Surrender to God is considered the highest requirement of all religions. The word “surrender” is defined as: give in, yield or overcome, submit, abandon, give up, give in, give up, or capitulate. In spirituality and religion, surrender means that a believer completely renounces his own will and submits his thoughts, ideas, and actions to the will and teachings of a higher power. There is no religion that does not emphasize the need for surrender to God as the first and foremost requirement.
Surrender to God is considered the most important requirement in Islam. In fact, the meaning of Islam itself is “submission,” or the total surrender of oneself to God. Surrender is considered the simplest path to salvation in Hinduism. In the Gita, Lord Krishna clearly says:
Give up all varieties of religion and just surrender to Me. I will free you from all sinful reaction. Do not worry. (Gita 18:66)
However, surrender is the most difficult act for most people, since surrender is not a matter of choice but arises only from deep conviction. Man is the only species in this world that works according to his free will while other species follow his nature and tendencies. We are all trained to use our mind and intellect to know the truth and make decisions in our life and it is extremely difficult to dismiss reason and logic from our mind even if we want to. Gautama Buddha always warned man against blind faith when he said:
“Don’t believe anything, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
However, even in Buddhism, the path of surrender gradually became the path of life. The very essence of Buddhism lies in surrender, as is clear from the following Buddhist prayer that a monk chants every day.
Buddha saranam gacchami.
Dhammam saranam gacchami.
Sangham saranam gacchami.
(I go to the Buddha for refuge.
I go to the Dharma for refuge.
I go to the Order in search of refuge.)
We often wonder how one can surrender to another person or to an ideology. If one surrenders, he may lose his identity and become a slave to the higher power or master. However, if surrender is the very foundation of religion and spirituality, there must be some good reason for it.
remote control delivery
How can we give up when we cannot make any decision without applying our mind? Let’s take a hypothetical example. We all use the remote control to watch the different channels of TV shows. The remote control acts as a link between our mind and the television channel. As soon as we want to change the channel, our hands press the channel number and the program on the screen changes. Thus, all the time, we watch the program we want to watch. In other words, television shows the program according to our free will. You may want to watch movies, news, stock market, business, or music channels. The choice of all the members of a family can be different and the viewing of the TV program is based on the free will of the person who has the remote control.
Now imagine that you give the remote control to your child. Now all of a sudden you can’t see the channels you want to watch. It is likely that the child does not watch any of the programs that he likes. Maybe he likes to watch cartoon movies, music channels and the show he loves.
What are you doing now?
Depending on its nature, it can do one of the following:-
1. Use Power: remove the remote control and watch the program you like and let the child watch the same program.
2. Make adjustments: If you have another TV in your house, you can turn on the other TV or ask your child to watch your show on the other TV.
3. Escape: You can leave the room and do something else leaving the TV entirely to your child.
4. Criticize: You keep watching the show and you keep ridiculing it and telling your child how stupid the shows are and that he should watch a good and useful show.
5. Indulge: Sit with the child and enjoy the program as if you also liked this program as much as the child.
Among the five options listed above, surrender may be the easiest and the most difficult depending on your relationship with your child. If you really love your children, there must be a bit of children in you. Therefore, you should be able to enjoy the shows your child watches. There is no doubt that if you watch and appreciate your child’s show, your child will love you more than if you criticize it or walk out of the room.
However, there is a much more important aspect to being present with the child when the remote control is with the child, as you can understand your child’s mind. You can really understand your child’s mind by looking at what he likes, what he enjoys, what he hates, as program selection is a reflection of the child’s will.
In the same way, if one surrenders to God, then one can know God’s will.
Surrendering your remote control to God
Surrendering to God is like giving your remote control to God. When we see the world using our free will, we see the world as we are and not as it is. It’s because, as soon as we see a world that doesn’t suit our taste, we immediately change the channel and see only what we want to see. The result is that most of the world remained invisible to us throughout our lives, as we kept coming back to the same channel over and over again.
Only when we surrender do we develop the ability to see the world from the perspective of others. Each different perspective helps us develop a better understanding, as it exposes us to a part of the world that we would never “willingly” see.
When we surrender to God, we see the world through God’s eyes when God’s thought becomes man’s thought. The paradigm shifts as you begin to see the world as you never thought it existed. This vision is called the divine vision where you find only divinity, love, compassion and goodness that are identified with God.
What to surrender?
It is not easy to give up. Surrender comes only from faith and it takes years to build faith. However, one has to start from somewhere. Jesus said in the Bible (Matthew 17:20)
“If you have faith like a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain: ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Thus, even the smallest seed of faith results in the tree bearing tons of fruits of love and trust. Faith and surrender are interrelated as both grow together.
Indian scriptures describe surrender as being of three kinds, viz. surrender of body, mind and wealth (Tan, Male, Dhan).
(1) Delivery of the body
Our body is the greatest source of pleasure and pain. The pleasure of the body and the senses are paramount in the minds of most people who believe in the theory of “Eat, Drink and Marry”. However, if you decide to give your body to God, then the body becomes an instrument to serve God. Instead of being the master, you become the servant of God and your body is simply a means to serve.
Ordinarily, we expect the entire world to serve us. In our family, we expect our children, spouse, and parents to serve us, since they all have some responsibility toward us. In a society, we expect society to serve us in achieving our goals. However, once you surrender and become an instrument of God, you see God in everyone and you serve everyone as if you were serving God. So, in your family, you do not exercise any authority over your spouse or children, but serve them as if you had served your master or God.
It is then that you realize how the world begins to change when a different image begins to emerge from the same television. Family members and society begin to love and take care of you, forgetting their hatred and excesses. They start to put faith in you, which further increases your determination to give up.
2. Surrender of the mind
Our mind is constantly on the go and is always in the habit of finding a reason for every action. The reaction of the mind is based on personal experiences and lessons learned in life. When we give our mind to God, we seem to accept that “Your will be done instead of mine.” Instead of using your mind to find the right path, you seek God’s guidance to find the right path. Instead of using your intuition or common sense to solve your problem, you look to the scriptures for a solution. Instead of following the tit-for-tat policy, you turn your other cheek to your enemies. Instead of working for a goal and keeping your eyes on the fruits of action, do all actions without expecting any fruit.
Surrender of the mind means that instead of using your mind to solve the problem and find a way, you take the help of the scriptures and your conscience, which is the seat of God. These methods can be extremely illogical and contrary to common sense.
What do you do when someone yells that they insult you? Maybe you mistreat him or hit him in the face. However, the same situation was treated differently by Gautama Buddha as narrated in this story.
A very angry man interrupted one of the Buddha’s lectures and proceeded to verbally abuse him by hurling insults. The Buddha just sat there calmly. Finally, the man asked the Buddha why he did not respond to insults and abuse. The Buddha replied, “If someone offers you a gift and you refuse to accept it, to whom does the gift belong?” The man replied, “To the one who offered it.” Buddha replied, “Then I reject your abuse and ask you to keep it to yourself.”
Such alternative paths are available in scripts which we do not find practical, even without trying these paths do not seem “normal” or “logical”. Somehow we believe that bad people will always be bad and good people will always be good. Although we always put ourselves in the category of good, we rarely find goodness in others. However, when we surrender our mind and search the scriptures or our conscience, we can see a different world as we discover the same goodness in everyone that we ourselves have.
3. Delivery of wealth
The third thing to surrender is our wealth. Gandhi suggests the concept of steward which means that instead of considering wealth as our own, we can consider ourselves as the steward of the wealth that is to be spent for the benefit of mankind. Consider the case of our family, the smallest unit in society. If we give away our wealth for the good of the family, instead of spending most of the wealth on our own happiness, we will spend more on our family. This is not unusual and we love our family. In the same way, if a person loves God, he would not hesitate to spend his money on the poor and needy of the world who need wealth more than he does. Wealth can be an instrument for the pleasure of the body, however, it is the greatest obstacle to entering the kingdom of God, as Jesus said:
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24)
surrender is power
It is only through surrender that we can hope to understand God’s thoughts and develop faith in the Scriptures. Faith in God also means faith in human beings who have God’s presence in them. However, contrary to logic and reasoning that one loses all power upon surrender, a man emerges more powerful after surrender. Physical power is transformed into Soul power by which he can control millions. Physical power is limited and weakens with age, but spiritual power is unlimited and grows with the realization of the spiritual self. And surrender is the only method of spirituality that unites the mind of man with that of God.