“Surrender is the ultimate meditation technique.”

Surrender is the ultimate meditation technique.

Man, ever since his creation has wondered and researched on what it is that created this beautiful universe, what it is that created this beautiful earth and rolled it into space and what is that which makes the rivers flow. He concluded that there is a Force or Shakthi or Energy conducting all this. He then started wondering about how to establish a connection with that Energy.

The first people to make this conclusion, research on it and establish a connection with this Energy were the Rishis or Realised Souls or Gnanis or Masters. They created many ways for future generations to realize this Energy. These ways are the various meditation techniques. Each of them realized God through different a way and recorded their way independently. This is just like how scientists create research reports on their discoveries and inventions.

Meditation techniques are nothing: There is a Life Force conducting this world; we call it Jesus, Allah, Shiva and so on. You don’t even have to believe in any God. Atheists don’t believe in any God. But don’t they have to believe in their existence? If we believe in our own existence and search for an answer to the question “Who am I?”, that becomes a meditation technique and we can realize God.

These different ways or techniques became different religions. Imagine – the lake is one. A Tamilian saw it from the South and called it ‘Thanneer’, an Englishman saw it from the West and called it ‘Water’, a Hindi speaking man saw it from the East and called it ‘Paani’ and a Bengali speaking man saw it from the North and called it ‘Jal’. All four are referring to the same thing that is ‘water’. Likewise is the concept of God. From which angle they saw, from that angle they named it. Krishna and Christ mean the same. People have seen them from different angles that’s all. The problem is that the four people did not attempt to get into the lake. The Tamilian claims that his grandfather told him it is ‘Thanneer’, the Englishman claims that his grandfather told him it is ‘Water’, the Hindi speaking man claims that his grandfather told him it is ‘Paani’ and the Bengali speaking man claims that his grandfather told him it is ‘Jal’. Without getting into the lake, they are arguing about what their forefathers told them about it! What will happen? They will only fight because each of them thinks that what their forefather said was right. If they decided to put aside what their grandfathers have said and decided to get into the lake and see for themselves, they will understand that all their grandfathers meant the same thing! Then there will be no fight. Today, only those who have not got into the lake and had a mouthful of water are fighting. Those who are spreading terrorism in the name of religion and caste are those who have not got into the lake called Spirituality and had a taste of Gnana (true knowledge). If you taste the water of river Ganga once, there will be no fight. The four people who are fighting are not even seeing it properly, they are just standing on the shore and fighting!

The research report published by the realized Rishis is what you call Upanishads today. Each Rishi’s report is one Upanishad. Vishwamitra worded his method of attaining Enlightenment in the form of a mantra and that is the Gayatri mantra today. Mohammed Nabi was in that Spiritual Experience for 3 days and was in a heightened spiritual state for 48 days after that. It was in that period that he wrote the Holy Koran. He narrated to his disciples how he attained Enlightenment and that became the Holy Koran. Similarly was written Jesus’s ‘Sermon on the Mount’ and Guru Govind Singh’s ‘Guru Granth Sahith’. That which is cooked according to the period and served is religion. In different periods, different works were realized. According to the time, the preparation was made, a technique was unleashed. If we are given raw rice, we will not be able to eat it; it has to be cooked for us to eat. That is what the Rishis did.

This Prapanja Shakthi (Cosmos) came from the 5 elements that are Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. Through any of these 5 elements, we can reach the Prapanja Shakthi. Thythreya Upanishad states “Akashath vayuhu vayoragnihi agnerapaha adbhyaprithvi, prithivyo oshadhayaha oshadheebhyo annam…” It translates, “From ether came air, from air came fire, from fire came water, from water came earth.” These 5 elements make up the world. Through any one of these, we can reach the Prapanja Shakthi.

Take the Earth element. Idols are made up of mud (or Earth). People say there is idol worship in Hinduism. Be very clear, there is no idol worship, there is only worship through idol. Does anyone say “Oh stone, grant me this, or oh idol, fulfill this desire”? No! We say “Oh Shiva, grant me this, or Mariamma please fulfill this desire”. Through our cellphone we talk to our mother. Idols are our cell phones to talk to God.

Next take the Water element. In Bharat, people do meditation or japa (chanting) in neck-deep water. In Haridwar in North Bharat, arathi is offered to the river Ganga every evening. People go on theertha yathras, that is bathing in holy rivers in different places.

Take the Fire element. People perform homas, yagnas and agnihothras which are rituals with fire trying to realize God through Fire.

Next is the Air element. People do pranayama which is controlling the breath - the air which goes in and comes out.

