What does it mean to surrender?

The concept of surrender is one of the few things that is given the highest respect in all religious traditions. And it is also one of the most elusive concepts in spirituality, almost as elusive as the concept of Maya. Though the concept of Maya has been dealt with in lot of detail by several great Indian philosophers, the concept of surrender has not been so fortunate. This is also because surrender is more important in the tradition of Bhakti (path of emotion) whereas most of the philosophers are more inclined towards Jnana (path of knowledge). Many of the great philosophers in India have also been equally great bhaktas, but for some reason they choose not to show their emotional side in public. 

The element of surrender is of utmost importance not only in spirituality but also in our daily lives. In fact, it would be almost impossible to maintain human relationships in the long run if there was no element of surrender in us. But what is this surrender? There are of course many levels of surrender which can be arranged both horizontally and vertically. Broadly speaking, we could perhaps think of three different kinds of surrender.  

Surrender to rules or laws

In our daily life, we follow many rules/laws without really knowing whether they are right/wrong. This can happen for many reasons. Firstly, it is not practically possible to go around checking every single rule/law. Secondly, if all around us are following a certain thing, it gives us confidence that there must be something good about it. A little higher level is when we have checked for ourselves that a rule/law is indeed right and must be followed. In the spiritual path, a certain awakening  might happen from within and an inner voice tells us that a certain rule/law must be followed and we surrender to this voice. Though this kind of surrender is somewhat essential in life, it often leads to conflicts since the rules/laws of one person might come in way of another person's rules/laws. My inner voice might compel me to wake up early in the morning and sing praises of the Lord on a loudspeaker. And another person's inner voice may compel him/her to sing someone else's praises in the middle of the night, again on a loudspeaker. Now whose inner voice is right? Though this is an extreme example, there are numerous cases of such conflicts at all levels in our lives. It is certainly not easy to resolve such conflicts. But it is important to be at least a little sensitive towards the lives of others and be aware of the implications of our choices on others. 

Surrender to a higher power

Youngsters often have dreams of becoming musicians, dancers, cricketers and entrepreneurs. But the moment they sit for placements and get a fat paycheque, all these dreams are kept aside. Is this not a kind of surrender that we all experience in some form or other? Not just in terms of money, this type of surrender can also happen in the intellectual arena. At the lowest level, its called brainwashing. Sometimes another person's logic or even personality may be so overwhelming that we give up even before making an honest attempt to dissect it. This often happens when we listen to lectures by eminent personalities or watch movies of superstars. Many times when we think that we have logically gone through the other person's arguments carefully, it might be the case that we are simply being led by our perception of the other person's character, abilities and charisma. 

Surrender due to exhaustion

The above two types of surrender are commonly experienced by all of us to varying degrees. But surrender due to exhaustion is quite rare and this is perhaps what genuine spiritual gurus mean when they speak on this topic. Surrender by exhaustion is not about quitting the race in between because we get tired. Its about running till we fall unconscious on the tracks. Its hard to say how rewarding this is from the physical point of view, but it surely has immense benefits from the mental and spiritual perspective. In science also we see that great ideas often come to great minds when they have thought so hard on a problem that their mind went almost blank. There is a simple analogy to understand this. If we have a vessel in which we want to pour the best quality of milk, the first thing we will do is to clean it thoroughly.  No such action is required when we want to pour a dirty liquid in a vessel. Exhaustion has a similar cleansing effect. Its only after we have given all that we have that we can receive ideas and experiences of the highest quality. In this context, it is important to understand that surrender is not an active action or decision that one can undertake. It is actually a natural consequence of pushing ourselves beyond our limits. In business, we see that many great empires that exist today went through a stage of bankruptcy at some point of time. In the spiritual domain, Vivekananda is a great example of this kind of surrender. He fought with his guru for six long years before being exhausted of all energies. And it is then that the highest realisations dawned on him. If he had simply decided to accept his guru's words from the beginning, the world would have been deprived of a wonderful experience. In Vivekananda's life we also see that these instances of exhaustion-surrender came multiple times. This means that getting exhausted is not a lifetime achievement award to be received only once. Each time we get exhausted and surrender, a new energy pours in a new dimension of life opens up. Then it becomes important to accumulate all this energy and then again start marching towards exhausting these new energies so that a still newer dimension of life can open up. Its a never ending process. Its an infinite dimensional universe that we are living in!

Arnold Schwarzenegger once said, "Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength." Ironically, this is perhaps the most apt advice to follow if we wish to truly experience the state of spiritual surrender!