How to surrender completely to Krishna?

Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear. Bg 18.66

After giving so many instructions to Arjuna, after describing the importance of Dharma and activities, the nature of the world, what is this, what is that, this is Krishna’s very last instruction. He ends all His teachings at this point. “Surrender unto Me.”

Now what?

Well as someone who has tried to follow this instruction, I can tell you it’s not easy and it’s not quick, and whatever you think it is, it’s not that either!

It is a journey into new territory, there are a lot of unexpected things that come up and many obstacles between us and full surrender.

In fact no one ever thinks they have surrendered completely to Krishna. The more advanced a person becomes in surrendering, the more useless they feel. It is not a ladder that we climb up by our own ability, it is a ladder that we descend. We descend from the point of thinking I have some value and I can do things, to the point of understanding I am helpless and totally dependent on Krishna. At some point the whole concept of surrender evaporates. We can only surrender if we have something to give up - somethings that is ours and we hand it over to someone else.

A defeated army or nation surrenders. “Stop, I give up, you can have whatever is mine.”

Complete surrender to Krishna is a little different. Although it is unconditional, we do have guarantees. But the big difference is that a fully surrendered person doesn’t see anything as being their’s in the first place. A bank employee who grandly declares that they renounce all the money in the bank, that they no longer claim any of the thousands of notes in the vaults or the billions in the accounts that they have access to, is actually an idiot. The money was never their’s in the first place.

So complete surrender means first to understand that nothing is ours anyway. Even our most treasured possessions, our body and mind, are not ours. We didn’t create them and they will be taken away from us one day.

So why does Krishna say surrender to Him if there’s nothing that we have to surrender?

Well we have one thing. We have our independence. That’s it. That’s all we can really claim as being ours, and that’s all we can really surrender. We can say “Dear Lord, from this day on, I am yours. Everything else is already yours, but from now on I surrender my independence. I will do only what you say, I will accept only what you give me, I will do nothing that is not connected with you, I will say nothing that is not about you, and I will push away any thoughts that do not include you.”

For some people this idea is repulsive. Every fiber in their body will object to such a servile and weak position. Such people will probably never fully understand what love and trust can be. This is an expression of pure love and complete trust. I’ll be the first to admit it is foolish in the material world, but it’s what we actually want, and only this is fully satisfying because it is what we are designed for.

Love and trust are the foundation of complete surrender, without them we can never fully surrender.

Lord Chaitanya came to give love for Krishna. He is Krishna Himself showing how to develop love for Krishna. With love comes full surrender.

Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu prayed, "You may handle me roughly in Your embrace or make me brokenhearted by not being present before me, but You are always my worshipable Lord, unconditionally."

If we want to completely surrender to Krishna we must take shelter of Lord Chaitanya. He is the most merciful incarnation of Krishna, because He freely gives love for Krishna. When you are in love then surrender is natural. Without it, it is a struggle.

Bhakti yoga is the process to develop love for Krishna and that is what Mahaprabhu taught. So practice Bhakti yoga, love Krishna, and then surrender comes naturally.

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