Finally, the Ether element that is Akasha. Doing meditation is trying to realize God through the Ether element.

There are thousands of meditation techniques - from Lord Karuppar worship to Navagraha worship. It is that meditation technique which is done with Shraddha (commitment) that gives the benefit. Which meditation do we follow? Confusion prevails as to which is better and which is that which gives quicker results. Nowadays we want instant benefit like instant coffee and instant tea!

When Bhagwad Gita starts, Arjuna is confused. He says “Oh Lord! I don’t know what to do in Life, please guide me”. Krishna explains the Sankhya Yoga – the way to reach the Atma (Soul). He then explains the Karma Yoga, then the Bhakthi Yoga, then the Karma Sanyasa Yoga, then the Gnana Karma Sanyasa Yoga, then the Raja Vidya Yoga and so on. He explains different meditation techniques through 700 slokas in 18 chapters. At the end of it Arjuna says, “Krishna, I am more confused than what I was when you started explaining. Which technique do I follow? Which is the technique that is better and quicker? Which is the shortcut method - the ultimate technique?” Krishna replies to this in the concluding18th chapter. With any Gnani (Master), what he says finally is the final, firm and ultimate Truth. He says “Sarva dharman parithyajya mamekam sharanam vraja, aham thva sarvapapebhyo mokshayishyami ma suchaha”. If we imagine all the religions, philosophies and spiritual books to be one pot of milk, then the butter extracted from it is this line said by Krishna in this chapter. He says “I have explained all the forms of Dharma (Justice) to you. Simply surrender everything to Me. Surrender to me and I will take care of you. I will free you from all your sins and lift you to Liberation”. Krishna makes a promise in this beautiful stanza. Through this stanza, Krishna shows the world - “Surrender”, the final, firm and ultimate Technique.

What is Surrender? It has a very deep meaning. If we don’t understand it correctly, we will mis-understand it! We will be committing a grave mistake. We will be misunderstanding deep Truths. Only those who have experienced can explain clearly. If you ask the meaning of Surrender to a person who has not experienced it, he will say ”Just give everything to God that’s all”. That is not Surrender. One man came to me and asked, “If I surrender everything to God, will everything be alright?” I replied, “Yes, if you truly surrender everything to God, everything will be alright.” He returned after 3 days and told me, “Swamiji, I have surrendered everything to God.” I was happy and asked him, “Where are you going now?” He replied, “To the bar”. He continued, “Whatever I do, God is only responsible from now on”. This is actually fooling oneself. If he has really surrendered, he would have surrendered the drinking habit also. He would not have even been able to drink any further. Ramakrishna beautifully says “When real surrender comes from your heart, God will guide you in every step of your life and you can never do wrong.” When surrender does not blossom from inside you and is only at the lip level, you fool yourself and others.

Listen to this small story: One night, 2 drunkards were walking down a street past a halogen lamp. One of them exclaimed, “Look, the sun has come down for us!”, to which the other replied, “No, it is night time, it is the moon.” The first one continued, “It is yellow in colour and therefore is the sun”. A third man also consumed by liquor came by them. They requested him to resolve their issue. They asked him, “Sir, please tell us whether this is the sun or the moon”. The man replied, “I am a very straightforward person. I am new to this neighborhood and therefore I do not know”. When you ask someone who does not know, you will either not get an answer or get the wrong answer.

‘Thirupugazh’ (a Tamil poem) was written by Arunagirinathar, an ardent devotee of Lord Muruga. His last work was ‘Kandar Anubuthi’ (Kandar – one of the names of Lord Muruga; Anubuthi – Becoming the Experience). The former work was a stotram - a poem, while the latter was a sastram – a Meditation technique, through Anubuthi. What is the link between Surrender and Anubuthi? Arunagirinathar says, If we surrender, we attain Anubuthi; hence after surrender, the work which I did, I named as ‘Kandar Anubuthi’

God is an embodiment of sweetness. If you surrender to him, you will turn into sugar. If you are separate from the sugar and taste it bit by bit and pen your experience, it becomes a stotram - a poem. If you sing praises, “Oh Lord Muruga! What a beautiful face you have, your beautiful hair, your beautiful body” etc, you are enjoying and tasting it. It becomes a poem. If you turn into that sugar itself, or in other words God Himself, you become a Gnani (an enlightened man). The former technique is being separate from the sugar and tasting it while the latter anubuthi (becoming that) is becoming sugar itself.

