By Akruranatha das
Saranagati is the chief symptom of a devotee. Saranagati should be complete. The symptoms of it are there. One should have firm faith, drdah visvas, that “avasya raksibe krsna”, Krishna will protect me. If you have no faith, you cannot achieve the goal; asraddhadanah purusah… says the Gita: You’ll have to come back in this mortal world. The Vedic siddhanta is that everything is based on firm faith, sastriya sraddha. Saranagati, unconditional surrender, is the life of the devotee, through which the most difficult to achieve krsna-prema is obtained, by the mercy of the magnanimous Gauranga. To be akincana, to have nothing in this world that you call yours, is one symptom of saranagati. Atma-samarpana is the same as saranagati… Only a fully surrendered devotee sees Krishna; otherwise, He’s covered by yoga-maya. Those who are fully surrendered are very dear to Krishna. Krishna has not given prema in His Vraja descent, but as Gauranga he gives it freely. He teaches saranagati: Take full shelter of the holy name, then you’ll get prema, through offenseless chanting… 4 things develop pride and prevent from surrender: janma, aisvarya, sruta, sri. So one must become akincana.