Verse: Saranagati
Date: September 15th, 2010
Place: ISKCON UJJAIN, INDIA
Transcription: Atul Krishna Dasa, Ashim Krishna Dasa, Nimesh, Ranga Radhika Dasi and Ramananda Raya Dasa
Editing: Atul Krishna Dasa, Ashim Krishna Dasa, Nimesh, Ranga Radhika Dasi and Ramananda Raya Dasa
What is today topic? Who remembers? How many we have covered so far? Out of six we covered only two – dainya and atmanivedan. So, what is the third one? Third one is, very good, goptritve varan. Saranagati, surrender to Krishna has six angas, six limbs or six steps, six aspects that we discussed the other day. First day, when we were introducing the topic, dainya, atma-nivedana, goptritwe barana abasya rokhibe krsna biswasa palana; bhakti-anukula-matra karjera swikara bhakti-pratikula-bhava barjanangikara Humility, surrender of the self – atmanivedam, goptrite varan – accepting Krishna as the only shelter, accepting Krishna as the Lord and master. So, in this chapter also, Bhaktivinoda Thakur wrote many songs. Many means, in this chapter Bhaktivinoda Thakur wrote six songs. We have selected just one. It goes like: ki jani ki bale, tomara dhamete, hoinu saranagata – I do not know due to what good fortune bole always means “strength”, with what strength. But it actually means due to what good fortune I have taken shelter of Your lotus feet. I have come to your shelter. The only reason is that, tumi doya-moy, patita-pabana, I do not know how I came to your shelter. But You are most merciful tumi doya-moy, patita-pabana – You are delivering the fallen souls. Patita-tarane rata. You are always engaged in delivering the fallen souls. Patita-tarane rata. So that is, I do not know how I came to take shelter of Your lotus feet, but You are very merciful, You are the most merciful. You are the deliverer of the fallen souls and You are always engaged in saving, rescuing the fallen souls and since You have seen that I am so fallen, You have delivered me. Bharasa amara, ei matro natha. Bharasa amara means my only hope is only this. bharasa amara, ei matro natha tumi to karuna-moya. My only hope is that that your are very merciful. taba doya-patra, nahi mora sama, abasya ghucabe bhoya. There is no one as deserving a candidate as I am. Taba doya-patra I am the candidate for your mercy. Nahi mora sama, no one is there as deserving as I am, abasya ghucabe bhoya, I am confident that you will free me from my fearful condition. You will surely drive away all fear.amare tarite, kaharo sakati, abani-bhitore nahi – In order to deliver me, kaharo sakati no one has the strength, abani-bhitore nahi – no one has the strength in this abani, abani means the earth planet. In the entire planet there is no one who has the strength to deliver me. Doyala thakura! ghusana tomara, adhama pamare trahi. But, my merciful Lord, ghusana tomara – You have broadcasted, You have announced that You will deliver the fallen souls. No one else has the power to deliver me, o my merciful Lord. By Your declaration kindly deliver this vile and lowly sinner. Doyala thakura! ghusana tomara, adhama pamare trahi. You will deliver the fallen souls. Sakala chariya, giving up everything, asiyachi ami , I have come, tomara carane natha, at Your lotus feet, my dear Lord. Sakala chariya, asiyachi ami, tomara carane natha, ami nitya-dasa, tumi palayita, tumi gopta, jagannatha! I am, ami nitya dasa , I am Your eternal servant and, tumi palayita, You are my protector, you are my maintainer, tumi gopta, jagannatha, You are my Lord and master, You are the Lord of the Universe. I am Your eternal servant and You are my protector and maintainer, o Lord of the Universe. tomara sakala, ami matro dasa, amara taribe tumi Everything is Yours, tomara sakala, everything belongs to You. I am merely a servant. Certainly, that You will deliver me. tomara carana, korinu barana, amara nahi to ami Now that, I have accepted Your lotus feet. I am not mine any more, amara nahi to ami, I do not belong to me anymore, I have become Yours. Bhakativinoda, kandiya sarana, loyeche tomara paya. Bhaktivinod Thakur, crying, has taking shelter at Your lotus feet. khomi aparadha, name ruci diya, palana korohe taya. Forgiving his offences, name ruci diya, and by giving him the taste of the holy names, and, khomi aparadha, name ruci diya please, You maintain him. So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur is appealing to Krishna that with tears in my eyes, kandiya sarana, loyeche tomara paya, Bhaktivinoda has now taken shelter at Your lotus feet, please, forgive him for all his offences and give him the taste for the Holy Names. name ruci diya, palana korohe taya, maintain him, please. So, this is how we have to accept Krishna as the Lord and master. Who is your Lord and master? Sri Krishna. That is the main understanding.
