BG In Essence - Suhotra Maharaja Archives

One who is fully surrendered is qualified with the six followingcharacteristics. (1) The devotee has to accept everything that isfavorable for the rendering of transcendental loving service to theLord. (2) He must reject everything unfavorable to the Lord's service.This is also called renunciation. (3) A devotee must be firmlyconvinced that Krsna will give him protection. No one else canactually give one protection, and being firmly convinced of this iscalled faith. This kind of faith is different from the faith of animpersonalist who wants to merge into the Brahman effulgence inorder to benefit by cessation of repeated birth and death. A devoteewants to remain always in the Lord's service. In this way, Krsna ismerciful to His devotee and gives him all protection from the dangersfound on the path of devotional service. (4) The devotee should acceptKrsna as his supreme maintainer and master. He should not think thathe is being protected by a demigod. He should depend only on Krsna,considering Him the only protector. The devotee must be firmlyconvinced that within the three worlds he has no protector ormaintainer other than Krsna. (5) Self-surrender means rememberingthat one's activities and desires are not independent. The devotee iscompletely dependent on Krsna, and he acts and thinks as Krsnadesires. (6) The devotee is meek and humble.One should be attracted by the beautiful vision of Krsna. His name is Krsnabecause He is all-attractive. One who becomes attracted by the beautiful, allpowerful,omnipotent vision of Krsna is fortunate. There are different kinds oftranscendentalists--some of them are attached to the impersonal Brahman vision,some of them are attracted by the Supersoul feature, etc., but one who isattracted to the personal feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and,above all, one who is attracted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead as KrsnaHimself, is the most perfect transcendentalist. In other words, devotional serviceto Krsna, in full consciousness, is the most confidential part of knowledge, andthis is the essence of the whole Bhagavad- gita.Notes:1. Unreserved surrender to Krsna is the method of devotion of the gopis, who are themost perfect transcendentalists.SB 11.12.13-15:All those hundreds of thousands of gopis, understanding Me to be theirmost charming lover and ardently desiring Me in that way, wereunaware of My actual position. Yet by intimately associating with Me,the gopis attained Me, the Supreme Absolute Truth. Therefore, Mydear Uddhava, abandon the Vedic mantras as well as the procedures ofsupplementary Vedic literatures and their positive and negativeinjunctions. Disregard that which has been heard and that which is tobe heard. Simply take shelter of Me alone, for I am the SupremePersonality of Godhead, situated within the heart of all contioned