Chapter 11: Loving Surrender

Knowledge is our enemy, because knowledge in this world is all misleading. Its very basis is misleading. However spacious it may be, it is the negligible part of the infinite. We have collected, gathered, and pushed into our brain all misleading misrepresentation. Our brains are full of misleading māyā, misunderstanding. So that is our enemy. We have to clear these things out and put in fresh things that are indented from the other world by pure sources. The theoretical is one thing, the practical another. Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī has quoted:

jñānataḥ sulabhā muktir bhuktir yajñādi puṇyataḥ
seyaṁ sādhana-sāhasrair hari-bhaktiḥ sudurlabhā

[Mahādev says] “By practice of enlightenment, jñāna, liberation is attained easily enough. By pious work such as sacrifice, yajña, etc., worldly pleasure in the next life is attained easily enough. But devotion for the Supreme Lord, Hari-bhakti, is very rarely attained.”

By cultivating our knowledge of soul, we can attain mukti, that is, emancipation or liberation from miscalculation relatively easily. Though it is not so easy, still, considering the wicked nature of the environment, in a general sense one can easily renounce everything; by elimination, elimination, elimination — all elimination, for reaching something like sound sleep. That is mukti. Permanent sound sleep.

And we can gather our things of enjoyment by yajña, altruistic action. If we take altruistic action, then as a reaction they will come back to us, for our satisfaction and pleasure.

But our real wealth, devotion to Hari, is not so easily attained. Sādhana-sāhasraiḥ: despite thousands of practices by the aspirant, still it is sudurlabhā; it may or may not be acquired. Because, that is to acquire friendship with the Autocracy. Our enjoyment is ‘labour and live’. If we loan some labour to another, that may come back to us. So, by the help of our labour and by the distribution of that labour, we can easily get future enjoyment. Also, by practicing our sincere disgust with the present mortal environment, we can encourage our ego towards salvation. That is complete renunciation, cutting off all connection with the environment, samādhi, just like sound sleep. But to have affectionate connection with the Autocratic Infinite, that is hardly to be acquired.

Hari-bhaktiḥ-sudurlabhā. And the gradual process of how one is to acquire that is also traced in Śrī Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu:

kleśa-ghnī śubhadā mokṣa-laghutā-kṛt sudurlabhā
sāndrānanda-viśeṣātmā śrī-kṛṣṇākarṣiṇī cha sā

Kleśa-ghnī: all the afflicting tendencies in your mind gradually diminish. So many things — the proposal of subtle finer mundane happiness may come to try and dissuade you from this path. They are obstacles, and your sincere negligence to them develops. Śubhadā: all auspiciousness is given to you. Mokṣa-laghutā-kṛt: the third result is that you shall trace that mukti, the result of mere renunciation, that is, relief from the influence of the negative side, now appears to be a very small achievement. The consciousness will awaken in you that mere withdrawal from the negative side is a very insignificant achievement. Mokṣa-laghutā-kṛt, sudurlabhā: if you can only feel or experience that the goal of renunciation is insignificant, it is of a lower order, does that mean you will get bhakti? No. There is no such guarantee. Even at that stage, bhakti remains far away from you.

Sāndrānanda-viśeṣātmā: then if somehow by chance you come in connection with that reality, you will find some fundamental awakenment that infinite happiness is approaching you. Śrī-Kṛṣṇākarṣiṇī cha sā: and further, if you can continue your devotional activity in a proper line, you will find that He is coming to you as Kṛṣṇa Himself, in the conception of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The Kṛṣṇa concept is coming to you as Kṛṣṇa Himself.

‘Kṛṣṇa’ means the full embodiment of all types of ecstasy. That is approaching, or you are being allowed to have His nearer conception, as the fulfilment of your devotional activities of life. In this way, things progress.

So die to live — dive deep into reality — jñāna-śūnyā-bhakti. The area of surrender is so high, noble, great, and fulfilling. That can come. That can only take us in the plane of love and affection. If we hope to see and to live in that plane of affection and love, not this mundane affection and love, but the love of the Absolute, then we must accept complete surrender at His disposal, at His mercy. The reaction comes as love. With your highest contribution of faith towards Him, He will be aroused and He will come to accept You on His lap.

So, no risk no gain, and that is risk towards the whole: devotion proper. It is not merely a sum total of some certain activities, or a type of study — never. Practically, it is concerned with the soul, with the inner existence of us. Giving and taking must take place from the innermost part of our heart. It is not a game to play with! No superficial knowledge or bodily or mental labour can touch it. It is the dealing of the heart to heart. And that is wholesale.

Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya. In this world we are proud of our mania for knowledge and worldly energy: bodily or mental energy and knowledge about so many falsified things. But He can withdraw everything. Scientists may have discovered a certain law, but if He withdraws, it will be nowhere. Nothing is possible unless backed by His will. ‘Let there be water, there was water; let there be light, there was light.’ If we can find some faith in this, then we shall perceive that everything is designed and destined by Him. So what is the utility of some provisional incident? If He wishes, He may make or mar. The law may be reversed by His sweet will. The origin of the world is such. He is an independent designer, like a great master hypnotist.