Open Your Heart to Krishna

By Nitya-lila pravista Om Visnupada 108 Sri Srimad Bhakti Sadhak Muni Goswami Maharaja.

We do not open our heart to the rogue, the demon or the sense enjoyer. We do not open our heart so that maya (illusory energy) can come in. If you have faith in Krishna, you can open your heart to Him. He – like Guru or a pure devotee - will never hurt you.

We should always open our heart for Krishna and His devotees. Otherwise, we will never attain the platform of giving up our control. One day, we should give Krishna all control, but for now, we still want to control everything. We want to draw a kind of line: “This is my surrender, up to here.” After that, we become fearful and take back our control. We think, “What will happen? Somebody may hurt me, someone may cheat me.” One who cannot open his heart has had some bad experiences in the past, experiences of being cheated or disappointed. So he always wants to have control over situations. He wants to be the ultimate end controller. He never gives Krishna the control.

Full surrender means that I give complete authority to Krishna- make or mar- and let Him do as He likes with me. This is the most advanced stage, and we have to approach it. We cannot always close ourselves off to His control and, at the same time, pray to Krishna for help. “Surrender” means that I give my life to Him. There is nothing sweeter than this. If Krishna cares for me, what problem can I have? When we try to take care of ourselves, only problems will come.

We may think that we are fallen and cannot be redeemed. Does that mean we should give up the process of surrendering to Krishna?

It doesn´t even take one second to surrender, but we think it is impossible. Why? The hindrance is only in our head, between our ears. Of course, to surrender fully is a question of sukriti (accumulation of your pious activities), but theoretically it is simple. One just has to do it. Immediately, one can surrender 100 percent to Krishna and get His full mercy. We may try it, and Krishna will show us how much we have surrendered.

You know, we want to surrender all these things we don´t want anyway but the important ones we want to keep under our control. We often see it like this, “Two percent for Krishna means 98 percent for me. Ten percent for Krishna means 90 percent for me.” If we think about it we can know how much we have surrendered and how much is left to me.

Advancement in spiritual life is dependent on this only and nothing else.