This morning someone, someone means Sudeshna devi dasi came to me, today is her birthday. So, we will celebrate it also in the evening. So, she came to offer obeisances to me and She was telling me that she can’t remember. She reads but can’t remember. I have seen this problem with many devotees. They try to memories verses but they can’t and especially when we become old, our memory becomes weak. When we are young men, we can memorize things very quickly. That is why it is important that when we are young, we are trained to memorize. Anyway, so I was telling her that you have to memorize only three things, you have to remember only three things. All of us have to remember only three things. Those three things are- Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we are his eternal servant. Krsna is the supreme personality of Godhead and you are his servant and your main business, your only business is to serve Him. Since you are his servant, what should you do? Go for a walk? If you are his servant, then you have to serve Him. That is the relationship between servant and master. Is it very difficult to remember these three things? If you can remember these three things and if you can mold your life according to this understanding, you will, you will achieve your perfection, spiritual perfection. If you can leave of body with this understanding, yet if at the time of death, we can remember these three things – Krsna is God, I am his servant and my business is to serve Him. So does it need the brain of a rocket scientist? Or anybody, even a child can remember these? How many of you can remember this ? [In reply devotees answered affirmative and gurumaharaj said]Very good. So now live lead your life with this understanding – Krsna is the Lord and Master. That is what we are discussing here today. Who is your Lord and Master? Why? Is it difficult to understand why Krsna is our Lord and Master? Who is the Lord? Who owns. Lord means the owner. So who owns everything? Who owns everything, who knows? Those who really know, raise both of your hands and say Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
So now, tell me who is your Lord and Master? Who owns everything? Krsna [one devotee replied].And if He is the master of everything, then is He my master also? Is He your Master also? So just remember that He is your Lord and Master. If you remember that He is your Lord and Master will it be difficult to surrender to him or if you don’t know that He is your Lord and Master, Will it be easy to surrender to Him? Will it be easy? It’ll be very difficult because your question will be why should I surrender to Krsna? Why should you surrender to Krsna? Let us consider a simple consideration. How many of you are working in an office or under some body? Ok. So you have a boss. Right? Those who are working you have a boss. How many of you have boss? Ok. Now why do you accept him as your boss? Why? Boss means what? The English word boss means master. Isn’t it? So why did you accept him as your boss? Simple consideration is because at the end of month, he gives you money? If he didn’t give you money, will you accept him as your boss? No. So because he gives you money and you think you need money, so you have accepted him or that company as your lord and master. Right? So now consider what he is giving you? Your boss is giving you? What does he give you? He gives you some money and why do you need money? If I ask you why do you need money? You will say to buy food. You need money to buy food. Right? Now who is giving the food? Who is giving the food? Let’s consider how does the food come. You may say, the food is there in the shop. And you have to go and the shopkeeper owns the food. So you pay the shopkeeper the money and you get the food. But did the shopkeeper really produce the food? Who produced the food? The farmer produced the food. And how did the farmer produce the food? What did he do? He prepared the land and he sowed the seed. And from the seed the plants came. Did the farmer produce the seed in his laboratory? Who produced the seed? Krsna. And only seed will not do. You have to plant the seed onto the land. Whose land is it? Krsna’s land. Only planting the seed will not do, you need water. And where did the water come from? From rain. So did the farmer produce the rain? Who produced the rain? Krsna. Just rain is not enough. You need the sunrays also to make the plant grow. Who created the sun? Krsna. Even sun is not enough. It was the moon rays that actually moon is full of nectar. And through the rays moon actually sends the nectar that goes into the plant that comes out into the form of fruits or grains. So who produced the moon? Krsna [devotees repliedloudly].So who is providing us the food? Krsna
[devotees replied]
What is the most important factor for being alive? Air to breath [devotees replied mildly].Air to breath. And who is supplying the air? Is somebody supplying the air or is it in the atmosphere? You may say ” air, air nobody supplying, it’s there”. Ok, if it is there, then let us consider – we are taking oxygen. What are we inhaling and what are we exhaling? What we are doing? We are giving carbon-di-oxide. We So it is for ,So many people, so many animals, so many birds, so many reptiles-they are all breathing oxygen and given on carbon-dioxide. So what do the happen naturally? Wouldn’t the atmosphere become filled with carbon- dioxide? But did it happen? Why not? The trees are taking carbon-dioxide. Trees and plants are giving out oxygen. Did somebody make this arrangement or it just happened by chance? Somebody must have make the arrangement. Who made the arrangemnent? Who is maintaining you? Krsna [devotees replied].So that is the thing. Gopta means the maintainer. So the one who is maintaining you, He is the Lord, right? So if you only recognize that Krishna is your maintainer and then only, just as it says tumi palayita, “You are the maintainer,” and, “You are the Jagannath, You are the Lord of the universe.” So that is how we have to systematically, scientifically understand that Krishna is our Lord and master. That is the meaning of practicing devotional service. We are practicing devotional service for what? To become a servant of Krishna, that is the only purpose of our devotional service. Now, we don’t realise that we are the servant, because for so many lifetimes we have been thinking that we are the Lord and Master. Because we are so stupid, we don’t think deeply enough. We simply thought, “Oh I have got so much, I am so qualified, I have so much money, so I am the Lord and master.” But it never occurred to us that if Krishna didn’t supply the food, we would be dead long time ago. If Krishna didn’t supply the air, we would have been dead long time ago.
