SharaNaagati (Surrender)

शरणागति
(Surrender)

We have discussed surrender under AatmasamarpaNa. SharaNaagati is the word in use by those on the Bhakti Maarga.

RamaNa said - It is a mistake to think that surrender is a passive posture in which we wait helpless and supine for something to happen miraculously with Guru's or God's Grace. Surrender is not a feeble,vulnerable attitude of abject submission nor a magic ticket which frees us from the responsibility to make efforts. Right surrender is intense and subtle at the same time. You remain alert and open to the workings of God or Guru. It requires firm faith and trust that whatever happens is for our best even in the midst of seeming discord or disaster.

There are critical times in our lives when we apparently have definitive choices and we are faced with decisions which irrevocably affect our lives. RamaNa said - Bear in mind that the real choice is whether you identify with these choices or not. Pay heed to each moment. Nothing is too insignificant to be discarded outright without appropriate consideration. Judge the events and people involved in proper perspective, surrender to the moment and do what is apt, without thinking of results or consequences. God will take care of it as indeed He takes care of you as well. *

Surrender is living in the present. Our duty is to be alert and remain engaged in and attentive to the current moment without identifying with it. No thoughts of past. No thought of future. Thoughts always come in pairs - attraction and repulsion, love and hatred, humility and contempt, activity and indolence and the like. Concentrate and realise they are part of a whole which only God only is aware of. You will be free from the binding dwandwas. This enhances the richness of your understanding; they turn into friends, no longer enemies.

Problems in life are actually opportunities for you to test yourself. The dhobi beats the dirty clothes on rock to clean them, not to tear them.

How will our future turn out right if we do not think about it, plan for it ? Well, you plan for it. But do not worry about it, waste no time in anxiety over it. If the plan fails, try again but with with no regrets or frustration. If you succeed, thank God but don't waste time to gloat over it and rest on your oars.

Ramana was running a high fever. But he was sitting and correcting the proof of some book to be published. When devotees asked him to take rest, he continued in proof reading, saying - There are many here who worry and take care of this body. Let me do my job! That is subtle humour and a lesson.

God looks after your work. You act to fulfil the actions required for the work to be done. Do your best and leave the rest to God.

Surrender means giving up the work as my work and doing it as God's work. You will do it better. Do it for the pleasure in doing God's work and not for some personal gain - money or name. Pleasure in doing God's work cannot be "purchased" by the money you earn in doing any work.

Smiles on the faces of children is your reward. Smile on God's face is a bigger reward. The point is not success of your work but the manner in which you did the work.

Joan of Arc was on the pyre. They were burning her alive for witchcraft. She prayed to God while helping the guards to tie the ropes properly her! Surrender makes you strong.
NOTE :
* A MOTHER IN THE KITCHEN KEEPS HER EARS TUNED to the voice of her child outside. She passes over its normal cries. When she senses pain in the cry, she rushes out. GOD is ever tuned to you -both audio and visual. HE passes over loud wailing and over copious tears. But when HE finds you cry from the mind, from the heart He rushes to you.