Self-surrender and its meaning as revealed by Maha Guru Bhagwan Sri Ramana

[sanjaya_ganesh]

I-sir - Thanks. Your story posts are very interesting to read.

[eranilkumarsinha]

Dear Sri Nagaraj,

Ji. Yes. Thank you so much, sir. So, it was the Leela, a Divine Leela that was enacted by the Divine between two of them, the Guru and the Shishya.
“In the same way that wax melts on encountering fire, on seeing his feet, my mind dissolved and lost its form. Like a calf finding its mother, my heart melted and rejoiced in his feet. The hairson my body stood on end. Devotion surged in me like an ocean that has seen the full moon. Through the grace of chitshakti [the power inherent in consciousness], my soul was in ecstasy.”
                                                                         Sri Muruganar

Sri Muruganar’s works and compositions are one of the most authentic and reliable statements of Sri Bhagwan’s Teaching having the mysterious and unfathomable philosophical depth and metaphysical subtleties. He is the quint essence of self-surrender and His attempt to minimise the importance of His works and compositions is therefore only the typical example of His self-deprecating nature:
“Can the words uttered by the mad, the ignorant and the devout be subject to a critical analysis ?”
                                                                                    Sri Muruganar

The beggar came for alms at midnight.
My innocent girl, while offering something,
Had her slender wrist caught by this
Great Lord Venkata.
Is he a robber or is he a God ?

Then you and I were alone.
Both one, for ever one,
But then, like some carefree vagabond
Incapable of constant love,
You left me in the street for folk
To laugh and jeer at !
If now I took the liberty
To speak of it, you would answer straight
That it was but a dream we dreamed !
How can this woman comprehend
Your state mysterious, Ramana,
Master of maya, God above!

Look my friends, just look at him
Enjoying bliss
With that other woman, Mukti,
Abandoning me, poor me,
To grievous suffering,
Me here dying, sore lamenting!
Venkata, the King who used to fill
With nectar every pore of every bone,
The wizard who stole this slave’s heart,
Go and fetch him, honey-bees.

The above poems are the sublime depiction of the Sublime-Divine Love which is non-dual in its feeling and experience, the same Love that bound Radha with Lord Sri Krshna, in a perennial Divine Embrace.

Thank you,
   Anil   

   

 

[eranilkumarsinha]

Dear Devotees,

Sri Bhagwan says that surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one’s being. This, in effect, means that one should surrender by seeking the source of the ego which is equating the sadhana of the Atma-Vichara with that of the surrender. This is the central theme or the essence in Sri Bhagwan’s Teaching on surrender.

   ‘Surrender what and to whom?’ Sri Bhawan says that it is essential to understand what real surrender means. It can be effective only when it is done with full knowledge. And that knowledge comes after enquiry, reflection and contemplation, etc.

Therefore, it follows that there may be differences initially in the mode of practice, BUT THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE IN THE JNANA AND ABSOLUTE SURRENDER TO THE LORD, THAT IS , IN THOUGHT, WORD AND ACTION.

Sri Bhagwan says that he who remains separate from God has not surrendered. Surrendering this and that or the petty possession is not therefore the true surrender. This is at best what is termed as the partial surrender, for the seed of all possession, i.e. the ego, is intact. Sri Bhagwan says that if instead we give up the pseudo self, ‘I’ and ‘mine’ are given up at a stroke. Thus the evil is nipped in the bud itself. This is the true surrender which is known as self-surrender or complete surrender. However, it is true that Sri Bhagwan says that complete surrender is impossible in the beginning. It is only natural. How can one at once give up his ‘I’ and ‘mine’ at a stroke, given the habit to regard oneself as an individual from the time immemorial ? Yet, Sri Bhagwan says that partial surrender is possible for all which in course of time will lead to complete surrender.

Therefore, dear devotees, in my view, the devotees of Sri Bhagwan or those who have come to Sri Bhagwan’s Feet as the last resort, should invariably practice both:
ONE SHOULD SEEK THE SOURCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL SELF WHICH IS WITHIN AND NOT OUTSIDE AND GIVE ONESELF UP TO IT OR SURRENDER TO IT. 
It can be summed up in Sri Bhagwan’s Words as follows:

As one proceeds in Atma-Vichra, one automatically goes on surrendering. I should say that as one proceeds in one, the other happens spontaneously.

Thank you,
   Anil 
           
       

[Subramanian.R]

Dear anil,

R. Sridharan writes in his article in Deepam, 2003:

.........

"Whatever aspect of life, whether the mundane or the altruistic or the intensely spiritual, and whichever way one looks at it,
one finds that free will and destiny affect it and make one unhappy for the simple reason that freewill is the cause of destiny.

"What other way remains for us than  surrender to the Lord or finding out the root cause of all this through Self enquiry? As one
proceeds sincerely on the path of self inquiry as taught by Sri Bhagavan coupled with true devotion and surrender, one finds oneself
reluctant to employ free will in day to day life and as a result one can also subtly feel destiny slipping away from us. If this is not
the Sadguru's Grace, what is?"

Arunachala Siva.               

[eranilkumarsinha]

Dear Sri Subramanian Sir,
                             Pranam,

From your post I have learnt that you had been to Sri Ramanasramam. I wish and request you to kindly post brief account of your visit to the Ashram.

Dear sir, we all are aware that our Truth is beyond will and fate. Whose will, whose fate is it ? ‘It is mine’. But Sri Bhagwan teaches that I am beyond will and fate and that I can transcend them if only I abide as That. Sri Bhagwan says that this is the meaning of CONQUERING DESTINY BY WILL.