Real Surrender is when you become That. Claiming that you have surrendered and doing what you like is not Surrender. It is athogathi (***). Real surrender is offering your mind, body and spirit at the feet of the Lord or at the feet of the Prapanja Shakthi (Cosmos). The first reaction when you hear this is fear! If I offer everything to God, what will I have? What will I do?

In Sanskrit, the word Namaha appears at the end of each mantra. Namaha means ‘I am not’ (Na mama). It in effect signifies surrender; In other words it implies, the ‘I’ (Ahankaram) and ‘Mine’ (Mamakaram) are not there. The feeling of I and Mine, that is the Body and Mind are being surrendered to the Lord. Immediately fear grips us. Real surrender is not giving our bank balance to the temple; It is giving our life and awareness to the Lord.

There was once a bank manager who used to take all the cash to his home everyday night and bring it back with him the next day morning. He did this for a month and could not do it any more. He found himself trembling all the way while driving back home at night. He would suspect anyone who asked him for a ride of trying to rob him of his money. He would not stop the car for them, but all the same it terrified him. He was not able to sleep at home with all the money under his custody. He finally wrote a letter to the higher authorities asking to be relieved of the job, citing the reasons for the same. The authorities wrote back saying that even if the money was lost, he would not be blamed and that he could continue with his job. The manager slept peacefully from that day onwards. What is the difference in him now? He is doing the same job, but why is the fear and the sorrow not there any more? It is because responsibility has shifted to the higher authorities, that’s all. This is what is surrender.

You can also live life this way. Just give the responsibility to the Cosmos. There is a saying in Tamil ‘kallukkul irukkum theraikkum kadaikkan kattum paramporule!’. It means that God shows compassion even to the toad that is caught between the stones. Cant the Energy that shows compassion to the toad take care of you? We feel so much of insecurity and exercise so much of precaution.

One man boarded a ferry boat in Malaysia for going to the Mainland. Inside the boat, he was pacing up and down and suddenly started running. The ferryman asked him why he was running and told him to sit quietly. The man replied “I have no time to sit, I have to reach quickly, that’s why I am running!”. He doesn’t realize that how much ever he runs, he will reach only when the boat reaches. In fact, by running, he will be tired and will take longer to walk the stretch to his destination after alighting. This is how we take on tensions and sorrows. When we surrender, we unload a big burden off us.

Astronomy says that there are crores of stars revolving in the universe. Cant the Life Force that creates and maintains this phenomena take care of you? It definitely can. We don’t have faith or belief in it that’s all. All our surrender is mere lip service. We cry out “Oh Lord! I am dependent only on you”, but if you look inside, it will be such a superficial statement made. One night at 10:30 I got a call from an IAS officer. He said, “Swamiji, my life is under threat, I want to come immediately to the ashram for help”. I told him that it will take him an hour to come and that I was also going out at that moment and that I will take care that nothing happens to him through the night and he could visit me the next day morning. He replied “Swamiji, I have to go to the office tomorrow morning.” If his life was under threat, how could he have given this reply? Our surrender is of this same quality.

In the internet there are many jokes available. I read one such joke. It was a letter from a boy to his girlfriend which read as follows: “I will bend the sky to make a bow and use the rivers as arrows using which I will pluck the moon and bring it to you as a gift”. The postscript at the end was “I will meet you this Friday if it doesn’t rain!”. This is how our practical life is - all mere lip service. There are 3 words for truth in tamil and they are ‘unmai’, ‘meymai’ and ‘vaymai’. When you follow truth through your heart it is ‘unmai’. When you follow truth through your mey(***), it is ‘meymai’. When you follow truth through your mouth, it is ‘vaymai’. We all have to follow truth or in other words surrender through all these ways, but we surrender only in the third way, that is through the mouth. When we surrender through all the three ways, we allow God to take over us. We offer our whole to God.

A seed has to surrender to the soil to blossom as a tree. It has to have faith in the soil and allow itself to die or rupture in order to blossom as a tree. In the same way, we have to place our faith in God and surrender ourselves so that a new life, a life of Nithyananda (Eternal Bliss) with good health will blossom. How do we do it? Should we go and spend long hours at the temple? No. Every time you feel heavy in the heart or mind, just tell yourself that the Life Force that runs the world will take care of you also, that’s enough.

There is a story which Ramana Maharishi used to say: There was once a man who boarded a train and sat with his luggage on his head. The man next to him told him that he could keep his luggage on the seat or on the floor. The man replied, “The train can carry me, only I have to carry my luggage.”

