Translation
This is
the grand finale of the Gita. After advising the entire Gita to Arjuna, Krishna
asks him to surrender to him completely.
In this verse,
Krishna says, ‘Abandon (partityajya) all dharma (sarva dharman) and just
surrender (sharanam vraja) unto Me alone (mam ekam). I shall deliver you (moksha
ish yami) from all sins (papebhyo). Do not fear (ma shuchah).’
What is surrender
or sharanagathi?
In the
simplest terms, it means not having a plan B and having complete trust in Krishna,
irrespective of the results. The results may not always be what we desired, but
if have surrendered unto him then we should have complete trust that what he
does is for our best.
Krishna begins advising the Gita to Arjuna only after he surrenders completely – śhiṣhyaste ’haṁ śhādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam (BG 2.7) - 'I am Your disciple, and I
surrender to You. Please instruct me for certain what is best for me.'
If we desire to experience Krishna's grace, surrendering to Him is the only way.
The story
of Gajendra from Srimad Bhagavatam.
Indradyumna
was a pious and noble king. Once, while he was meditating, Sage Agastya came to
see him but the king was lost in meditation and did not welcome the sage.
Angered by this, Agastya cursed him to be reborn as an elephant that instant.
Indradyumna
was reborn as Gajendra, a powerful elephant king who lived in the lush Trikuta forest
with his wife, children and herd. One day, while enjoying a bath in a lake with
his herd, a crocodile suddenly caught his leg.
Gajendra
tried for several hundred years to free himself. He first used all his strength,
then his family tried to help, but nothing worked. Eventually, he was exhausted
and helpless. Gajendra realized that his own power was not enough.
In that
moment of total surrender, he turned inward and prayed deeply to Vishnu,
calling out with complete faith. He offered a lotus with his trunk and cried
for divine help.
Moved by
his sincere surrender, Vishnu immediately appeared, riding the Garuda. He
swiftly defeated the crocodile and freed Gajendra. The crocodile was also a
cursed Gandharva king name Huhu, who was liberated when the Sudarshana chakra
severed his head. Gajendra too attained spiritual liberation through his
devotion.
The Story
of Draupadi’s Vastraharan.
The evil
Dushasana gleefully pulled Draupadi’s robes even as she pleaded for help in the
court of King Dhridharashtra. She first begged the king to stop his son. When
that failed, she pleaded with the court elders like Bheeshma, Guru Dronacharya
and Kripacharya. They pleaded their inability to help her. Then she turned
towards her husbands, but they were bound by Duryodhana’s wicked rules. Helpless
from all quarters, she used the strength in her hands to hold her robe, and
finally clutched at her robe with her teeth. That is when she realised that,
her own power could not hold on for long.
She let
go of her robes and raised her hands in surrender to Krishna. At that very
moment, a miracle occurred. As Dushasana pulled at her robes, it became
endless. No matter how much he tried, the cloth kept extending infinitely,
protecting her dignity. Exhausted, he finally collapsed, unable to disrobe her.
The
essence of both the stories is simple yet thought-provoking: when our ego and self-reliance
give way to surrender with complete faith, divine grace responds.
Does it
mean we should give up our efforts?
Not at
all. Gita urges us to do our work with complete dedication – śhreyān
swa-dharmo – BG 3.35; satataṁ kāryaṁ karma samāchara – BG 3.19; karmaṇy-evādhikāras te – BG 2.47
The
simple learning from this most important verse is that Krishna asks us to work
hard, but give up the fruits of our efforts and surrender to him completely
trusting that he knows what we deserve.
Why
surrender?
Surrender,
because He knows best.
If we
look at a simple worldly example, when we are unwell and we go to the doctor,
we don’t tell him what to prescribe, neither do we instruct the doctor to give
us tablets instead of an IV. We may not like to be pricked with a needle, but the doctor knows it is best for us at that given time. We leave it to him because we trust that he knows
best. If we can surrender our life to a mortal, can we not surrender to Krishna? Even if the results are not what we expected, we must still trust that he knows what's best for us at that given time.
Surrender,
because He’ll never let go of us.
To give another example, when a father throws the child high up in the air, the child laughs, enjoying the thrill of flying up. She is not worried whether her father will catch her or let her fall to the ground as she comes down. The father can still make a mistake and drop the child, but Krishna will never let go. He’ll catch us the minute we call for him.
