Liberation From Birth And Death🔗

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THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

ye tu sarvāṇi karmāṇi mayi sannyasya matparāḥ I ananyenaiva yogena māṁ dhyāyanta upāsate

But those who worship me with single minded devotion, renouncing all activities unto Me.

Surrender all your actions and the fruits of those actions to Krishna.

teṣām ahaṁ samuddhartā mṛtyu-saṁsāra-sāgarāt I bhavāmi na cirāt pārtha mayy āveśita cetasām regarding Me as their supreme goal, whose minds are set in Me, I shall deliver them soon from their ocean of the birth and death cycle.

Serve Krishna. Meditate upon Krishna. Consider attaining Krishna consciousness as your supreme goal. Be devoted to Krishna. It is Krishna's promise "When you surrender to Me, I shall liberate you.'

But those who worship me with single-minded devotion, renouncing all activities unto Me, regarding Me as their Supreme goal, whose minds are set in Me, O Pārtha, I shall deliver them soon from the ocean of the birth and death cycle.

Kṛṣṇa makes a promise here. Kṛṣṇa says unequivocally, 'I shall deliver them from their material existence, the ocean of saṁsāra, the cycle of life and death, mṛtyu-saṁsāra-sāgarāt. All that the Lord asks is that the devotee be devoted to Him. Kṛṣṇa says, 'If you surrender to Me, surrender all your actions and the fruits of those actions to Me, do my service, meditate upon Me, remain single-minded upon My consciousness, I shall then liberate you. I shall make sure you never need to be born again.'

It is the roar of a lion. It is the roar of the King of this Universe. 'Surrender to Me and I shall liberate you. Serve Me and I shall liberate you.'

To most of us, God is only a concept and we worship that concept. Most of the time, we beg of that concept. We pray, 'Give me this O Lord, give me that O Lord.' When we have one prayer answered, we begin the next. As long as God answers our prayers, as long as the Master provides us with what we ask for, our faith in Him lasts. The moment the prayer goes unanswered, our faith dissolves.

We move on to another God or Master.

We do not realize that often God does not answer our prayers out of sheer compassion, out of sheer love for us. From time to time, God in His infinite wisdom turns down our requests such as wanting to become rich, wanting to be well, wanting to have children, and so on.

We then move awaylisten. Surrendering to the Divine is not conditional. It must be total. There can be no 'ifs', 'ands', or 'buts'. It cannot be, 'If you grant my prayers, I shall be devoted to you.' That is business. Most of our relationship with God is business. from Him.

There are three kinds of surrender. First, there is surrender of one's intellect. For many, this is possible. Once we understand that there is a Universal energy far greater than us, most of us can accept and surrender intellectually to that supreme power. At least we can say, 'I surrender.'

That's how many of us prostrate in a temple or before a master. The entire body touches the ground signifying our surrender. For that moment, our ego takes a vacation.

Surrender at the next level is emotional. One can melt at the thought of God or master. There is love, there is gratitude pouring out of our hearts and we feel tears streaming down. We become bhaktas, devotees. Rāmakṛṣṇa said, 'If you have tears in your eyes when you think of God or your Master, be very clear, this is your last birth! You are ready for liberation.'

We are ready but not liberated until we reach the last and third step. This step of surrender is the surrender of one's senses. Our surrender is total at this stage: complete, spontaneous, instant and natural. Kṛṣṇa says, 'When you surrender to Me, I shall liberate you.'

To reach Him, we must surrender totally without deviation. Our senses must be surrendered to Him. Our entire consciousness, our complete awareness must only be of Him and nothing else. Nothing else needs to be done. The technique is so simple. Surrender and I shall save you,' says the Master.

The message of Krishna for the students is that Surrender is the simplest technique for liberation.

• ❖ Why is our faith in god or master conditional on our prayers being answered?
• ❖ Why does god sometimes not answer our prayers?
• ❖ What are the three kinds of surrender: intellectual surrender, emotional surrender and surrender of all senses?

PROCEDURE

An Art Critic is a person who specializes in analyzing, interpreting and evaluating visual arts. Look at this photograph with the eye of an Art Critic. What do you see?

The poet Rumi wrote about 'tears of devotion', thus: "There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of the Power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief and unspeakable love."

INFERENCE

If you have tears in your eyes when you think of God or your Master, it is gratitude pouring out of your heart. Emotional surrender prepares us for liberation.