Monday, April 7, 2008

Surrender? Err.. What is that?

The last two days, all healers in Singapore had a great opportunity to attend a 2 day program called - Living in Ananda Gandha. Apart from the many discussions and meditations related to the great gift of initiation by the Master, the much awaited discussion about "surrender" finally happened.

Each of us was asked for what we think is 'surrender'. Some said 'total acceptance', some said 'leaving it all to existence', some others 'doing whatever Swamiji says'. At the end of this, a deep understanding set within me about this subject.

What does it mean to surrender? Is it important whom you surrender to? Does surrender mean giving up what you hold dear in your life?

In one of the early discourses given by Paramahamsa Nithyananda, He says surrender does not mean renouncing what you have, it means simply renouncing what you don't have. What does this really mean? Let us take the example of a mother giving birth to a child. Along with the child comes the attachment to it, a baggage of worries and fears about the child's health, education etc, then a whole load of expectations from the child. If we see, only the child has physical and real existence, the rest is all created in our minds. They are a product of our ego - arising out of this solid identity with this body-mind entity. It is these we need to give up to live in reality.

Swamiji also says that it doesn't matter whom we surrender to - it could even be a stone or a metal statue! Now, how is this possible? Let us see what exactly happens when we surrender to someone. We should understand that in this whole process of surrendering, the person to whom we are surrendering actually is not even being affected. The matter really lies with us. How can we say so? It is because through the act of surrendering, we are actually liberating ourselves from those things that bind us.

The very readiness to give up something is enough, we do not really need to give it up. If I am able to live with my wealth, house, spouse, career etc with the attitude that I would remain the same even if they are taken away from me, then it means I have truly surrendered them all to the feet of existence.

Actually, however ironical it may sound, surrender and liberation are one and the same! One may think that by surrendering we are becoming a slave. It is the other way around. It is because of the fact that we are slaves of our desires that we cannot surrender them. They bind us so much so that our entire happiness/sorrow is ruled by them. We are not able to let go. They make us their slave. When we surrender them, we just let go - a total liberation!

2 comments:

Annamalai said...

A very beautiful article. "Surrender and Liberation are one and the same", this sentence of yours really touched me. Thank you for sharing your views to the world.

Anupsar said...

Nice post. Surrender is a very misunderstood word indeed....
"Existence knows what we need, not what we want" .