Self Surrender

We practice Bhakti or devotion in order to achieve communion with the Supreme Master. We look upon Him with faith and reverence. By degrees we become so closely intimate to Him that every other object loses prominence in our eyes. This is submission to the will of the Master, or in other words, the beginning of self-surrender. It goes on developing as our faith grows stronger. It brings us to a stationary condition stopping the oscillations of the mind. In due course we begin to feel ourselves overpowered by some great force which drives our mind away from everything else. We become free of the unwanted activities sticking all the time to the right functioning of the organs (the Indriyas). Self-surrender is nothing but a state of complete resignation to the will of the Master, with total disregard of self. A permanent stay in this condition leads to the beginning of the state of negation.

When we surrender ourselves to the great Master we begin to attract a constant flow of the highest Divine force from Him. In this state a man thinks or does only that which is his Master’s will. He feels nothing in the world to be his belonging but everything as a sacred trust from the Master and he does everything, thinking it to be his Master’s bidding. His will becomes completely subservient to the will of the Master. A beautiful example of surrender is presented to us by Bharata, the son of Dasharatha, when he went to the forest along with the people of Ayodhya to induce his brother Rama to return. In reply to the entreaties of the people Rama gravely replied that he would be quite willing to return to the capital provided Bharata asked him to do so. All eyes were turned towards Bharata, who was himself there to induce him to return. But he calmly replied, “It is not for me to command but only to follow.”

But, so far, we reserve to ourselves the right of discretion and are, therefore, responsible for all our actions whether good or bad. At a higher stage of self-surrender such a discretionary power becomes almost extinct and a man does everything thinking it to be his Master’s will. The question of right or wrong does not at all arise in his mind, or it becomes absolutely certain that by following his Master’s will, he is doing the only right thing and he does nothing but the right, feeling it to be his Master’s will.

It is really the state of self-surrender in which one as a true devotee, surrenders himself completely to the will of God, the Master, basking in the sunshine of His Grace. That is the relationship between the Master and the devotee, which is to be maintained all through because that is the only relationship that will finally bring us up to that highest level of super-consciousness. It is only here that the true character of our being is revealed. But if the idea of freedom lingers still, or he has a feeling of it in any way, he is not free from the shackles. When the consciousness of freedom is also gone, one finds himself lost in the maze of wonder. The idea of Reality even is not there. He feels that he is not keeping pace with Infiniteness. The condition can better be described either as having been dissolved in toto, or that Infinity has been poured into us in toto. When everything is dissolved, one finds himself nowhere. Absorbency in Brahman commences, but we push on still to attain the last stage destined for a human being.

I have found that as long as you keep a Master outside yourself and you are thinking of surrendering to Him, there is a question of ego becoming troubled. Why should I surrender to Him? Who is He that I should surrender to Him? What is it in Him that makes me want to surrender to Him? How is He qualified that I should surrender to Him etc. True surrender is, surrender to your Self. The self being the higher Self ‘S’. When my Master is enshrined in my heart I don’t go to bow before Him. In any case He is not there for me to go and bow before Him physically any more. My surrender is to my Self. If you look at it in the right way, whenever a man fails or falls you say, “He has surrendered to his weaker impulses sir.” If that is true why not I surrender to my own higher impulses and say I surrendered to my Self. I have conquered my Self or I have surrendered to my Self.

So we have to understand that, what we have been accustomed to thinking of as a benevolent Deity looking out for us, protecting us, wishing us, cherishing us, nurturing us is in reality, seated within us, in our hearts, governing us from inside. And the more we hand over ourselves to Him who is there, the more we are able to submit and allow Him to perform for us. And, what can be better than His doing our duties as against our fickle, insufficient, inefficient approach to anything that we can do? So, this we call surrender; that at some stage we have to let go ourselves and give Him a chance to preside over our life from within.

We should be willing to make that final sacrifice. And what is that final sacrifice? It is not death. It is death of self to the Self. That means total surrender – it is an act – the final act of acceptance of the Master – in a remarkable act of bravery, utmost bravery that here I am and I surrender myself to you. Because with that act of surrender we cease to exist. It is not death in the physical sense, it is not death in the spiritual sense, it is death of myself to my Self. Then I become the remarkable thing, raw material in His hands which He can shape as He chooses. So it is almost as if a living being has to become inanimate, to become something, which the Master can really work upon and make what He wishes to make.

Now I am only an instrument. So there is no question of doer ship, there is no question of culpability, because I am no longer acting, I am no longer doing, I am also no longer responsible. This is the final stage of Surrender, what we call Surrender in spirituality. Then the body is just moving like a puppet in the hands of a puppeteer. He who is inside me is making me move and act and do whatever is to be done. And largely the saints are supposed to be like that, they are unconscious of what they say, they are unconscious of what they do. They respond to the situations in the most unique way.

One who has surrendered to the Almighty has surrendered to the whole universe. I mean it is a consequence of the fact that I have surrendered to Him who is the ruler of the universe. The universe is also part of Him, or He is the universe too. He is inside the universe, He is also the outside of the universe. He is the creator of the universe, He is also the universe from which perhaps He came. Nobody knows. So in that sense surrender means surrender to everything. Not itemizing. You know, “I surrender to the bear. I surrender to the fish,” not like that you see. The attitude that, in everything I see the Divine presence, as part of Divinity - then it is ‘He’ who is before me in the form of a bear, in the form of a wolf, in the form of a philosopher, in the form of a prostitute. It is still He. Because without His presence this thing could not move, act, live. Therefore, if I have surrendered to Him, I have to surrender to Him in every aspect in which He manifests Himself. Therefore, we don’t really surrender to animals, and birds and beasts. We surrender to Him in those forms. He who has known the Ultimate cannot distinguish between types of existence. Therefore he who has surrendered to the Ultimate, must, by that act of surrender, have surrendered to everything. Not because you itemize and say, “I surrender to these things too.” There’s no question of I surrender to these things too. I surrender to God. God is everywhere. I surrender to everything!

So surrender is the ultimate, the easiest, if it is able to be practiced at the outset. He who can surrender first does not have to do anything more. No tapasya. Tapasya(austerity) is for those who cannot surrender—saranagathi. Not an artificial surrender, like writing letters to the Guru and saying “I have become yours, I have surrendered everything to you.” And what have you surrendered? If tomorrow your Master says jump off the Kutub Minar, which one of you will be able to do it? It is said of Prahlad that he was able to do it but where is the second example? So you see, surrender must be tested to the point of death.

When we surrender to the Higher, to the Ultimate, we allow His plan to work for us. And His plan will work whether we accept it or not. When we plan it and we fail, it is only because His plan is different from my plan. When I give up my planning process, His plan is still active, is still potent, is still realizable, and is realized.

If you want to reach the total transformation without surrender, as it is called, you see, cooperation, obedience put together is surrender, without that surrender, it is not going to be possible. With surrender, it is possible that the next instant the Master may be compelled to say, “I thought you were an abhyasi, I find you are my son.” Now he is in the unfortunate predicament of having to say, “You think you are my sons, but you are merely abhyasis.” So you see, we have to become children of the Master. Forget this nonsense of abhyasis and preceptors and central region and all these stupid hierarchical notions of power and position. I must see him as he is. That can be done only when I become like him, when I look at him and I see myself reflected in the mirror. And then he sees me and says, “Yes, this I knew I was. Now I see it in you. Therefore I know myself too. My son, thank you for that.”

I hope these few thoughts may make it possible for abhyasis to realize that surrender is not what we have apprehended it to be. It is a most desirable state, one in which we are not merely promised all, but in which we receive all.

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