Dear sir, free will, at present, is appearing to our limited faculty of sight and will. In retrospect, can we not see that that all our past activities and actions fall into a course of law, and our free will is just merely one of the links in that course of law?
Sri Bhagwan says that natural laws are manifestations of God’s Will and so they have been laid down.
GOD’S WILL ALONE PREVAILS THROUGH THE APPEARANCE OF OUR OWN FREE WILL. AND THEREFORE, IT NATURALLY FOLLOWS THEREFORE THAT EGO IS JUST APPEARANCE.
(You have beautifully mentioned the same thing as the ‘destiny slipping away’.)
Dear sir, as for Grace, I reiterate that God’s or Guru’s Grace is ever there. Are we following sadhana as taught by Him without His Grace ?       

Thank you so much, sir.

Regards,
  Anil

[Subramanian.R]

Dear Anil,

We had been to Sri Ramanasramam for 4 days from 21st April. It was a visit of challenges and rewards. The temperature at T'malai
was  40 degrees celsius. Added to this there was power cut for 7 hours per day!  This made us to stay in the Asramam almost the
whole day and this was a reward. We could see the abhishekam, alankaram, and arti in detail for both Mother and
Sri Ramaneswara Mahalingam.  We could sit for book reading in the evening and also the had darshan of evening pujas.
Our visit to the Big Temple was also good in the sense that we proceeded to the Temple early in the morning and had darshan
of Cute Little Father and Cute Little Mother without crowd. It was Krittika day and Kambattu Ilaiyanar's shrine was crowded.
However we waited patiently and had darshan. We bought two books, one by Osborne a reprint of For Those With Little Dust,
containing articles and his editorials  in Mountain Path in sixties. We also bought a book which gives lucid comparison between
Siva Puranam of Manikkavachagar and Sri Ramana Puranam of Muruganar.

Arunachala Siva.       

[sanjaya_ganesh]

Subramanian sir,

Great to read. I have never been to Thiruvannamalai and have only read a lot about it in past decade or more. I am in the middle of some prarabdha karma (not work, family related) - which is so intense and painstaking that I hardly even find time to step out of my routine attending this prarabdha karma trying to always think of the supreme while I do that. I am not sad about it - at least I try not to. And I just hope and pray, Mahamaya shows her grace to me sometime - when She feels it is right time - to remove the maya blanket and at that time I can visit Sri Bhagawan's abode. I only can pray to mahamaya at least to give me a "break" without hurting anyone around to go visit Sri Bhagawan's abode.

-Sanjay

[Subramanian.R]

Dear sanjaya ganesh,

Do not worry. If you have intense faith in Sri Bhagavan, He is sure to call you one day. Leave it to Him. Our job is only to
pray to Him and seek His grace.

Saint Tirunavukkarasar sings:

nin kadan adiyenaiyum thAnguthal
en kadan paNi seithu kidappathe....

Your duty is to take care of this servant,
My duty is to do your work (that is the work, allotted to me by you.)


Arunachala Siva.
   

[ramana_maharshi]

thanks Subramanian garu for eloborating of your tiru visit.

[eranilkumarsinha]

Dear Sri Subramanian Sir,

Thank you so much, sir, for posting such a vivid account of your visit to Sri Ramanasramam. I also believe that a 7 hour power cut, every day, during your stay at Sri Ramanasramam, was an act of Grace, a blessing in disguise. For, this power cut enabled the devotees to spend the maximum time at the Ashram Itself, in Satsanga.

Thank you once again, sir.

Regards,
  Anil   

[Subramanian.R]

Dear Anil,

David Godman says that he lives in a nearby village and the power cuts are more.

Arunachala Siva.

[eranilkumarsinha]

Dear Sri Subramanian Sir,

I did not mean to say that all power cuts, in and around Tiruvannamalai, are blessing for the common suffering people. I said it in an esoteric sense. For instance, common people suffered due to rampant power cuts but the same power cut enabled you to spend maximum time in meditation in the Samadhi Hall or the Old Hall, or moving around while remaining all the time absorbed in meditation. 

Thank you so much, sir.

Regards,
  Anil

[Subramanian.R]

Dear Anil,

I agree with you. One should seek the door of blessing among the darkness of suffering.

Arunachala Siva.   

[eranilkumarsinha]

Dear Sri Subramanian Sir,

Ji.Yes. Thank you so much, sir.
Dear sir, Sri Bhagwan, on many occasions, has said that Enquiry and Surrender are two effective means for Self-realisation. Of the two, Surrender is generally regarded easier. Why? Is Surrender really easier? In my view, Surrender is regarded easier amongst the devotees because implication of Surrender is not fully understood. Sri Bhagwan says that when the ‘doership’ idea is intact, that is no surrender at all. From this single statement, it is obvious that it is not as easy as is generally understood to walk the Path of Surrender. We must understand, “Who is to surrender what and to whom.  Nothing belongs to us, everything belongs to the Lord.” Real Surrender, in my view, starts with the recognition of this truth. I would like to be aware of your and other members’ invaluable opinions and suggestions regarding the above.   

Regards,         
  Anil

[sanjaya_ganesh]

Anil Ji -

Excerpt from Gospel of Ramakrishna Bhagawan

-------------------
Two things are necessary for the realization of God; faith and self-surrender.
Man is ignorant by nature. Errors are natural to him. Can a one-seer pot hold four
seers of milk? Whatever path you may follow, you must pray to God with a restless
heart. He is the Ruler of the soul within. He will surely listen to your prayer if it is
sincere. Whether you follow the ideal of the Personal God or that of the
Impersonal Truth, you will realize God alone, provided you are restless for Him. A
cake with icing tastes sweet whether you eat it straight or sidewise.
------------------

Peace,
Sanjay