada once said that material opulence is like zeroes and Krsna is like one in front of those zeroes. If we try to understand those instructions and try to implement them in our lives, then we can achieve the greatest success.

All the men who surrender to Krsna are pious. Unlike the miscreants, these people follow the regulative principles of the scriptures, the moral and social laws, and are, more or less, devoted to the Supreme Lord. When these four kinds of persons come to the Supreme Lord for devotional service and are completely purified by the association of a pure devotee, they also become pure devotees.

Devotees are those who follow the regulative principles. One cannot be independent and at the same time become a devotee because all devotional activities are based on surrender. So, in the association of devotees we learn this important aspect—how to surrender, but if we keep our independence and try to become devotees, that is not possible.

But in the devotional service of the Lord the only qualification required is surrender. Surrendering oneself is in one’s own hand. If one likes, he can surrender immediately, without delay, and that begins his spiritual life.

This book entitled as "Surrender - The Most Auspicious Decision" is compiled from the lectures of Srila Gopala Krsna Gosvami. He is tirelessly and dedicatedly preaching and serving in the mission of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Svami Srila Prabhupada for the past fifty years. While traveling to different parts of the world, he enlightens various kinds of people through his discourses from the Vedic scriptures like Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita. This book is a humble attempt to present some of these discourses that are filled with transcendental yet very practical realizations.

I would like to express my gratitude to many devotees who have helped me in various capacities to publish this work. I want to thank Guru Carana Dasa for spending several arduous hours in transcribing the audio lectures. I would also like to thank Ganga Sakti Devidasi and Nandani Ripa Devidasi for their transcribing and proof-reading services. I am indebted to Sitarani Devidasi and Ananda Caitanya Dasa for their editorial services. I am very thankful to Anittama Hari Dasa for his service, Bhaktin Richa Jha for sketches and Divya Kegava Dasa for beautiful cover design.

Last but not the least, I beg forgiveness from all those who have been with me over the course of many years and whose names I have failed to mention.