38 TEACHINGS OF QUEEN KUNTI
anyone except her husband. Therefore, because these men wanted to see
Draupadi naked in that great assembly, they were all rascals. The word
sat means ‘‘gentle,”’ and asat means ‘‘rude.’”’ Therefore Kuntidevi prays
to Lord Krsna, ‘‘You saved Draupadi in that assembly of rude men.”’
When the Kurus were taking away Draupadi’s sdri to see her naked,
Krsna supplied more and more cloth for the sari, and therefore they
could not come to the end of it. Finally, with heaps of cloth stacked in the
room, they became tired and realized she would never be naked. They
could understand, ‘‘It is impossible.”’

At first, Draupadi had tried to hold on to her sari. But what could she
do? After all, she was a woman, and the Kurus were trying to strip her
naked. So she cried and prayed to Krsna, ‘‘Save my honor,”’ but she also
tried to save herself by holding on to her sari. Then she thought, ‘“‘It is
impossible to save my honor in this way,”’ and she let go and simply
raised her arms and prayed, ‘‘Krsna, if You like You can save me.’’ Thus
the Lord responded to her prayers.

Therefore, it is not very good to try to save oneself. Rather, one should
simply depend on Krsna: ‘‘Krsna, if You save me, that is all right. Other-
wise, kill me. You may do as You like.’’ As Bhaktivinoda Thakura says:

manasa, deha, geha— yo kichu mora

arpilun tuya pade, nanda-kisora
‘“My dear Lord, whatever I have in my possession I surrender unto You.
And what do I have? I have this body and mind, I have a little home and
my wife and children, but whatever I have, I surrender everything unto
You.”” This is full surrender.

A devotee of Krsna surrenders unto Krsna without reservation, and
therefore he is called akificana. The word kificana refers to something
one reserves for oneself, and akificana means that one does not keep any-
thing for oneself. Of course, although actually one should surrender in
this way, in the material world one should not artificially imitate those
who are fully surrendered. According to the example set by Ripa
Gosvami, whatever possessions one has, one should give fifty percent for
Krsna and twenty-five percent for one’s relatives, who will also expect
something, and one should keep twenty-five percent for personal
emergencies. Before his retirement, Ripa Gosvami divided his money in
this way, although later, when his brother Sandatana Gosvami, another
great devotee, was arrested, Ripa Gosvami spent everything. This is full
surrender. Similarly, Draupadi fully surrendered to Krsna without trying
