Surrender

I say that I have surrendered
But what have I given up?
It's easy to talk in this fashion
Though it's nothing but empty words,
Which came from the tongue too glibly
In a sentimental way.

***

It is all just show and pretending,
Prostrating and that sort of thing.
Quoting in texts and of shastras,
Perfect in word not in deed.
I'm sick, sick, sick of this business,
I want to start fresh but I can't.

***

Transmute me until I am blended
With you so that both are One.
When there's no longer the talk of surrender
Then alone has surrender begun.

***

~ Major Chadwick

(17 April is Chadwick Day.)

"Just keep quiet and Bhagavan will do the rest."

Ramana has said:

“The removal of ignorance is the aim of practice and not acquisition of Realisation.” (Talks).

The most fundamental piece of ignorance is that there exists an individual self who is going to do sadhana, and that by doing sadhana, this individual self will disappear or be merged in some super-being.

Until this concept is eliminated on the mental level, it is not an exaggeration to say that one is wasting one’s time in attempts to surrender or to enquire ‘Who am I?’ Correct attitude and correct understanding of this matter are of pre-eminent importance if the application of Ramana’s teaching is to be successful.

Returning now to the practice of surrender, and bearing in mind the necessity of maintaining the right attitude with regard to the nonexistence of the individual self, there remains the problem of how to surrender since the mere desire to surrender invents an illusory person who is going to surrender.

The key to this problem and the key to all problems connected with the practice of Ramana’s teachings, is to bypass the mind and move to the realm of being. One cannot truly surrender without escaping from that vast accumulation of ideas and desires we call the mind, and according to Ramana, one cannot escape or destroy the mind by any kind of mental activity.

Ramana’s solution is to let the mind subside to the point where it disappears, and what remains when the mind has subsided is the simple, pure being that was always there. In a conversation in Talks Ramana gives the following illuminating answer. He says:

“It is enough that one surrenders oneself. Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one’s being … One’s source is within oneself. Give yourself up to it. That means that you should seek the source and merge in it.”
(Talks p.175).

This is an immensely profound statement which not only sweeps away many of the myths that surround the practice of surrender – it also shows an indication that the route to the rediscovery of the Self is the same whether one chooses to label it “surrender” or “self-enquiry”.

If we examine this statement closely it is possible to extract three important conclusions regarding Ramana’s attitude and approach to surrender. Firstly, there is no external deity or manifestation to whom one must surrender; secondly, the source of one’s being is within us; and thirdly, and most importantly, true surrender is to go back to the original cause of one’s being and remain firmly and continually rooted there.

If this is translated into terms of practical advice, then surrender comes down to two words: being and stillness.

In Talks Ramana says:

“Your duty is to be, and not to be this or that, ‘I am that I am’ sums up the whole truth. The method is summed up in ‘Be still’.” (Talks, p.333).

The stillness and the being of which Ramana speaks co-exist with each other and reveal themselves in their full radiance whenever interest in one’s thought stream dries up. Thus, for Ramana, the practice of surrender is to find within oneself this feeling of beingness and surrender oneself completely to it. On this level of surrender, practice consists of giving up wrong ideas by refusing to give them attention.

~ from "The Unity of Surrender and Self-Enquiry" by David Godman

Surrender

Surrender means 'surrendering or giving oneself up to another in an especially high degree'. In total surrender, the ego is completely lost. There is no expectation of any reward. There is no seeking of any kind whatsoever. True surrender is the love of God for the sake of love and nothing else, not even for the sake of salvation, says Sri Bhagavan.

Most of us expect God to do us only good once we have surrendered. We are surprised and pained when, despite our surrender, we are faced with problems. When we expect something in return for our surrender, we have not really surrendered. Sri Bhagavan says: "Surrender is not an easy thing. Killing the ego is not an easy thing. It is only when God himself by his Grace draws the mind inwards that complete surrender can be achieved."

When a person has truly surrendered, he has no cares, no desires, no anxieties. He has no will of his own. When Sri Bhagavan left Madurai, he took just the train fare to Tiruvannamalai. When he reached Tiruvannamalai, he threw away the packet of sweets that had been given to him by Muthukrishna Bhagavatar's sister. He was not anxious for the morrow. He tore off from his dhoti a strip for his kaupina and threw away the rest. He did not take an extra kaupina nor did he think of using the remaining cloth as a towel. This is total surrender. He had come to his Father and he· had implicit faith that his bare needs would be looked after. In the early days, there were occasions when Sri Bhagavan was teased and insulted. But he remained unaffected by them as there was no individual to react. The whole life of Bhagavan is a commentary on Surrender.

