Inquiries into the Absolute: Digest 53

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Digest 53, Feb 23, 2003

 

Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

 

*** You are welcome to send in your questions to HH Romapada Swami at

iskcondc (AT) prastha (DOT) com with the word "Question" in the subject. ***

 

Q.1) Part 1:

 

Krishna says in BG "Surrender unto me and I'll take all your sins" but

sometimes we see a devotee of Krishna also suffers. So please explain how karma

affects a devotee (i.e. karma done in previous life, in this life and all

future karmas).

 

Answer.

Complete surrender to Krishna destroys all stages of karma, both a priori and a

posteriori, just as Krishna promises. In other words, a fully surrendered

devotee is NOT AFFECTED by karma.

 

How, then, are we to understand the devotee's suffering? Srila Prabhupada

likened this to a fan that is switched off, yet continues to rotate for a while

due to previous momentum. Similarly, when a person surrenders to Krishna, he

may continue to experience some of the effects of residual material

conditioning for a while, but they are soon depleted and destroyed.

 

Further, the suffering of a surrendered devotee is not exactly a karmic

reaction under the agency of the Lord's external energy. Rather, Krishna

Himself may give His devotee some token reaction just to purify him/her of any

residual material attachment or to increase their dependence on Him. This

suffering and the suffering of a non- devotee are not the same just as the

suffering of an orphan is not the same as the apparent suffering/punishment a

king's son might undergo in the process of being trained by the king.

 

Because of their confidence in the Lord's protection, a pure devotee actually

never suffers, even if externally they seem to be undergoing difficulties.

Being situated in transcendental knowledge by the Lord's grace, they know that

all suffering pertains only to the material body, which is simply a source of

suffering in any case, and is illusory. In fact Queen Kunti, in her famous

prayers, requests Krishna for more and more calamities because such calamities

are an opportunity for her ecstatic remembrance of Krishna and taking shelter

of His lotus feet! (SB 1.8.25)

 

Of course, to the degree one is surrendered, to that degree one becomes free

from past material reactions. And as far as their present and future karma is

concerned, a symptom of surrender is acting fully in accordance with the

directions of the Supersoul through the medium of scripture / spiritual master

and with the intention of serving Krishna. Therefore all such activities become

Krishna-karma and therefore free of material reactions.

 

 

Q.1 Part 2:

Please also explain what is the best method of surrender to Lord Krishna, so

that a devotee can become free from his sins at the earliest and engage himself

in the service of the Lord with full determination.

 

Answer:

As you have rightly pointed out, one cannot engage in devotional service with

full determination unless one is freed from sins. (Bg. 7.28) Yet the best

process for getting relieved from sinful reactions, and tendencies, is

devotional service! The process of surrender resolves this `chicken or egg

logic'. Even if one is not yet freed from all sinful reactions, one should

unhesitating accept Krishna as the supreme savior of all living entities. If

one thus surrenders to Him with faith and love, saying: "My dear Lord Krishna,

from this day I am Yours," then that devotee is absolved of all past karmic

reactions.

 

Our acharyas have identified the following six items as the specific

characteristics of the above said mood of surrender. The six-fold process of

saranagati constitutes: (1) becoming completely humble; (2) dedication of one's

self, body, mind and words and all one possesses to the Lord's service; (3)

accepting those acts favorable to pure devotion; (4) rejecting anything which

is adverse to pure devotion; (5) having complete faith that Krsna will surely

protect me and (6) seeing Krishna as one's sole maintainer. It should be noted

here that surrender is an ongoing process, not an event that happens in a

moment. It is accomplished by a mental culture and continuous practice of

living our day-to-day lives in these six ways of saranagati (Cf. Bhagavad-gita

As It Is Text 18.66 purport)

 

All this is best accomplished by taking shelter of an unalloyed devotee of

Krishna, a bona fide spiritual master and acting under their instruction. Our

surrender to Krishna can be best expressed through our surrender to His

instructions coming through His representatives, and by firmly acting under

their guidance we become free from sinful propensities and attain full

determination for devotional service.

 

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----- Festivals over the next week ------

Feb 26 2003, Wednesday Ekadasi Vijaya (Break fast 06:44-10:29) (Fast)

Feb 27 2003, Thursday Disappearance Sri Isvara Puri

Mar 01 2003, Saturday Siva Ratri

 

*** NOTE: All times are for Washington D.C, USA, EST ***

For festival information for your city please go to http://www.iskcondc.org and

click on 'Calendar'

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