Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In our last offering on the story of Mrgari, we saw the importance of surrendering to a spiritual master. Let us continue to meditate further on the lessons from the story.
11. Full Surrender Attracts the Mercy of Spiritual Master: We saw how upon the assurance given by Narada muni, the hunter broke his bow and immediately surrendered to Narada muni.
Being thus assured by the great sage Nārada Muni, the hunter broke his bow, immediately fell down at the saint’s lotus feet and fully surrendered. After this, Nārada Muni raised him with his hand and gave him instructions for spiritual advancement.
In the above statement, it is mentioned that the hunter fully surrendered to Narada muni. What does full surrender mean? It means offering our body, mind, life, wealth, intelligence, desires and everything at the spiritual master's disposal. It means we have full confidence that the spiritual master will handle these far better than us and therefore let us follow their guidance and instructions in every step of our life. An occupation which the hunter was doing for life time with his most dear weapons the bow and arrow, he was ready to give it up in a moment's conviction and assurance given by Narada muni.
There is an interesting point to note here. It is vedic etiquette that whenever we fall at someone's (especially elder's) feet, we don't do it just for formality, get up immediately to do something else. We fall at their feet in a mood of respect and surrender, which implies that "Now I am yours. You can do whatever you want with me." Unfortunately we don't follow this mood these days. We fall at the feet, immediately get up and move on. But we can see the humble etiquette followed by even the uncivilized hunter here. He fell at the feet of Narada muni in full surrender, and did not get up until Narada muni raised him with his hands. In other words, if Narada muni had taken his time to raise him up (or did not lift him up at all), he would have continued to lie down at his feet. That is the real mood of full surrender. "Waiting eagerly & patiently to receive the order" from the spiritual master is a beautiful quality and it pleases the guru greatly. Being pleased with this sincere attitude of the disciple, the spiritual master will bestow the transcendental knowledge upon him - upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ.
After this, Narada muni went on to give specific instructions for him to advance in spiritual life. Narada muni told the hunter,
1. Go home and distribute all the wealth you have accumulated, to pure brahmanas.
2. Then leave home along with your wife, each of you taking with you only one cloth to wear.
3. Go to a river and construct a small cottage to live.
4. Grow a Tulasi plant, daily worship her by circumambulating and offering various things.
5. Continuously Chant the Hare Krishna Mahamantra.
Krishna willing, we shall look at these points briefly in our next offering.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das
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