Essence of Surrender
Understanding what is not surrender and what truly is
The word ‘surrender’ is commonly used in the context of spiritual practices and teachings. And yet, it is also easily prone to being misunderstood. So to truly explore what it means, it is perhaps important to first look into what is not true surrender. In this regard, the two pervasive misconceptions about surrender are that it is to blindly accept a projected authority and that it is a very easy way as opposed to the arduous nature of self-inquiry.
The blind acceptance of authority is found all too often in the world of religion and spirituality, to accept God or a certain teacher/Guru as such and then proclaim that we have surrendered to them in the hope of acquiring some material or spiritual reward. This results almost always in a devotional cult around the teacher, sometimes because of and sometimes even despite the teacher, resulting in the stifling of inquiry and freedom.
Instead if we have a scientific temper even in these matters, it is helpful in inquiring as to who is surrendering to who. Blindly getting caught in religious dogma or even spiritual experiences which are all ephemeral in nature can make one easily lose sight of the fact that it is the egoic thought that is projecting an image outside and seeking comfort in the image as the authority to surrender to. Of course the flip side is the risk of over intellectualization at a conceptual level which one has to be careful to avoid. An intellectual cult with its obsession to discuss and understand is as much an egoic trap as a devotional cult. But as long as we approach it honestly while being aware of how it reflects in the way we go about living, we can remain down to earth and not be carried away by the intellectual abstractions.
Another aspect inbuilt into such surrender is the expectation of a material or even spiritual reward from God or the Guru due to surrender. Can this be called surrender if there is any demand of any kind? Any demand of reward arises out of the individual will which is the antithesis of true surrender. To be totally free of expecting any reward including that of liberation alone can be called true surrender. It is a state of total willingness to accept whatever happens, a total absence of individual will.
In light of that, we can also see why true surrender is not easy either. To have a total absence of individual will or desire is the most difficult thing for the egoic mind, so it is not easy by any means. Any claim of surrender is not complete as long as the one who wants to surrender is still there. This also makes it clear that true surrender is not possible without inquiring into who wants to surrender, which is self-inquiry. Thus self-inquiry is essential for surrender. Any claim to surrender otherwise may be fraught with self-deception.
In the Bhagavad Gita, we find that Krishna instructs Arjuna that the two ways of Self-realization are karma yoga and jnana yoga. And both are rooted in surrender or bhakti. Krishna teaches that Karma Yoga is the surrender of all results of one’s doing to the Supreme Being. And that prepares the ground for Jnana Yoga which is the ultimate surrender of the false notion of the doer itself. Hence Ramana Maharshi also says that partial surrender is first possible and it will lead to total surrender. Karma Yoga or surrendering of all outcomes of all one’s actions is the partial surrender that is possible for everyone till the notion of doership exists. And that can go only through total surrender, which is Jnana. Hence Krishna’s declaration that the dearest devotee is a Jnani. In other words, ultimately Jnana and Bhakti are one and the same.
A great aid in this journey of surrender is to realize that everything is predestined by the divine will. This can help in surrendering the outcomes of all our actions all through the day. Since inaction is not an option and one has to act in some form of the other, being able to surrender all the results of one’s actions is tremendously liberating in one’s journey of life. This can gradually make it clear that there is no individual doer but only the divine script unfolding through the apparent multiplicity of beings and objects. We can see that the body and the mind are constantly in flux, impermanent and only instruments of Cosmic Intelligence. Thus the relinquishing of the ego identification ‘I am the body/mind’ is to surrender to the Supreme who is beyond birth and death.
Finally and most importantly in this journey of surrender, comes the mystical aspect of Grace as the essence of true surrender.
The great conundrum with any talk of surrender is that the desire to surrender is itself a desire and since complete desirelessness alone constitutes surrender, even the desire to surrender prevents surrender, which is the ultimate paradox. The one who wants to surrender is illusory because the individual self who supposedly does sadhana is a false assumption to begin with.
The same paradox is arrived at through self-inquiry as well. With the clarity of inquiry, one can recognize the falsity of the individual ego and the non-dual nature of the entire universe conceptually with almost the same rigor as a mathematical proof. Yet it is impossible to make this concept reflect in one’s living through a mere understanding of it. We are so hardwired in our brains to create a sense of a separate self or ego that any amount of understanding of oneness seems to not penetrate through this barrier. Any effort in understanding Truth only brings one to the point where the utter incapacity of personal effort to make the final breakthrough is made plain obvious to any sincere seeker. The momentum of the ego which was hitherto caught in material pursuits now takes on the new, grand pursuit of realizing oneness, which is its own death. This is akin to the thief now acting as the cop to catch the thief!
This entire conundrum can be resolved not through any amount of understanding but only through Grace. To realize this fact that one is helpless to go past the desire to surrender is itself a profound realization in our journey of surrender.
Grace in actuality is most mysterious and why it chooses whom it chooses to wake up from the dream of duality is beyond any explanation that thought can conjure up. Any notion that one can attract Grace through prayer or other devotional practices is also only due to falsely presuming Grace to be within the bounds of a cause and effect relationship.
Hence the final teaching of all great sages is to just be inwardly still as any thought movement in any direction — be it intellectually or devotionally — can only take us so far in our pursuit of Truth and then itself becomes an obstacle. Thus the ceasing of all inner movement toward any future goal is when the field of Grace is invoked. This is the essence of true surrender — a radical acceptance of the Now.