PATH OF SURRENDER IS THE ULTIMATE PATH TO GOD

By Ramananda Prasad, American/International Gita Society.

 

Hear once again My most secret, supreme word. You are very dear to Me, therefore, I shall tell this for your benefit. (18.64) Fix your mind on Me, be devoted to Me, offer service to Me, bow down to Me, and you shall certainly reach Me. I promise you because you are My very dear friend. (18.65) Set aside all meritorious deeds and religious rituals, and just surrender completely to My will with firm faith and loving devotion. I shall liberate you from all sins, the bonds of Karma. Do not grieve. (18.66)

 

The meaning of abandoning all duties and taking refuge in the Lord is that a seeker should perform her or his duties without selfish attachment as an offering to the Lord, and totally depend only on the Lord for help and guidance. The Lord takes full responsibility for a person who totally depends on Him. If you find a good solution and get attached to it, the solution will soon become your next problem. The scripture says: The wise should not be attached even to righteous deeds for their entire life, but should engage their mind and intellect to the contemplation of the Supreme Being (MB 12.290.21). One should develop a spirit of genuine self-surrender to the Lord by offering everything, including the fruits of spiritual discipline, to Him. We should connect all our work with the divine. The world is controlled by the laws or will of God. One has to learn to abide by His will. Be thankful in prosperity and resign to His will in adversity.

In order to be free from pious or impious results that bond one to this material world, it is necessary to offer every action to God. When a devotee sincerely works for God, He protects such devotee from the touch of Maya, the external energy of the Lord. If one voluntarily depends on the supreme Lord under all circumstances, then the good and bad results (sins) of work automatically go to Him, and one is free from sin.

A true devotee perceives: O Lord, I remembered You, because You remembered me first. One breaks away every yoke of bondage, and becomes free in this very life as soon as one gains the knowledge and a firm conviction that everything is done by the will of God; it is His world, His sport, and His battle, not ours; and regards oneself as a mere actor in the divine play, and the Lord as the great director in the cosmic drama of soul on the stage of creation. Surrendering of individual will to divine will is the culmination of all spiritual practices resulting in joyful participation in the drama of joys and sorrows of life. This is called liberation, or Mahayana in Buddhism. One cannot see God as long as one does not completely get rid of the notion of doership and ownership. The grace of God is triggered when one becomes firmly convinced that he or she is not the doer, and at once becomes free in this very life. Lord arranges for the science of Self-realization to be revealed to a surrendered soul.

Surrendering to God does not involve leaving the world, but realizing that everything happens in accordance with His laws, and by His direction and power. To fully recognize that everything is controlled and governed by a divine plan is to surrender to Him. In surrender one lets the divine plan rule his or her life without giving up one’s best effort. It is the complete renunciation of individual existence or the ego. It is the feeling: O my beloved Lord, nothing is mine, everything — including my body, mind, and ego — is Yours. I am not God, but a servant of God; save me from the ocean of transmigration. I tried to get out of the ocean of the material world using all the methods given in the scriptures, and failed. Now I have discovered the ultimate process — the process of seeking divine grace through prayer and surrender. God can be discovered by seeking His help in discovering Him and not by spiritual practices alone. Thus, one should start the spiritual journey as a dualist, experience monism and again come back to dualism. A successful journey begins and ends at the same place.

The process of surrender may be called the fifth or the ultimate path of yoga and the other four being the path of selfless service, metaphysical knowledge, devotion, and meditation. Good Lord is the director of the mind and senses of the living entities according to their Karma-born desires. But in case of surrendered devotees, however, He controls the senses directly according to His desires and to the best interest of the devotee. Muniji beautifully explains this process. He says: Every pain, every ache, every discomfort becomes His gift and grace when you lay it in His lap. If you put the reins of your life-chariot in His hands, you will be ever happy, ever peaceful. This is the lesson of ultimate surrender he teaches.

It is the divine grace or power that comes in the form of self-effort. The divine grace and self-effort, as well as dualism and monism are nothing but the two sides of the same coin of Reality. The grace of God is always available — one has to collect it. To win the grace is not easy. One has to earn it by sincere spiritual discipline and effort. Grace is the cream of that effort — our own good Karma. It is said that self-effort is absolutely necessary, but the last rung of the ladder to the Supreme is not self-effort, but praying for His grace in the spirit of surrender. When everything is surrendered to Him; and one truly understands that He is the goal, the path, the traveler, as well as the obstacles on the path; vice and virtue become powerless and harmless as a cobra with fangs removed.

According to Shankara, if any object other than the Supreme Being — the Cosmic Energy Field — appears to exist, it is unreal like a mirage, or the presence of a snake in the rope. When one firmly understands that there is nothing else except the Supreme Being and His sport, all Karma gets exhausted; one surrenders to His will, and attains salvation. Yukteshwar said: Human life is beset with sorrow until we know how to surrender or tune in with the divine will that baffles our intellect. The Koran says: Whoever follows My guidance, no fear shall come upon them; neither shall they grieve (Surah 2.38). The Upanishad says: The knower of the Supreme goes beyond grief.

This knowledge should never be spoken by you to one who is devoid of austerity, who is without devotion, who does not desire to listen, or who speaks ill of Me. (18.67)

To speak of wisdom to a deluded person, to glorify sacrifice to a greedy person, to advise sense control to an irascible, and to discourse on Lord Rama’s exploits to a lecher, is as useless as sowing seed on a barren ground (TR 5.57.01-02). It is not for any soul to believe save by the permission of Allah. You should not compel one to believe (Surah 10.100-101). Anyone to whom God has not granted the light (of knowledge) will have no light (Surah 24.40). The study of Gita is meant only for the sincere persons. According to Ramakrishna, one can understand Him as much as He makes one to understand. Guru Nanak said: O Beloved; only they, to whom You give the divine knowledge, obtain it.

According to the Bible: Do not give what is holy to dogs. Do not throw your pearls in front of pigs. They will only trample them under their feet (Matthew 7.06). No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him or her to me (John 6.44). The re­cipient of knowledge must have spiritual inclination, and sincerely seek it. Knowledge given without being asked for serves no purpose and should be avoided. There is a time for everything under the heaven. We cannot change the world, but we can only change the lives of a few sincere souls whose time for a change has come by His grace.