unconditional surrender

to rest in the Shanti

Ultimate Surrender

This is a poetic rendering of the words of Ramana Maharshi as presented by Buddhist nun, Samaneri Jayasara, in her gorgeous audio meditation online. Surrender is such a divine practice and experience, and amidst the incredible change we are seeing today on Mother Earth, these words of Sri Ramana Maharshi feel poignant and timelessly liberating. Enjoy, share, reverberate.

To surrender
is to let go 
of everything
without anticipating
or expecting
anything
in return.

Letting go 
of everything
also encompasses
abandoning
the aspiration
to realize the Self.

Suppose you are holding
a red hot iron ball.
Your hand is quivering
in unbearable pain.
Somebody suggests to you
that you let go.

If your response is
"what benefit will
I obtain if I let go?"
Will not the other 
person wonder
"Poor fellow, the pain
of holding that dreadful
thing in his hand -
has is idled is brains?"

Samsara
is intolerably
painful.

Why look 
for reasons
to let go of it?

If Samsara 
still appears
as being acceptable
to one,
no matter how remotely
or infinitesimally so,
can they realize
the Self?

One who does
not see Samsara
as being horrible,
excruciating misery, 
that it indeed
really is,
will they realize
the Self?

Surrender 
works
only
if it is
unconditional.

That means 
your mind
must be
genuinely 
reconciled
to the possibility
that anything
can happen
or not happen.

Including one's
failure
to realize
the Self.

Such acceptance
must be 
natural,
or genuine.

It is so utterly
simple
that trying
to communicate 
it in words
leads us into 
a hopeless quagmire
of complicated-
sounding ideas.

Totally let go

and the Self stands
realized.

That is all
there is 
to realization.

✧

Once we have 
surrendered
to the higher power,
that automatically
takes care

that only the 
right thing is done
at any give point
in time.

This higher power
knows what to do
and when
and how.

The activities
destined to be 
carried on 
by the body
go on 
of their own 
accord,
without any 
intervention
from you.

Leave 
everything
entirely
to That.

But you should
not try and judge it - 
even if what is done
is not to your liking
or preference,
do not interfere.

If you have 
surrendered
it means 
you must
totally accept
God's will
as being the 
supreme
guiding force
of your life.

And that the
exclusive
consideration,
or priority,
in your life
is to not permit
your own ideas
for your life
to come into 
conflict
with
the higher 
power.

After perfect
self-surrender
only complete
acceptance
remains.

There can be
no room for 
any complaint
about one's 
perceived
defects
and deficiency,

if surrender
to God
is being 
genuinely
unconditional
or without 
reserve.

One who 
is truly,
desperately,
interested
in realizing
the Self,
will not bother
about whether
life 
in the world
proceeds
positively
or not.

If it did not,
one would
not bother 
about
the matter.

When the mind
becomes 
introverted,
owing to 
the investigation
"Who am I?",
and remains 
merged
in the heart,

the conditions
of outer life
automatically 
continue
as destined,

owing to the force
of past karma.

Do not worry
about how life
in the world
would come 
to be 
affected,

if you dedicate
your mind
to the quest.

It may even
be that there
comes no 
change 
in the
outer life
at all.

If you calmly
focus
on remaining
as the beingness
of the Self,

the upheavals
and the perturbations
of the outer world
will gradually
begin
to fade out

or distance
themselves
from you.

And you will
rest in the Shanti,
the peace,
of the Self

while the body's
activities and
your roles
as a person
will be
automatically
fulfilled
by the 
higher power.

This is 
a matter for
experience

and you will 
understand 
only
when you sink
yourself
deeper 
and deeper
into the bliss
of the Self

by means
of holding the mind
steadily
in that state,
where there is 
alert consciousness
of being

but neither
thoughts
nor sleepiness.

✧

Surrender
is not a means
to an end.

Something
that involves 
doing
cannot be
surrender.

Give up
everything.

Stop caring
for anything
on the mental plane.

That
is surrender.

Some,
when asked
to surrender,
reply
"Done, Swami,
now when am I
going to realize
the Self?"

It is absurd.

To surrender
is to abandon
even the fundamental
or primary
arbitrary
mental
conceptualizations -

the "I" thought.

If you are
yourself,
not there, 
who is going
to raise
doubts
or questions?

After true 
surrender
only silence
remains.

✧