O you sons of nectar....

Reflections on Nectar and Surrender

Churning for Nectar

Amrita, pronounced A-MREE-TA. The word amrita means “deathless, immortal, eternal,” but also “nectar, ambrosia, liquor.” It’s hard to understand how one word could have such a range of meaning.

Amṛta was originally the elixir of the gods. The Puranas describe a battle between the gods and demons, where the gods win. Their prize is amṛta, a kind of drink.

Ingredients:

1 Ocean of Milk

1 Mount Mandara, covered with various plants, spices, herbs and flowering trees. (To be used as axis, or churning rod.)

108 gods

109 demons

1 large serpent, Vasuki by name.

An Avatar of Vishnu, Kurma, to steady the axis.

Vishnu Himself to sit atop the mountain, steadying it from above

Production of Amṛta

Preparation:

1. Remove Mount Mandara from its resting place and carry it to the Ocean of Milk. Fix the mountain atop the Kurma Avatara to use as a churning rod, and carefully wrap the Vasuki serpent around the mountain. Have God Himself as Lord Vishnu sit atop the mountain.

2. Arrange the gods on one side, the demons on the other.

3. Gods take the serpent by the tale, demons take the serpent by the head.

4. Commence churning.

5. Continue thus, for a few thousand years time by the calculation of the gods.

6. Allow the herbs and flowering trees of Mount Mandara to fully steep in the churned liquid.

7. When poison is produced by the mixture, have Lord Shiva catch the poison in his throat.

Serves: gods not demons. The resulting mixture is called amṛta. The idea is that this drink, or nectar, produces immortality. Since it is better to have immortal gods than demons, it is best to offer the mix to the gods.

So, nectar may originally refer to the elixir created as a product of the battle between gods and demons, but it is not limited to this idea. By extension amṛta, or “nectar,” means “immortality,” or “that which gives eternal life.” The Upaniṣads say,

शृण्वन्तु बिश्वे अमृतस्य पुत्रा

आ ये धामानि दिब्यानि तस्थुः

শৃণ্ৱন্তু বিশ্ৱে অমৃতস্য পুত্রা

আ যে ধামানি দিব্যানি তস্থুঃ

śṛṇvantu viśve amṛtasya putrā

ā ye dhāmāni dibyāni tasthuḥ

शृण्वन्तु/śrinvantu= Listen/hear, बिश्वे/viśve= in the world, अमृतस्य/amṛtasya= of immortality, पुत्रा/putrā= Children

Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad, Chapter II, Verse 5

"O, you sons of nectar! O, you sons of the nectarine ocean sea! Please listen to me. You were born in nectar; you were born to taste nectar: Do not allow yourselves to be satisfied by anything but nectar! Awake! Arise! Search for that nectar! The object of your inner search exists. It is the wealth of your own soul: it cannot but be within you. Search for Sri Krishna: Reality the Beautiful."

Amṛta refers to both life-giving medicine as well as immortality.

A translation of amṛta might render “deathless,”(a-mṛt, nondeath) “immortal nectar” or “deathless ambrosia,” but without a careful reading, amṛta is difficult to translate in English.

This is because the idea “death-less” or “non-mortal,” is really a negation of a negation. But merely to negate death is not a positive understanding of eternal life.

Shridhar Mahāraja’s Prappana-jivanāmṛta explores the positive concept of eternal life. The word prapanna is synonymous with Śaranagati. It means“surrender.”Śaranāgati is explained by Bhaktivinod Ṭhakura as the means to progress in the search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Perfection can never be attained by our own works or efforts, but through the process of surrender.

Prapanna-Jīvanāmṛta describes how surrender in divine love is both process and goal.

When some of his translators promoted the idea of “Nectar of Surrender” as a title, Shridhar Maharaja suggested that in English “Positive and Progressive Immortality” would be closer to the theme. Shridhara Maharaja’s point was that amṛta means immortality (a mṛtyu), but not in a commplace conception. Normally, the sense of “a-mṛtyu” is negative: death-less, or im-mortal. But real eternal life should be positive. We must have a place in a higher world; a positive role to play in the spiritual world.

This may be achieved through surrender. Normally, surrender also has a negative connotation. Winston Churchill’s most famous rousing speech, “We shall fight them on the beaches…” concludes, “We shall never, never, surrender.”

Surrender is an awful prospect. Milton’s Satan puts it succinctly, “better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.”

Shridhar Maharaja liked the Hegelian principle of thesis-antithesis synthesis as seen in the master-slave symbiosis. The master is all-powerful lord: thesis. The slave is helpless servant: antithesis. And yet, the slave make his service so indispensable that the master relies on him for everything. The master needs the slave to find his shoes, to pay his bills, to provide transportation, and so on. The master ends by becoming completely dependent on the slave. The slave ends by having absolute power over the master. Synthesis: the slave becomes the master. The disciple becomes the guru.

