Some people ask, “Surrender to Krishna requires abandoning our desires and abiding by his will. Isn’t that frustrating?”
No, it isn’t frustrating if we just see beyond our surface desires to what lies below them – the universal longings for peace and shelter and love – and understand how surrender fulfills these longings.
The supreme peace coming from surrender refers not to the short-lived cessation of hostilities in a conflict-filled world, but the everlasting reconciliation of the human heart with the divine heart.
The Bhagavad-gita (18.62) declares that surrender to the indwelling Lord will bestow two results: supreme peace (paraam shantim) and eternal place (shaashavata sthaana). Actually these were the two things sought by the Pandavas. They wanted a place, their rightful kingdom that the Kauravas had unscrupulously stolen. And they also wanted peace – being virtuous they didn’t want to fight unnecessarily with anyone, leave alone their relatives. But peace and place seemed mutually exclusive. To get the place, they needed to fight against the Kauravas. To get peace, they needed to relinquish their place.
This Gita verse assures that surrender would bestow the Pandavas both peace and place – not necessarily in the way they thought, but in the best possible way. The supreme peace coming from surrender refers not to the short-lived cessation of hostilities in a conflict-filled world, but the everlasting reconciliation of the human heart with the divine heart. This reconciliation connects our consciousness with Krishna, who being the ultimate unchangeable reality provides supreme stability, irrespective of the presence or absence of outer peace. And the eternal place attained through surrender is Krishna’s personal abode, the soul’s highest destination. There, we relish the ultimate fulfillment of an ecstatic life of eternal love. And we never fall back to this world, where our desires for happiness are frustrated repeatedly and inevitably.
Therefore, if we can just be enterprising enough to not let small desires hold us back from Krishna, then surrender will propel us to life’s supreme fulfillment.
Hare Krishna prabhuji excellent article as ever..
Life without Krishna is just a dream and we’ll simply keep osciallating between happiness and sorrow…etc. We should stay undisturbed by material duality and execute our duties in Krishna Consciousness. KRishna will give us the strength, we just need to firmly surrender and focus on serving him without material expectations