4 types of people who surrender and 4 types of people who not surrender to krishna

4 TYPES OF PEOPLE WHO SURRENDER AND 4 TYPES OF PEOPLE WHO NOT SURRENDER TO KRISHNA.

These four types of people are described in the seventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. It is interesting to see the overview of chapter seven verses to understand these types of people who do and do not surrender to Krishna.

Overview of Chapter 7: Knowledge of the absolute

Q) WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN CHAPTER SIX AND CHAPTER SEVEN:

In the last two concluding verses of chapter Krishna describes the great goal of human life. Krishna concludes that a yogi is better than all others who endeavor for perfection (6.46). Krishna gives his final opinion that better than a yogi is the devotee who worships Krishna and thinks of Him in devotion. How is it possible to do this? How is possible to become such an elevated devotee, better than the great yogis in the Himalayas who perform great penance and austerities, even for many lifetimes?

Chapter Seven - H.E.A.D

H – Hearing (Verses 1-3)

E – Everywhere (Verses 4-12) 

A – Accept or Reject (Verses 13-19)

D – Demigods (Verses 20-30) 

TEXTS 1-3— "JUST HEAR"

To always think of Krishna in devotion, one must hear about Krishna and His supreme position (1)

In this chapter, Krishna will fully reveal Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the source of  both spiritual (numinous) and material (phenomenal) existence (2)

This knowledge is very rarely achieved (3)

TEXTS 4-7— THE SUPREME POSITION OF KRISHNA

Material energy consists of eight elements (4)

Superior to it is the living entity who is (a) Conscious and (b) can control matter (5)

Superior to both matter and spirit, however is Krishna - the origin of both (6)

Krishna however has no origin. Nothing is superior to Him. Everything depends on Him, as the existence of a pearl necklace depends upon its thread (7)

TEXT 8-12 EXAMPLES HOW EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON KRISHNA

Krishna is the essence and cause of all things.

Taste is the essence of water. Light, of the sun and moon. "Om," of the Vedas. Sound is the essence of space (ether). Endeavor is the essence of being human. (8)

Fragrance is the essence of earth and heat, of fire. The life force is the essence of all living beings. Penance is the essence of asceticism. (9)

The pradhana ( "bijam") is the cause and essence of all material entities. Intelligence is the essence of intelligent and power, of the powerful.(10)

Strength is the essence of strong. And regulations in sense gratification (sex life is the king of all sense gratification) is the essence of following religious principles (11)

Summary: Krishna says, "I am the essence and origin of everything in the modes of nature." This may raise a doubt: taste, strength, power, sexuality etc. are all objects within the three modes of nature. If Krishna is all of those things, is He also within the modes of nature? In answer Krishna states: "I am the origin of all these essences and I am the origin of the modes themselves. Therefore, I am never subordinate to them"(12)

TEXTS 13-19 — SURRENDERING TO KRISHNA

Why don't people know this about You?

Because they are bewildered by the three modes (13)

How can they get free from these modes?

My Maya, made of the three modes is very strong. They can never get free by their own efforts. Only by surrendering to  Me can one overcome (14).

Then why don't they surrender to you?

The impious miscreants (duskrti) do not surrender to Krishna for the following four reasons: (15)

1) They are simply attached to fruitive work - mudha

2) They have no genuine spiritual culture, and are attached, charmed and enamored to material "culture" - naradhama

3) They are attached to knowledge, the range of which only begins and ends with the material energy  - mayayapahrta-jnanah

4) They are attached to being independent controllers, so they are outright envious towards God, athiests - asuram bhavam asritah

Who does surrender ?

Pious people (sukrtinah) surrender to Krishna for the following four reasons: (16)

1) The distressed turn to Krishna for relief - aryan

2) The “wealth-wanters” turn to Krishna for success in business, family affairs etc. - artharthi

3) The inquisitive turn to Krishna for knowledge and inquiry - jijnasuh

4) The wise desire perfection, so they turn towards Krishna for self-realization and God-realization - jnani

Of these four, who is best?

The wise man is best because his attraction to Krishna is more pure and steady (17)

He is advances to give up material desires and gives his mind to Krishna. The other three are also dear (18)

After many life times the other three come to the platform of jnani. Then realizing that everything emanates from and is controlled (directly or indirectly) by Krishna – “Vasudeva sarvam iti" they finally become pure devotees - which is very rare (19)

TEXTS 20-24 —SURRENDERING BUT NOT TO KRISHNA

Many people turn to higher forces to fulfill their needs for relief, knowledge, opulence etc but not all of them surrender directly to Krishna. Some turn to demigods, other's to impersonal Brahman.

TEXTS 20-22 — THOSE WHO SURRENDER TO THE DEMIGODS

Persons controlled by material desires often surrender to demigods (20)  

However, it is Krishna who supplies both the faith offered by the worshipper (21) and the reward granted by the demigod (22)

Not knowing this less intelligent demigod worshippers ignore Krishna and thus achieve only temporary material rewards, whereas Krishna's devotees achieve unlimited eternal bliss in His association (23).

(The demigods are not bad people and worshipping them is not sinful! In fact the demigods are very pious living entities who administrate universal departments on behalf of the Supreme Lord. Worshipping demigods is a pious activity and respecting them as servants of the Supreme Lord is very important. What is condemned is the materialistic mentality of the demigod worshipper who thinks that the demigods are independent supreme personalities and bribes them to fulfill his illegitimate material desires).

TEXT 24—THOSE WHO WORSHIP THE IMPERSONAL BRAHMAN

The unintelligent think the impersonal Brahman is supreme. They imagine Krishna' form and pastimes to be temporary manifestations of Brahman in contact with the modes of nature.

(The demigod worshippers are called less intelligent since they at least worship some person as an authority and they respect Krishna along with all other demigods. They never insult the form of the Supreme Lord. They only have a lack of clarity about the position of the Supreme Lord and the demigods due to excessive attachment to material desires.

Those who worship the impersonal Brahman and meditate upon it are considered unintelligent as they avoid taking shelter and surrendering to any person or authority. They simply imagine that the root cause of everything is some spiritual light and even Krishna has a temporary form, which was produced from that light and will merge back into that light. That is an insult to the transcendental, beautiful form of the Supreme Lord).

Now that we have discussed how people surrender to many things like personal power, intelligence, wealth, demigods, meditation, impersonal brahman we shall briefly see why people don’t surrender to Krishna.

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