Path of Surrender is the Ultimate Path to God

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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.

 

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