Nobody wants to surrender

Expressions researched:
"nobody wants to surrender"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

So unless you are prepared to surrender... That is a great difficult job for the materialistic person. Nobody wants to surrender. He wants to compete. Individually, person to person, family to family, nation to nation, everyone is trying to become the master. Where is the question of surrendering? There is no question of surrendering. So this is the disease. Therefore Kṛṣṇa demands that to cure this rascaldom, or most chronic disease, you surrender.

Lecture on BG 2.23 -- Hyderabad, November 27, 1972:

Kṛṣṇa asked in the Bhagavad-gītā that "You surrender unto Me." What can He do? He's God. He's Kṛṣṇa. He's ask you, orders you: "You surrender. I take charge of you." Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpe... But still, people misunderstood: "Oh, why shall I surrender to Kṛṣṇa? He's also a man like me. Maybe a little important. But why shall I surrender unto Him?" Because here the material disease is not to surrender. Everyone is puffed-up: "I am something." This is material disease. Therefore to become cured from this material disease, you have to surrender.

tad viddhi praṇipātena

paripraśnena sevayā

upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ

jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ

(BG 4.34)

So unless you are prepared to surrender... That is a great difficult job for the materialistic person. Nobody wants to surrender. He wants to compete. Individually, person to person, family to family, nation to nation, everyone is trying to become the master. Where is the question of surrendering? There is no question of surrendering. So this is the disease. Therefore Kṛṣṇa demands that to cure this rascaldom, or most chronic disease, you surrender. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). "Then? If I surrender, then whole thing will be failure? My business, my plans, my, so many things...?" No. "I take charge of you. I take charge of you." Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ. "Don't be worried." So much assurance is there. Still, we are not prepared to surrender, This is our material disease. Therefore Kṛṣṇa came again as a devotee just to show how to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Praṇipāta means surrender. So nobody wants to surrender, especially in this material world. Everyone thinks, "Oh, I am the lord. I am the monarch of all I survey. Why shall I surrender?"

Lecture on SB 1.1.2 -- London, August 16, 1971:

Praṇipāta means surrender. So nobody wants to surrender, especially in this material world. Everyone thinks, "Oh, I am the lord. I am the monarch of all I survey. Why shall I surrender?" Independent. Especially in the Western countries. They are refusing to surrender to the social laws, to the king's law, everything. But here is the process: surrender. Surrender means everyone is puffed up with some so-called knowledge, and he thinks that "I am perfectly all right. My knowledge is perfect. Why shall I surrender?" But if you want to receive knowledge actually from the person who has actually knowledge, then you must surrender there. This is the process. Just like Vyāsadeva first of all: paraṁ satyaṁ dhīmahi. This is surrender. Surrender. Without surrender, we cannot get knowledge. And in another... There are many places. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva. To understand God, Brahmā says, jñāne prayāsam udapāsya. Leaving, giving up this nonsense habit of speculation, "God is like this, God is like that," prayāsam, jñāne prayāsam... The jñānīs, they are discriminating, "No, this is not God." The scientists, they will say, "This is the fact." And then, one year after, "No, this is not fact. Now we have improved, another." And again, three years after, they will say another. There is no standard knowledge. What is the final knowledge, they do not know. Therefore these kind of speculative habits or scientific research is simply waste of time. They cannot understand what is the ultimate truth.

Praṇipātena means you must find out an able teacher, where you can surrender. So nobody wants to surrender, but if he sees that there is a greater personality than him, he surrenders.

Lecture on SB 2.3.25 -- Los Angeles, June 23, 1972:

Vaiyāsaki means Śukadeva Gosvāmī. He simply went on narrating. In the middle, there were some questions, intelligent questions, by Parīkṣit Mahārāja. Question is also required. If you simply hear, do not understand, just like dumb stone, that's not good. You should hear attentively, and as soon as there is some difficulty, you should question. Tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that you should understand... First of all surrender. Praṇipāta. Tad viddhi praṇipātena. Praṇipātena means you must find out an able teacher, where you can surrender. So nobody wants to surrender, but if he sees that there is a greater personality than him, he surrenders. That is nature. So this praṇipāta word means that you do not go for understanding Bhagavad-gītā and Bhāgavata to a store-keeper. You should go to a person where you can surrender. Tad viddhi praṇipātena (BG 4.34). And paripraśnena. And inquiry. And sevayā. You should not take... You should not inquire gratis; you must give service.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Guru means he is heavier than you. So otherwise, where is the question of surrender? Nobody wants to surrender.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Guru. Guru means he is heavier than you.

Guest (1): Heavier. Correct, correct.

Prabhupāda: So otherwise, where is the question of surrender? Nobody wants to surrender.

Dr. Patel: But the heavier, everyone...

Prabhupāda: Heavier means in knowledge.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

This material world means nobody wants to surrender. Everyone wants to become master: "I am the monarch of all I survey."

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Devotee (1): They came to Paris to see you, and when they learned that you were here, they came all the way here to...

Prabhupāda: Oh, give them this garland. (break) ...he begins with surrender. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). So anyone who voluntarily offers obeisances, immediately he becomes fifty percent advanced. Because.... Who is talking? This material world means nobody wants to surrender. Everyone wants to become master: "I am the monarch of all I survey." Everyone is planning how to become a master. Therefore the struggle for existence. Nobody wants to become a servant. You know very well in European history, Napoleon wanted to become the master of all Europe. Hitler wanted also. Similarly, there were so many leaders, sometimes Roman leaders, sometimes Greek leaders, sometimes French leaders, sometimes German leaders, English leader. The whole European history is full of fighting, war. The basic idea is that everyone wanted to become master. That is the material disease.