Surrender to Krishna and His pure devotees NEVER means one loses their individuality and the unique sense of independent self.

The fact is God is more inclined to help those who FIRST do everything they can to help themselves, even if by others standards it may seem they have not done enough trying to help themselves.

Only then when one does their best (and we are all different) will Krishna help you when He sees you tried your best to remember the Lord.

This is because each jiva has their own independent individual personality and sense of self that allows THEM to ''choose'' to help themselves think of Krishna or ignore Him and His "pure" devotees.

Otherwise if Krishna does everything for you, how can there be genuine love? Real love is reciprocal, it is NEVER a one way street where surrender to Krishna takes away one's sense of self, individuality and personal contributions.

The "highest independence and surrender" is "choosing" to be fully dependent on Krishna but ONLY in the mood of reciprocation.

Just wanting to be Krishna's mindless "yes man" as many young immature devotees attempt, is the worst kind of impersonalism!

The freedom to EVEN stay in Vaikuntha MUST be the jiva's choice in reciprocation with Krishna because without free will and the ability to choose, there can be no real love.

Srila Prabhupada has said not even Krishna can force you to love Him, LOVE or service is based on free will and then reciprocation.

Srila Prabhupada told his disciples, if you love me then naturally I will love you. This is what reciprocation means.

Surrender does NOT mean one stops being an individual independent living entity with their own eternal unique sense of self expression that foolish impersonal sannyasis and gurus teach, sadly even in ISKCON and the Gaudiya Math.

I heard one nonsense sanyasi say to a congregational member " Come join our Temple and you do not even have to think, we will do that for you"

Be careful of such IMPERSONALISM in the disguise of Vaishnavism.

Never give up but educate yourself of what REAL spiritual life is so you do not get cheated!

Who cares what World organized religious sangas and their members think, they do NOT own Krishna as many of their immature leaders try to make out.

In fact, no matter what the material world throws at you or what past difficulties and fall downs you have experienced due in inattentiveness, NEVER give up!

The fact is Spiritual life is like learning to walk, when one falls over, you just get up again and again until you become strong enough in your Krishna Consciousness to NEVER again fall down.

For many of us, as Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, this WILL take many life times.

However, for the rare selfless dedicated souls out of the many thousands of ISKCON and Gaudiya Math devotees, this CAN take just one life time by the mercy of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada.