Burst Forty Four (For Youth):
Surrender and Inner Freedom:
“Inquire or surrender. These are the two paths to freedom.” Maharshi Ramana said all the approaches to spirituality belong to the two categories of inquiry and surrender, which are essentially the ways of wisdom and devotion respectively.
The self is the sense of separate I in all of us. Elimination of this self is the crux of the matter in both the disciplines of inquiry and surrender. The self is made of its own memories and sustains itself through self-importance. Upon gaining some purity, this self understands God’s importance and greatness and abandons its obsession with itself.
“Save me,” says the devotee to the Lord. “Drop the ‘me’ and you are saved,” says the Lord. The devotee then comes around, “I offer myself to you.” The Sanskrit word samarpan means total offering, while arpan means offering. Swami Chinmayanandaji used to humorously say, “If not samarpan, do some arpan!”
Who or what is God? Well, He is the unity of all creation, which is the truth. The self is a denial of that unity and therefore is false. The illusory self suffers its self-created miseries, matures and gains the insight that it requires an altogether different approach to happiness than all its usual ways of earning and hoarding. Adding some more wealth or fame to its list of collections, it sees, takes it nowhere near infinity. A journey from the self to a better self is utterly futile. What is needed is a leap to no self. That is surrender.
Become food for the Lord, says the sage of Arunachala. When we eat food, it becomes a part of us. It loses its separate existence. Likewise the devotee merges with the Lord in pure devotion. Harih karta, Harir-bhokta – goes the good old saying: the Lord is the doer and he alone is the enjoyer. The devotee turns to naught. Though zero, he (she) is now truly a hero for in this becoming nobody he is everybody. Being nowhere, he has the bliss of being everywhere.
In surrender there is freedom. God acts through the devotee. Contrary to our usual feelings of insecurity, the devotee here gets everything he needs. Yoga-kshemam vahamyaham – I shall look after the devotee who has surrendered to me, says the Lord in the Geeta (9:22). When the self subsides, it will not be a case of void or non-functionality. Truth operates through the mind and body of the devotee. Meaningful action takes place with the touch of love and care.
Stop suffering from the burdens on your shoulder which actually do not exist. Surrender to Him and be free.
Swami Chidananda
June 1, 2006