No human being can be free from problems. Even after we surrender, we shall have problems. But our attitude to problems will change. Sri Bhagavan says: "If you surrender yourself and recognise your individual self as only a tool of the Higher Power, that power will take over your affairs along with the fruits of actions. You are no longer affected by them, and the work will go on unhampered. Whether you recognise the power or not, the scheme of things does not alter. Only there is a change of outlook."

Real surrender is where 'me' is not. The following Christian hymn tells in simple but moving language what real surrender is:

Make me a captive, Lord,
And then I shall be free;
Force me to render up my sword,
And I shall conqueror be.
I sink in life's alarms
When by myself I stand;
Imprison me within thine arms,
And strong shall be my hand.
My heart is weak and poor
Until its master find;
It has no spring of action sure --
It varies with the wind,
It cannot freely move,
Till thou hast wrought its chain;
Enslave it with thy matchless love
And deathless it shall reign.
My power is faint and low
Till I have learned to serve;
It wants the needed fire to glow,
It wants the breeze to nerve;
It cannot drive the world
Until itself be driven;
Its flag can only be unfurled.
When thou shalt breathe from heaven.
My will is not my own
Till thou hast made it Thine;
If it would reach a monarch's throne
It must its crown resign;
It only stands unbent
Amid the clashing strife.
When on thy bosom it has leant
And found in thee its life.

~ Uniqueness of Sri Bhagavan, K. Subrahmanian

Devotee: What is unconditional surrender?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: If one surrenders oneself there will be no one to ask questions or to be thought of. Either the thoughts are eliminated by holding onto the root thought 'I' or one surrenders oneself unconditionally to the Higher Power. These are the only two ways for Realization.

~ Talk 321, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

Remain what you are.

It was a summer evening, and we were all sitting outside in the open space by the well. Suddenly one of the visitors started weeping bitterly.

'I am a horrible sinner. For a long time I have been coming to you, but there is no change in me. Can I become pure at last? How long am I to wait? When I am here near you, I am good for a time. But when I leave this place, I become a beast again. You cannot imagine how bad I can be -- hardly a human being. Am I to remain a sinner forever?'

'Why do you come to me? What have I to do with you?' demanded Bhagavan. 'What is there between us that you should come here and weep and cry in front of me?'

The man started moaning and crying even more, as if his heart were breaking.

'All my hopes of salvation are gone. You were my last refuge and you say you have nothing to do with me! To whom shall I turn now? What am I to do? To whom am I to go?'

Bhagavan watched him for some time and said, 'Am I your Guru that I should be responsible for your salvation? Have I ever said that I am your Master?'

'If you are not my Master, then who is? And who are you, if not my Master? You are my Guru. You are my guardian angel. You must take pity me and release me from my sins!'

He started sobbing and crying again.

We all sat silent, overcome with pity. Only Bhagavan looked alert and matter-of-fact.

'If I am your Guru, what are my fees? Surely you should pay me for my services.'

'But you won't take anything,' cried the visitor. 'What can I give you?'

'Did I ever say that I don't take anything? And did you ever ask me what you can give me?'

'If you would take, then ask me. There is nothing I would not give you.'

'All right. Now I am asking. Give me. What will you give me?'

'Take anything. Everything I have is yours.'

'Then give me all the good you have done in this world.'

'What good could I have done? I have not a single virtue to my credit.'

'You have promised to give. Now give. Don't talk of your credit. Just give away all the good you have done in your past.'

'Yes, I shall give. But how does one give? Tell me how the giving is done and I shall give.'

'Say like this: "All the good I have done in the past I am giving away entirely to my Guru. Henceforth I have no merit from it nor have I any concern with it." Say it with your whole heart.'

'All right, Swami. "I am giving away to you all the good I have done so far, if I have done any, and all its good effects. I am giving it to you gladly, for you are my Master and you are asking me to give it all away to you.'

'But this is not enough,' said Bhagavan sternly.

'I gave you all I have and all you asked me to give. I have nothing more to give.'

'No, you have. Give me all your sins.'

The man looked wildly at Bhagavan, terror stricken.

'You do not know, Swami, what you are asking for. If you knew, you would not ask me. If you take over my sins, your body will rot and burn. You do not know me, you do not know my sins. Please do not ask me for my sins.'

He wept bitterly.

'I shall look after myself. Don't you worry about me,' said Bhagavan. 'All I want from you is your sins.'

For a long time the bargain would not go through. The man refused to part with his sins. But Bhagavan was adamant.

'Either give me your sins along with your merits, or keep both and don't think of me as your Master."

In the end the visitor's scruples broke down and he declared, 'Whatever sins I have done, they are no longer mine. All of them and their results, too, belong to Ramana.'

Bhagavan seemed to be satisfied. 'From now on there is no good nor bad in you. You are just pure. Go and do nothing, either good or bad. Remain yourself. Remain what you are.'