Another example I often think of is the earth planet, what is the size, shape of the earth planet? The shape of the earth planet is round, and where are we situated? Where are we situated? The earth is round and we are situated inside the earth or outside the earth? On the surface of the earth, yes we are situated. And is the earth static or is the earth moving? Earth is moving. Now you consider a round object and you put something here, if it moves, what will happen? The thing will fall off. So shouldn’t we have fallen off? But did it ever happen? Did anybody ever got deflected into the space? Did it ever happen? And do you know with what speed earth is moving? Earth is moving almost at a speed of thousand kilometres per hour, one thousand kilometres per hour. A plane generally moves at about, at a speed of seven hundred kilometres per hour. But can the plane catch up with the thing? Only supersonic planes can; like, there used to be a concord aircraft, it was supersonic, and that could move beyond the speed of earth. Supersonic means? What is the speed of sound? No, no, not sound, the movement of earth, at what speed earth is moving? Oh no, no, I’m sorry, sound. Yeah, I’m sorry, ok [devotees reply]. In miles or kilometres? How many kilometres per hour? Ok, so the thing is around 750 kilometres or 800 kilometres and that speed is called the most, speed of sound is called knot, Mach, I’m sorry. And it goes into? So the concord used to move at the speed of two Machs, about two Machs. That means about sixteen hundr…sixteen hundred, seventeen hundred, and that could actually go beyond time. Like once I took a flight in concord from Paris, I left Paris to New York, I left Paris at eleven o’clock in the morning and I arrived in New York at eight o’clock in the morning. So I saved three hours.
Anyway, so earth is moving at such a tremendous speed, can you imagine? Moving at a speed of about thousand or eleven hundred kilometres per hour? And we are situated on that, on the surface of the earth, shouldn’t we have been thrown into the space long time ago? But did it ever happen? Did you ever hear that somebody got thrown into the space because the earth is moving? Why not? Because of, because of the gravitational pull. Now who created this gravity? We may say gravity, gravitational pull, but who created it? Did somebody arrange it? Krishna. So is Krishna maintaining you? Is Krishna taking care of you all the time? So if He is maintaining us, then isn’t it natural that we should accept Him as our Lord and master? So that is the point. So that is what we have to understand, and that’s what we have to remember. Not blindly, we should accept it, but thoughtfully, with proper intelligent analysis and reasoning. Ok, so now we’ll sing this song, as we just sang, we just discussed ki jani ki bale, tomara dhamete, hoinu sharanagata: “I do not know with what strength I have, I do not know due to what good fortune I have taken shelter of You…”
Anyway, we’ll just skip the translation. Ki jani ki bale, tomara dhamete, hoinu sharanagata; tumi doya-moy, patita pavana, patita tarane rata; bharasa amara, ei matra natha, tumi to karuna-moy; tava doya-patra, nahi mora sama, avashya raksh…avashya ghuchabe bhoy; amare tarite, kaharo shakati, avani-bhitore nahi; doyala thakura! ghoshana tomara, adhama pamare trahi; sakala chadiya, asiyachi ami, tomare charane natha! ami nitya-dasa, tumi palayita, tumi gopta, jagannatha! tomara sakala, ami matra dasa, amara taribe tumi; tomara charana, korinu varana, amara nahi to’ ami; bhakativinoda, kandiya sharana, loyeche tomara pay; kshami aparadha, name ruchi diya, palana korohe tay.
So, you’ll be able to sing with me? How many of you will be able to sing with me? Very good, how many of you want to sing with me? Thank you. [Maharaj sings]
1.ki jani ki bale, tomara dhamete, hoinu saranagata tumi doya-moy, patita-pabana patita-tarane rata
2. bharasa amara, ei matro natha! tumi to karuna-moya taba doya-patra, nahi mora sama, abasya ghucabe bhoya
3.amare tarite, kaharo sakati, abani-bhitore nahi doyala thakura! ghusana tomara, adhama pamare trahi
4. sakala chariya, asiyachi ami, tomara carane natha! ami nitya-dasa, tumi palayita, tumi gopta, jagannatha!
5. tomara sakala, ami matro dasa, amara taribe tumi tomara carana, korinu barana, amara nahi to ami
6.bhakativinoda, kandiya sarana, loyeche tomara paya khomi aparadha, name ruci diya, palana korohe taya Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Jaya Srila Prabhupada! So today I won’t take any questions, and at ten o’clock there will be initiation. So those who are getting initiation you all fast till the initiation. And those who are not taking initiation who are already initiated, you can go and have your breakfast. So ten o’clock we will have initiation ceremony here. Hare Krishna! Thank you very much. Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!