Not that we are interesting in mastering God, but the Hegelian dialectic when applied to surrender reveals a powerful dynamic: Love conquers all. Even God Himself. Absolute surrender, absolute slavery results in perfect freedom. Perfect freedom and immortality in divine love are the nectar spoken of in Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam.

Having analyzed the Hegelian master/slave analogy, Shridhar Maharaja embraces the idea that surrender, or “increasing one’s negative tendency” leads to “positive immortality.” So these two apparently negative concepts, “surrender” or “increasing one’s negative tendency” and amṛta or deathlessnes, become positive in a perfect Hegelian synthesis.

So the most perfect immortality, positive and progressive Amṛta can be found in surrender. And for who?

For the jīva. The jīva refers to the conditioned soul, whose tendency for exploitation, or “positive tendency” has evolved in reverse, from the undifferentiated plane of cosmic consciousness to the world of exploitation where he resists surrender to the divine master. The jīva takes the words of Milton, “Better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven,” as her gospel.

"Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven"

Shridhar Maharaja echoed these themes in lecture after lecture. His insistence on using the expression “positive and progressive immortality” was essential to understanding the meaning of Prapanna-jivanamritam.

And yet he was not blithe about the prospect of surrender. He understood that giving one’s life in surrender was difficult and implied deep sacrifice. One time, when we were listening to his talk, he concluded a point. He tapped the arm of his chair with his fingertips as he often did when he was satisfied that he had made an explanation clear. He turned to us and looked at us to see if we understood.

“Do you follow?” he said.

I said, “hari bol!”

He looked at me, his eyes magnified by his thick black-plastic framed glasses and said, “Hari Bol! and horrible. The prospect of surrender is such.”

Shridhar Maharaja knew well that surrender is not an easy prospect. The ambrosia of immortality derived from sacrifice is not attained easily, as we can see from the Purānic story.

And yet, Surrender reveals our highest prospect.

ভব-দুঃখ-বিনাশশ্ চ, পর-নিস্তার-যোগ্যতা

পরং পদং প্রপত্ত্যৈব, কৃষ্ণ-সম্প্রাপ্তির্ এব চ [৩৯]

bhava-duḥkha-vināśaś ca, para-nistāra-yogyatā

paraṁ padaṃ prapattyaiva, kṛṣṇa-samprāptir eva ca [39]

Only through surrender does one become free from the miseries of material existence and attain the supreme abode of Kṛṣṇa.

In the first chapter of Prapanna-jivanamritam, Śrīdhara Mahārāja quotes the Bhagavatam:

“তদ্-ৱাগ্-ৱিসর্গো জনতাঘ-ৱিপ্লৱো

যস্মিন্ প্রতি-শ্লোকম্ অবদ্ধবত্য্ অপি ।

নামান্য্ অনন্তস্য যশো ‘ঙ্কিতানি যত্

শৃণ্ৱন্তি গাযন্তি গৃণন্তি সাধৱঃ” ।।৬।।

“tad-vāg-visargo janatāgha-viplavo

yasmin prati-ślokam abaddhabaty api

nāmāny anantasya yaśo ‘ṅkitāni yat

śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanti sādhavaḥ” [Prapanna-jivanāmṛta 1.6]

True devotees take delight in reading and singing verses about Kṛṣṇa even if the stanza is flawed, or badly written. Even when the translation is inexact, those books which glorify the holy name and deeds of Kṛṣṇa are welcomed and worshipped. Such literature purifies all sin.

“অভিব্যক্তা মত্তঃ প্রকৃতি-লঘু-রূপাদ্ অপি বুধা

ৱিধাত্রী সিদ্ধাঋথান্ হরি-গুণমযী ৱঃ কৃতির্ ইযম্

পুলিন্দেনা[য্ অগ্নিঃ কিম্ উ সমিধম্ উন্মথ্য জনিতোর্

হিরণ্য-শ্রেণীনাম্ অপহরতি নান্তঃ কলুষতম্”

“abhivyaktā mattaḥ prakṛti-laghu-rūpād api budhā

vidhātrī siddhāṛthān hari-guṇamayī vaḥ kṛtir iyam

pulindenā[y agniḥ kim u samidham unmathya janitor

hiraṇya-śreṇīnām apaharati nāntaḥ kaluṣatam”

[Prapanna-jivanāmṛta 1.7]

“Even though written by a sinner, this book, will help fulfill your dreams, good readers. O learned ones, even a sinner can make a fire by rubbing sticks together. And fire can purify gold. While these truths are spoken by someone as unworthy as myself, this fire can purify gold.”

Sincerity is all in all. I am unfit to pronounce the name of Rūpa Goswāmī of that of Shridhar Maharaja. Still, the above-mentioned verse shows that great souls will accept the truth even when spoken by sinners. Gold can be purified with fire, even if the fire is lit by a sinner. In the same way, we hope that devotees will get some light from the humble offerings here at Journey to Surrender.