The power of surrender

Surrender is so natural for us humans. In fact, you are constantly granting your trust here and there, otherwise you simply could not live. The child surrenders to his mother, the passenger surrenders to the cab driver or the pilot of the airplane, and we all surrender to Mother earth for her not to split under our feet when we walk…

You trust people you do not even know by name on a daily basis! If you decided to question every interaction you have in your daily life, for the sake of a failure to trust anyone, your life would be a living hell! It turns out that surrendering is the easiest way to move forward and achieve tangible results. Just like the passenger in an airplane better relax and trust the pilot (whose name he doesn’t even know!), you’d better stop overusing your brains and systematically doubting what guide you in life. 

Surrender… to whom?

Fear is the root of ignorance and confusion, and surrender is the antithesis of fear. The whole question is to whom should we reasonably surrender our lives, to avoid both ignorance and confusion? We should rely on the only entity we can trust: the eternal Father.

Why is it so easy for you to surrender to worldly people, and so hard to surrender to the Supreme Person? Because your mind opposes it with all its might. Your mind is connected to the senses, which in turn are in contact with the impermanent and fleeting objects of the material world. This vicious circle made of perception and interpretation, prevents your intelligence from grasping anything eternal, so used are you to interact with impermanent objects.  You are simply too busy dealing with non-eternal and deceiving aspects of the reality, so much that you would be loath to approach that which is eternal.

Surrender… how?

The surrendering process is made possible by one-pointed awareness and meditation. Whatever happens around us, we should remain focused on the ultimate Reality, His attributes and qualities. As we explained previously, the qualities of the Absolute are not different from His names, which in turn are not different from the Absolute Himself. Therefore, uttering or chanting these names keep us close to the Absolute. If one meditates on the qualities of the Absolute and remains steadfast in one’s willingness to see Him, everything will be revealed in due course. 

His names are countless, for so are His qualities and forms. Thus, any name that describe an eternal and absolute quality may be the object for our meditation, but certain names dive deeper into the characteristics of the Divine, therefore certain spiritual paths give preference to them. The name must not refer to a perishable quality or be purely concocted by someone’s imagination. 

One who wants to surrender to the ultimate Truth by meditating upon His names, forms or qualities, should remember some crucial points: His ultimate identity is one, personal, infinitely attractive and mesmerizing. He is also the origin of the multiverse, and His presence pervades it from the macroscale to the microscale. His omnipresence makes it possible for Him to reveal Himself in the intimacy of our hearts if we sincerely surrender. 

Surviving in this world and enjoying it is at the cost of a terribly hard work. On the other hand, in this present age and universe, finding our true nature and surrendering to the Absolute is such a straightforward process: chant His names, for Him and His names are not different!  

Surrender… why?

Surrendering to the Absolute will not just grant us pure bliss, but also give us the proper vision and insight about our environment, by purifying our consciousness and intelligence. The dull space in which we now live, will be seen through our awaken spiritual eyes – a wonderful and complex manifestation of the Divine energy, in which everyone is part of the same family in relation with the Supreme. Moreover, the most miraculous feature of reality will appear to us more and more clearly, and that is individuality. 

We said earlier that the Ultimate form of the Divine is personal; so is what emanates from Him, and that is why every single living entity in this world has unique and non-replicable characteristics. When it comes to humans, for example, everyone has a different retina, fingerprint and tone of voice. Isn’t it wonderful? Of the trillions and trillions of human bodies that have trodden this planet for millions of years, not even two of them were exactly alike: this is the dizzying manifold that emanates from the Absolute. 

After surrendering, things that were considered normal will be seen as wonderful. For example, it costs a lot of money to be on oxygen in a hospital, and without oxygen, our entire physiological system goes haywire and eventually stops functioning.  Yet we breathe enormous amounts of oxygen every day, without even being aware of it nor grateful for this free vital commodity. 

The body in which we dwell, in itself, is a miracle of engineering to which we become accustomed too quickly. Its ability to select oxygen from all the gases in the air, or its astonishing digestive system – why do we end up taking all these incredible abilities for granted?

Moreover, a sincere surrender is the key for peace and harmony:  when everyone follows the same center and sees the entire material manifestation as family, there is no question of argument or discord. On the other hand, following a specific religion for the sake of claiming obedience to this or that denomination will inevitably leads to dissensions and clashes between different followers.  

Surrender to the Names of the Absolute

All religions of the world prescribe the chanting of the Holy Names, in different forms and modalities, be it Muslims, Christians, Jains, Buddhists or Sikhs. Humans spend so much time yakking here and there, using their breath to discuss the transitory forms of this world; why not instead use our precious breath to seek the Divine, call Him into our lives and meditate on His Names? This is how true miracles start happening in one’s life. 

Chanting the Names and surrendering to the Absolute Truth, one will realize that the seemingly complex and intricate aspects of this world are actually quite simple: everything leads to God, and we can chose to go with or against that flow. As souls, we are designed for eternity and wholeness, therefore nothing in this world can ultimately satisfy us. Our only oasis is the spiritual reality, from which no one can return, and in which there is no question of birth, death, old age and suffering. Indeed, these impurities are all byproducts of the material energy, and as long as we are contact with them, we will feel incomplete and frustrated. 

Anyone who recognizes his or her destiny as eternity and bliss has only two things to do: meditate on the Divine Names and place his or her unconditional trust in the Supreme Soul who watches over each and every one of us at every second.  Whatever language one may use, one should constantly and joyfully utter the Names that describes that Absolute. If one cannot find the Name in one’s language, one should use the primeval and spiritual language known as Sanskrit, in which the foremost divine Name is Krsna, “He who draws all things to Himself out of divine love”.

No other ways to satisfaction

We must be aware of one thing: to accept this path of surrender and to hold firmly to it is the sign of an immense intelligence and of a bright destiny. As described in the Sanatan Dharma scriptures, those who refuse the real spiritual life try all sorts of other means to satisfy their thirst for love and happiness: religion, sense gratification, fame, power, austerities, prowess, celebrity, virtue, duties, hard work, performance, drugs, knowledge… Ultimately, nothing works, for everything leads to the same result, namely boredom and death. 

Chanting the Names and surrendering should be intimately related and complementary. In other words, one should chant humbly, simply, with the heart of a child seeking shelter. Chanting the Names will foster the surrendering process, and vice versa. If someone can tell the Divine “I want nothing but you”, the Absolute will surely reciprocate and express the same towards the individual soul. Thus will be revived the eternal relationship between the soul and its Source, the spark will be able to return to the fire. 

The mantra consisting of the Divine Names is the simplest way to express this sincere prayer, it is so easy to practice and incredibly effective. It will deeply transform our hearts and open the way to our final destiny: a loving and eternal relationship with the Divine.