Sharanagati

To help people to change their fate you have to give what you have got, you have to share what you have received. Actually this is the point why the saints came together many, many years back in Naimisharanya. This place is like a forest close to the banks of the Ganges. All the rishis, and munis, and yogis, and holy people came together for a sacrifice. It was just like a spiritual or religious conference. And it is said in the Shrimad Bhagavatam that they came together to make “a thousand years long sacrifice”[1].

What is your opinion about this – a thousand years long sacrifice? Maybe they started it in the previous yuga, when life was much longer. In this yuga it is hundred years, in the previous yuga it was a thousand, then before that it was ten thousand. But, you know, if the lifespan for that yuga was thousand years and they came together for a thousand years long sacrifice, then it doesn’t fit? What to speak if this is under the control of this yuga, because now one lifetime is hundred years! How can you make a hundred years long sacrifice if you live only hundred years? So even if you try to explain that maybe like this, maybe like that – it doesn’t fit.

If we come together here, can we make a thousand years long sacrifice? Not so much, a little difficult. Let’s say, we live for sixty-seventy years. We are few here – well, almost nine hundred years are sitting here! So, we are close to the thousand – if we dedicate the whole of our lives as a sacrifice and if we come together and we are united in this spirit. But anyway, one ceremony should be prolonged – and that means this yagya, this spiritual conference was going on for generations. And this we can repeat. So, if your children will also join your service, then you can prolong the sacrifice, the ceremony of your life.

So, anyway, the saintly people came together for this discussion. And the main point of their requirement was: “What to do in this lifetime? There are so many engagements, so many duties – what is the best duty generally for human beings? And especially when you have to face your departure, death. What to do?” Therefore the questions of the sages are very glorious, because these questions concern the fate of human beings, the fate of humanity. In the same way, if you want to follow the example of these great saintly people, who were concerned about the future of dharma of living beings, as they made their thousand years long sacrifice, we should also chant our mantra Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya[2]. In this way you can contribute to the protection of the world and in this way we can diminish a little bit the suffering.

Have you ever had the feeling of this – I mean like an experience? It is just like a protective cover, shield, like a divine armor, covering the sphere of your meditation.

[1] Shrimad Bhagavatam 1.1.4

[2] Shrimad Bhagavatam 1.1.1