First you develop love then you can surrender fully

Without love, Krishna Prema, your surrender is conditional, artificial or partial. First develop Krishna prema by chanting the Hare Krishna mahamantra. Then like Gopis you can have love which is unconditional, complete surrender. Abandon all religions and completely surrender. Even veda-dharma. They have abandoned.

But condition is there. You may chant for years together. But nothing will happen. You have to give up pride. I am so and so.

Trinad api sunicena, taror iva sahisnuna, amanina manadena, kirtaniya sada Hari.

Think oneself lower than the grass. Lowest of the low. Be tolerant as a tree. And don't expect respect. Give respect because Krishna is in their hearts - in all their hearts. If you develop such mentality, you'll be able to get Krishna prema.

Don't speak theory - set up an example

apane na kaila dharma sikhana na jaya
ei ta' siddhanta gita-bhagavate gaya [CC Adi, 3.20-21]

Unless you practice in your life, you cannot teach. Theoretical speaking will never do. Therefore there is general, popular saying "example is better than precept."

Excerpt from Endless love - by Ravindra Swarupa Dasa

We have a propensity to love and it naturally tends to expand without limit. Yet, in this world, it meets with repeated impediments. The baffling of our urge to love becomes one of the most tragic features of life. The crux of the problem is that although we want to love, we are never more vulnerable than when we do. As soon as we love someone, we open ourselves to rejection, abandonment, betrayal, separation, loss, and all the related anguish and pain. Experience of these things has filled the world with bitter and disappointed people, cynics and misanthropes.

Even before we face the walls of thwarted love, we aren't able to love fully and unconditionally. There is an essential incompatibility between what we are and what we can love in this world, and in our hearts we all know it. Our desire to love without limit and without end is a clear indication that we ourselves are eternal, spiritual beings. At the same time, all the objects of love in this world are material and temporary. As a result, we cannot love without fear - fear of an end, or loss - and cannot help but withhold the full investment of our love.

A frequent theme in literature concerns a hero/ heroine who loves recklessly and without restraint, inevitably undergoes the most intense kind of suffering and finally ends up depressed or suicidal. We sometimes take these as cautionary tales. But we don't need these examples to remind us of the frustration of our existence. We have no adequate object for our love in this world.

Therefore, out of boundless compassion for us, Krishna reveals His kingdom of transcendental, unrestricted love, in which He is eternally manifest as the ultimate object of affection - the perfect hero, master, friend, child, and lover. His beauty is unrivaled, and His personality, expressed in infinitely varied exchanges of love, is ceaselessly fascinating.

When we turn to Krishna, our loving propensity breaks loose from the shackles and confines of matter and opens up into an ever-expanding flow that never meets any resistance. This is why Krishna is perpetually inviting us to come to Him in His eternal abode, and enjoy with Him forever the delights of an endless love.

Attitude change - Victim mentality? Or plain common sense?

My attitude toward bhakti changes periodically. I sometimes become very serious, and then lazy. It depends on how much I remember or retain from the books I've read or the messages people have given me.

I forget the urgency and importance of the situation when I "hang around" with those who are in ignorance. When I am with people who are unaware, if I don't pass on the message to them - about the urgency, then I also forget about the urgency.

Just like hanging out with naughty kids who believe in not studying during exam time. Eventually, you're going to become less serious about your own studies and start frolicking around with them! Wow! association - is everything.

But if I remind them, their association does not influence my memory power. I can still remember how important it is to chant. (or study; in case of our example above)

Now - if I don't tell others about it - I will forget. So the solution is: whether the person is willing or unwilling to listen, inform him/her of the urgency of getting out of illusion.

Second: if the person does not allow me to talk about it - or is plain uninterested - I should leave the place immediately and not take his/her association, because it degrades me. I will start thinking like them:

oh life is wonderful, planet earth rocks!

illusion, what illusion?

Death is nothing to be talked about,

Disease must be accepted as a part of life without questioning its randomness, unfair occurrence and painfulness, (like why does someone's dad have cancer even though there was no good reason for him to get it; and not others, that were more likely than him to get cancer?)