A great peace fell over the man and over us all. No one knows what happened to the fortunate visitor, for he was never seen in the ashram again. He might have had no further need to come.

~ from the Krishna Bhikshu chapter in The Power of the Presence, Part Three, by David Godman

Humility means seeing God in everything or perceiving one's own Self everywhere. Humility means accepting the Will of the Supreme. Humility means self-surrender, surrendering our will to the Will of God .... All reactions disappear. There are no more reactions, only acceptance. Therefore, humility can also be interpreted as total acceptance ... Real surrender is surrendering or renouncing one's ego at the feet of the Supreme Self.

~ Amma Mata Amritanandamayi

stillness is total surrender

Surrender once and for all and be done with the desire. So long as the sense of doership is retained there is the desire; that is also personality. If this goes the Self is found to shine forth pure. The sense of doership is the bondage and not the actions themselves.

"Be still and know that I am God." Here stillness is total surrender without a vestige of individuality. Stillness will prevail and there will be no agitation of mind. Agitation of mind is the cause of desire, the sense of doership and personality. If that is stopped there is quiet. There `Knowing' means `Being'. It is not the relative knowledge involving the triads, knowledge, subject and object.

~ Bhagavan Ramana, Talk 354, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one's being.

Ramana has said:

“The removal of ignorance is the aim of practice
and not the acquisition of Realisation.”
(Talks p. 322).

The most fundamental piece of ignorance is that there exists an individual self who is going to do sadhana, and that by doing sadhana, this individual self will disappear or be merged in some super-being.

Until this concept is eliminated on the mental level, it is not an exaggeration to say that one is wasting one’s time in attempts to surrender or to enquire ‘Who am I?’ Correct attitude and correct understanding of this matter are of pre-eminent importance if the application of Ramana’s teaching is to be successful.

Returning now to the practice of surrender, and bearing in mind the necessity of maintaining the right attitude with regard to the nonexistence of the individual self, there remains the problem of how to surrender since the mere desire to surrender invents an illusory person who is going to surrender.

The key to this problem and the key to all problems connected with the practice of Ramana’s teachings, is to bypass the mind and move to the realm of being. One cannot truly surrender without escaping from that vast accumulation of ideas and desires we call the mind, and according to Ramana, one cannot ecape or destroy the mind by any kind of mental activity.

Ramana’s solution is to let the mind subside to the point where it disappears, and what remains when the mind has subsided is the simple, pure being that was always there. In a conversation in Talks Ramana gives the following illuminating answer. He says:

“It is enough that one surrenders oneself. Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one’s being … One’s source is within oneself. Give yourself up to it. That means that you should seek the source and merge in it.”
(Talks p.175).

This is an immensely profound statement which not only sweeps away many of the myths that surround the practice of surrender – it also shows an indication that the route to the rediscovery of the Self is the same whether one chooses to label it “surrender” or “self-enquiry”.

~ David Godman, "The Unity of Surrender and Self-Enquiry", The Mountain Path, Vol.18, No.1, 1981

real surrender

... If one enquires as to who one is and what one is, and finds out the truth, one becomes oneself. To resolve all inherent desires into one’s own Self is real surrender. After that, our burden is His.

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, quoted in Letters from Sri Ramanasramam by Suri Nagamma

Leave it to God

Leave it to God. Surrender unreservedly. One of two things must be done. Either surrender because you admit your inability and require a higher power to help you, or investigate the cause of misery by going to the source and merging into the Self. Either way you will be free from misery. God never forsakes one who has surrendered.

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks

the secret of realization lies in this utter surrender

With time I realized that working with Bhagavan in the kitchen was not mere cooking, but definitely a form of spiritual training. The first lesson in spiritual education to learn, and to learn for good, is to obey the guru implicitly without questioning or using one's own judgement in the least. Even if we knew a better way of doing it, we had to do it exactly as the Master told us. It might have appeared that by obeying him the work would be ruined, but still one had to obey. One must master this art of instantaneous and unquestioning obedience, for the secret of realization lies in this utter surrender and renunciation of one's own judgement.

~ Sundaram, from Ramana Smriti

please see: http://ramana-smriti.blogspot.com/2007/07/bhagavans-cooking.html

strange, not to go on wishing one's wishes

True, it is strange to inhabit the earth no longer,
to use no longer customs squarely acquired,
not to interpret roses, and other things
that promise so much, in terms of a human future;
to be no longer all that one used to be
in endlessly anxious hands, to lay aside
even one's proper name like a broken toy.
Strange, not to go on wishing one's wishes.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke, from the First Elegy, Duino Elegies, translated by JB Leishman and Stephen Spender

our refuge

Like a mother who rushes to her hungry baby, picks it up, offers her breast and gives milk, manifest within my heart and end my intense hunger for jnana.

