What is surrender to Krishna means?
Sometimes, people ask ‘What do you mean by surrendering to Krishna?’. This can be explained by the following analogy.
Assume that you are in a house which is in a forest and you are on the most wanted list. The police came to know about your stay there. They surround that house. The police team lead announces ‘We got you. We surrounded your house from all sides. There is no way you can escape. Come out and SURRENDER yourself.’. Then, probably you have two options. Either to surrender or fight back and die. An intelligent person chooses to surrender himself. From that point onwards, you pretty much listen to whatever the police says.
That same thing applies to surrendering to Krishna. We listen to whatever Krishna says. We accept him as our controller and as a controller of everything. We don’t rebel. We follow his instructions precisely, as in the above example. We depend upon him for results. We do our job but depend up on him for protection. We accept the fact that we are not controllers but only Krishna is the controller. We become his servants. We follow his orders. Once we do this, we become karma-free and go back to his place, where there is no misery and is eternal.
We also align our goals with Krishna’s goals. Similar reasoning applies to our desires, ambitions, thoughts, ideas etc. Using the above analogy, you may have lot of plans but once you come under police custody your goals, desires and ambitions don’t matter any more. You follow their plan. The same thing applies to surrendering to Krishna also.
Then you may ask, ‘Am I not free to act? Am I simply supposed to act like slave to Krishna?’. Using the same analogy as above, it may look like punishment to you. But, its ultimately good for you. The police is making you undergo punishment so, you learn that the crimes will not be repeated again. Once you are reformed the police will set you free. Same thing applies here. We are creating a lot of karma here if we act on our own ways. Once you follow Krishna’s instructions, you become karma free. Which is better? To follow your own ideas and become bound by karmic reactions; or follow and surrender to Krishna and become karma free? You need to decide that for yourself.
Does that mean you loose your personality? NO. As in the above example, being good is part of your personality. We need to follow something either good or bad. We can’t be nothing. If we follow government laws, we wont be in trouble but can lead a decent life. Similarly, we will follow Krishna’s instructions which will eventually bring the best in us and will make our life more enjoyable and blissful. It acts as a catalyst. Srila Prabhupada once said that material opulence is like zeroes and Krishna is like one in the front of zeroes. Krishna’s instructions have been accepted by innumerable acharyas, sages, philosophers and even scientists in the modern age. If we try to understand those instructions and try to implement in your life then it can bring greatest results. And also, this is all voluntary. Krishna doesn’t want anyone to force his instructions on anyone. After instructing Arjuna, he said, “Do as you wish!”.You experiment yourself and decide for yourself.
You may ask, ‘What instructions do I need to follow?’. Well, there are about 650+ verses in Gita. You can start somewhere. There are people who by following one verse , they achieved their goals. Its also better process to accept a senior person who is following Gita sincerely as your mentor, just like we need to go to college to learn medicine. And the association of similar minded people following the Gita can make your learning super efficient. It also gives encouragement and inspiration.Try to attend our Gita study program and decide for yourself.