There is no God,

We are the masters of our destiny,

We can get everything we want without God's help,

God, our so-called creator, is a cruel experimenter, who left us by ourselves, and has nothing to do with our daily lives, as He's gone missing

In short: "God has nothing to do with our daily lives"

We're NOT suffering - this place is awesome!

Lets talk about things which will neither help me or you escape from illusion, karma or rebirth.

And the nonsense continues. When a person is talking you have to notice how the words coming out of their mouth express their condition: suffering, trying to enjoy the senses, jealousy, anger, etc. Examples:

I am feeling a slight pain in my wrist because of playing tennis (suffering)

I love how ice cream tastes (or how she looks, or how this feels, etc. - trying to enjoy the senses)

She doesn't have the brains to do things right (jealousy - as opposed to - I wish I could help her do things better, I wonder if there is anything I can do to improve her ability to do things right)

The government should be punished for the way they run things (anger) - as opposed to - "We, as citizens of a nation, haven't selected good people from amongst ourselves to run our country properly."

You should shut up and let me speak (anger) (usually triggered by - please don't tell me the truth - it hurts, its too bitter for me to swallow).

There are so many ways to waste our precious living, breathing moments that you'll avoid counting them, just like people generally avoid being told about the truth (why do i exist?)

The point is, if you already know the reason you were created, avoid useless talk - or else suffer from forgetfulness of the goal of human life.

Somehow, due to your nature, you will bounce back from a lazy patch, but it is truly not worth it to waste time on those who don't want to wake up.

Why lose yourself?

Association is everything. And the people whom you CHOOSE to hang out with, they better be the right kind.

Of course sometimes you're in a family. And those are people who are connected to you via your physical body's birth. Now these people you did not have a choice about, you never chose them. At least not after you were born. So what about them?

You avoid them? How rude! How can you do that? Come one! They love you! and they are always going to be there for you (as long as you don't piss them off). So forget about the goal of human life.

Oh! wait a minute, which is more important? Yes both are important. You gotta keep your folks happy, and you need to remember why the hell you exist. What happens if you choose one and neglect the other?

Either your family is pissed at you, or you forget the goal of life momentarily - until you recharge yourself with the chanting, books, devotee association, prasadam.

So do you have enough strength to karaoke with them? Sing along the nonsense? Oh yes this show is great, scientists are on the moon, that restaurant has the yummiest food on the planet, its cold, its hot, its raining, i'm bored, i'm excited, i'm sick, you're nice, you suck, this bed is soft, life is a mystery, lets distract ourselves, lets play games, blah blah, blah blah.

You have got to love them from them from the bottom of your feet in that case! So much LOVE! Gosh! You must be crazy! You're ok with being in illusion? It's like saying I'll hang out with my retarded friends in the asylum even though I've recovered because I LOVE THEM.

Well you idiot! you better be doing something to get them out of that #%^&^ asylum because its for your collective interest. Its for the good of all. Why don't all of you hang out together and love each other after LEAVING the asylum? I know that once you start living somewhere the place grows on you and you become real comfy and all. Why change? Especially when you haven't a hint what is wrong with the place you're in!

Its like the unaware person crossing the railway track while the train is hooting frantically.

I suppose you need more than one person to tell you that you're in illusion before you'll want to verify it or consider it a possibility.

I should introduce my unwilling blood beings to devotees! What an effort. I'll die trying to save them - seriously - it is easier to just give up on them and move on all by myself. But then there is a discord with the compassion and universal unconditional love theme. Plus, I think, there is NO other way. Its far tougher to escape alone than to escape with a huge gang of sixty thousand convinced members.

You think thats what happened to the Mayans? Its possible. But there is no way to prove anything. Nothing that can be proved right is exempt from being proved wrong. And absolute proof is close to impossible. So nothing can be proven anyways.

Did the landing happen on moon, or a close by similar shaped object? What really is out there? Can our eyes see things as they are? Is our perception beyond error? Are we perfect?

I think I'm blabbering too much. I need to publish this post and.... forget all about it ;)