(Click to enlarge painting of a bhakta and saṅkhyā-yogī surrendering to the Supreme Person)
"So Bhagavad-gītā teaches surrendering process. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). 'You surrender unto Me,' the Lord says. And the Lord teachings, Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching is how to make surrender. Because we have been accustomed in our present conditional life to revolt against surrender. There are so many parties, so many 'isms,' and the main principle is that 'Why shall I surrender?' That is the main disease. Whatever political party is there... Just like the Communist party. Their revolt is against the superior authority they call capitalists. 'Why shall we...' Everywhere, the same thing is, 'Why shall I surrender?' But we have to surrender. That is our constitutional position. If I don't surrender to some particular person or particular government or particular community or society or something, but ultimately I am surrendered. I am surrendered to the laws of nature. There is no independence. I have to surrender. When there is call of the cruel hands of death, immediately I have to surrender. So many things. So we should understand... This is brahma-jijñāsā, that 'Why there is the surrendering process?' If I don't like to surrender, then I am forced to surrender. In the state also, if I don't mean to abide by the laws of the state, the state obliges me to surrender by police force, by military force, by so many things. Similarly, I don't want to die, but death forces me to surrender. I don't want to become old man, but nature forces me to become old. I don't want any disease, but nature forces me to accept some sort of disease. So this surrendering process is there. Now we have to understand why this is so. That means my constitutional position is to surrender, but the present difficulty is that I'm surrendering to a wrong person. When we understand that I should surrender to the Supreme Lord, then my constitutional position is revived. That is my liberty."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Seattle, October 7, 1968)
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