If you see the temple tower, you will see a figure right on top of the temple tower appearing to be supporting the tower. That figure is called gopurapadumai in Tamil. Is that figure really bearing the tower? No. Infact the tower is supporting the figure also. It only seems as though the figure is supporting the tower. Likewise, surrender is understanding that the Infinite Energy (Parashakthi) that is taking of the whole world is also taking care of us; It is understanding that the train that carries us will also carry our luggage and relaxing a little on that account. Just be more peaceful, that’s all.

You need not surrender to God or to any Guru. You can surrender to the Life Force that is causing the breath that goes into you to come out and the food that goes in to digest in your system. The work that you do in your lifetime for your survival is lesser than the work required to convert a handful of food into blood inside your body. In America, they conducted a research to simulate the conversion of ‘one piece of bread into blood’. They found that the machinery required for it led the industry to extend to 3 kms! Now do you understand the kind of mechanism inside you? Do you think that the Force that sustains this mechanism cannot sustain your life? It very well can. We only don’t have faith.

Our faith is like a business deal. One man lived without any faith in God. Suddenly one day he fell from a hilltop and found himself dangling from just the grip of a tree root. He suddenly remembered people talking about God all the time and cried out “Oh God! I have never had faith in you; Are you really up there? Can you save me now?” God answered “Sure Son, just let go of the root that you are holding and I will hold you from beneath”. The man cried again “Is there anyone else who can help me?”

True commitment (shraddha) to the Lord will bring only happiness or Ananda in our lives. There will be no worries or problems. By thinking of worries all the time what is going to be happen? Nothing. With your 10 worries, a 11th worry called Depression will happen, that’s all. If we relax assured that the Cosmos will take care, clarity will set in automatically. We will be able to analyze problems very clearly. Else, we will get only more confused and depressed. A certain happiness will flower inside as well as outside yourself if you wholly surrender yourself to God and concentrate in your work. Now, we are worrying while we are working. When there is worry, you cannot work and when you are really working you cannot worry. Where there is worry, there cannot be any creativity and where there is creativity there cannot be any worry. When you surrender, without any worry you can create. In life, either worry or creativity can exist at a time. Real creativity happens after surrender.

Hence, the mind, body and spirit have to be surrendered to God and life will become blissful. We will then accept and welcome whatever that happens to us. Now, we invariably feel that opposite pastures are greener. Almost everyone is jealous of the neighbor. The neighbor’s saree seems better than our own. We go to the temple either to flaunt our saree or to see the latest designs that have appeared. The first step in life is to accept life as it is. The second step is to welcome it! Accepting might mean accepting it as destiny or as ‘no other go’. Welcoming it welcoming it as God’s gift.

Surrender will keep you thinking of God all the time. In Bhagawatham, there is a verse wherein a Gopi says “I am not able to think of anything other than Krishna. I have surrendered my mind to Him. If I have to think of anything else, I will have to take back my mind from Him; How can I?”

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa suffered from cancer. He has healed many people of many diseases. Someone asked him, “Why cant you keep your mind on your own disease for a moment and heal it?” He replied, “I have surrendered my mind to Parashakthi (The Infinite Energy), how can I take it back to keep it on my disease?” This is true surrender. God will take care of us. You might ask, “Will God take care of my problems if I surrender?” In Bhagwad Gita, God beautifully answers or rather promises, “Ananyas chintha yantho mam yejana paryupasathe, thesham nithyabhiyukthanam yogakshemam vahamyaham…” - Without any other thought, when a man thinks only of me, I will take care of his gifts as well as retention or enjoying of them. For those who surrender with shraddha (commitment) to Me, I will take care of their yoham (income) as well as their kshemam (prosperity). Their problems will dissolve.”

Commitment and maturity of mind are needed for this. You can surrender to any one person. Surrender as a virtue has a great power in itself. Listen to this story: A man decided that he was going to Surrender but did not know whom to surrender to. He decided that he would go to the forest and surrender to the first person who comes his way. He went and waited. The first person to appear was a burglar who was escaping after a theft. The man caught his feet and declared that the burglar was his Guru and that he had surrendered to him. The latter was perplexed, he was being chased by policemen for robbing. He replied “Alright, if so be it, then close your eyes and remain here till I come back”, and he ran away. The man was a very committed person and remained there without food or sleep for ages. Just by seeing his commitment, the Lord appeared before him and embraced him as His devotee and gave him Liberation. It is not important to whom you surrender, it is the thought of truly surrendering itself that has the power to change your life into a blissful one. My blessings to you to surrender your mind, body and spirit and be in Nithyananda (Eternal Bliss).