Surrender Yourself Unconditionally

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Surrender Yourself Unconditionally

The Vedas describe God as being Nirguna (free of qualities) and Niranjana (free

of blemish). The Advaita philosophy founded by Adi Sankara explains this

concept: “God or Brahman does not have any gunas or qualities”. However,

Ramanuja of the Vishishtadvaita philosophy explains that nirguna does not mean

that God has no qualities, it only means that God has no bad gunas or

qualities.

Ramanuja has described the various qualities of God in his work Sharanagati

Gatyam. However, he became so fascinated by the quality of karuna or daya —

compassion — in the Lord that his entire work is mostly about this wonderful

quality of the Lord. Because of this quality, He comes to the rescue of all

those who surrender completely to Him. The Lord’s compassion is limitless. No

wonder, then, He is also known as Karunasagar or ocean of compassion.

The entire work on Daya Shatakam, all of hundred poems, composed by Vedanta

Desika, another great Vaishnavite scholar, is full of praise for the Lord’s

compassion. God is all-powerful. Yet, He is generous and forgives those who

seek forgiveness, which ultimately leads to their salvation.

The entire principle of Vishishtadvaita veers around Sharanagati or total

surrender to God. Vaishnavites believe that by seeking forgiveness through

their Guru or Acharya, they will be absolved of all sins and come closer to

salvation. In Bhagavad Purana, when Hiranyakashipu asks Prahalad, his son, what

is the best thing that he has learnt, Prahalad enumerates nine ways of reaching

God and one of them is atma samarpanam or total surrender to God.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says: “Leave everything and surrender to me, I

will absolve you of all sins and lead you to salvation”. God does not

differentiate between friend and foe, man and animal, caste and creed. He comes

to the rescue of all those who surrender to Him with full faith and belief in

Him.

Various incidents in Hindu mythology and our puranas and epics illustrate the

concept of God as the One who always comes to the rescue of the helpless who

care to remember Him. When Gajendra, the king of elephants, found himself

compromised by a crocodile who would not let go of his leg, he realised that

his herd could not help him.

So Gajendra called out to Vishnu who responded by rescuing and saving Gajendra

from the crocodile. Jayantha, in the form of a crow had given unbearable

trouble to Sita, but when he fell at Ram’s feet, he was pardoned and his life

was saved from the fury of Brahmastra. In order to save the life of an Asura

child Prahalad, Vishnu took the form of Narasimha and killed the Asura king

Hiranyakashipu.

The following incidents from the Ramayana and the Maha-bharata encapsulate

wonderfully the principle of total surrender to the Lord: During the

Vastraharan, when Draupadi’s honour was at stake, as long as she tried to

protect her honour with her hands, the Lord did not come to her rescue. The

moment she raised both her hands in despair and called out to Krishna

indicating that she believed Him to be the only saviour, the Lord came to her

rescue and saved her honour.

Vibishana, Ravana’s brother came to surrender to the Lord and fight on the side

of Rama. The entire army of Sugriva was against this, but Rama said that even

if Ravana seeks forgiveness, he will pardon him and He accepted Vibishana on

his side.

Surrendering unconditionally to the Almighty is one way of expressing our

confidence in the Divine, for faith works wonders.

 

the author of this article is shriDevakottai Sundararajan Srinivasan

Arun Reddy Nukala

+44-7946-595063

+44-2085-695116

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