There is no means of getting redeemed other than by having a mind that possesses love for you in such abundance that tears flow like a river.

My Lord! Without making me weary and frustrated with book knowledge, bestow on me the mind of a child that abounds with purity. Make me cling to you in this way.

I am caught in the mouth of the tiger, ego. Apart from you, who took me up as your slave, who else in this world has the responsibility to save me.

On that day when I caught hold of your feet, saying, 'You are my refuge,' you granted me freedom from fear by saying, 'Fear not'.

~ Sadhu Natanananda, Sri Ramana Darsanam

Bhagavan's Promises

This is taken from an interview of David Godman by Maalok:

DG: When devotees surrendered their problems to Sri Ramana, it was the same as surrendering them to God. They were submitting to the same divine authority, surrendering to a living manifestation of that same power. Here are some statements that Sri Ramana made on this subject. I have taken them from a book I am currently working on. Each sentence was originally recorded by Muruganar in Tamil verse:



1. My devotees have the qualifications to rejoice abundantly, like children of an emperor.

2. Abandon the drama [of the world] and seek the Self within. Remaining within, I will protect you, [ensuring] that no harm befalls you.

3. If you inquire and know me, the indweller, in that state there will be no reason for you to worry about the world.

4. For the cruel disease of burning samsara to end, the correct regimen is to entrust all your burdens on me.

5. In order that your needless anxieties cease, make sure that all your burdens are placed on me through the brave act of depending totally on grace.

6. If you completely surrender all your responsibilities to me, I will accept them as mine and manage them.

7. When bearing the entire burden remains my responsibility, why do you have any worries?

8. Long ago you offered your body, possessions and soul to me, making them mine, so why do you still regard these things as 'I' and 'mine' and associate yourself with them?

9. Seek my grace within the Heart. I will drive away your darkness and show you the light. This is my responsibility.



These verses come from a sub-section I have entitled 'Bhagavan's Promises'. When people surrendered completely to him, he was more than happy to manage their lives for them. Just about everyone discovered that when she surrendered the burden of responsibility for her life to Sri Ramana, problems diminished or went away completely.

The Guru is primarily there to teach the truth, to bestow grace on his disciples and to bring about the liberation of the mature souls who come to him. But he also has this very nice sideline of being able to manage the affairs of his devotees much better than they can.

~~~

for the full interview, please see http://www.davidgodman.org/interviews/al1.shtml

I hope David Godman will not keep us waiting too long for this promised book!

over to you, Beloved

There are no actions that can be clasified as 'mine'. It is only proper to say all actions are Yours alone. I have made over to you my body, possessions and soul. It is for you to remove the impurities that abound in my mind and bestow your grace in whatever way you think fit!

~ Thayumanavar

self-surrender

Some devotees had the false belief that Bhagavan could, if he so wished, confer the highest state on anyone and everyone. Showing great compassion, and using everyday incidents as pretexts, he would explain that for Self-realisation self-surrender was indispensable.

~ Sadhu Natanananda, Sri Ramana Darsanam

surrender all into the hands of the Beloved

Q: [Annamalai] Swami, I sometimes feel tremendous grace and have a great sense of well-being. This feeling is steady for a few days and then it goes away. Why is this?

AS: If the awareness of grace does not last it means that your surrender is only partial. Don't be attached to your problems and don't worry about them. Let all your problems go and put them in the hands of Bhagavan. Cultivate the feeling 'This is God's problem, not mine'.

When you surrender to Bhagavan you should not worry about any of your problems and needs. You should have faith that Bhagavan is going to take care of everything. If you still find yourself worrying about anything, you have not fully surrendered.

Tayumanuvar once asked Shiva to give him a boon:

You who carry all the troubles of the world, please take all my troubles too. Take from me all sense that I am the doer. You alone act; You do everything through me.

Surrender completely and accept that everything that happens to you and the world is God's will.

~ Living by the Words of Bhagavan

the real surrender

"It is mere delusion to think of arpana (offering), so lightly. Arpana means that the mind gets merged in the self and becomes one with it. It means that it should become devoid of all vasanas. And that will not come about unless there is self-effort and God’s Grace. God’s force cannot get hold of you and drag you into itself unless you surrender completely.

But where is the question of our surrendering? The self itself is to be surrendered. Until one can accomplish that, one should go on struggling unceasingly. It is only after trying again and again that one may, finally, succeed in the effort.

Once you succeed, there is no going back. That is the proper course. What is the use of merely repeating the word arpana, arpana? How can there be arpana unless there is a thing called ‘I’? Complete surrender cannot come about unless one knows who one is.

If you come to know that, you will realise that what remains is only one thing. The mind which is the ‘I’ submits of its own accord. And that is the real arpana (surrender),” said Bhagavan.

~ from Letters from Sri Ramanasramam by Suri Nagamma