Principle and Practice of Surrender as a Method

• The best of methods is that which gets the maximum by the minimum effort.
• To secure all by refusing to do anything is the method called surrender.
• If this is so what is the principle that expresses here and what power expresses out of it?
• The principle is the principle of Brahman that is all without being anything.
• The power of that principle is a movement which is a total movement.
• A total movement will have total power. It is a power to secure totally what is aimed at.
• It arises out of a total acceptance of the object by the total self-annihilation of the subject.
• A child's attitude to his mother is one such. One's attitude to society approaches that totality.
• One who is in a plane makes partial progress in that plane. Partial progress is by personal effort.
• One who goes to the next plane cannot do so by his personal effort. The next plane should help essentially.
• One can leap to the top most plane by reducing his personal effort and increasing the help from the plane to which he aims to go.
• He can even go beyond that, outside all the planes of his life or even existence. That is done by fully withdrawing his effort and letting the higher force act all by itself.
• In yogic language, it is called Surrender to a power higher than ourselves. A total surrender is called for to make total progress.
• The principle of surrender is Self-giving to the Self, and its practice is to move from nowhere to everywhere.
• It is common knowledge that when a new skill is learnt the effort is conscious. When it is fully learnt, the subconscious takes over and we say we can do it automatically.
• Saturation of the conscious with the knowledge of the skill lets the subconscious take over. It is akin to surrender, but a surrender of the conscious to the subconscious unconsciously.
• As we enter the society as an adult, we learn consciously to adjust to it. Later we fit into the society automatically. This too is surrender of the individual consciousness to the collective subconscious.
• As the society vitally presides over us, and the subconscious is there as a substratum to render our learning automatic in time, the Superconscient is constantly giving us hints for a higher life. A consciously awakened soul instead of taking the hints unconsciously, consciously tries to learn as much as it can from the superconscious levels of our being. To replace this slow conscious process of learning by a willingness to let the Superconscious fully take over our conscious existence and functioning is termed as surrender here.
• Conscious learning is in Time. Surrender hastens it and the more the conscious recognises the superiority of the Superconscious, the faster is the process. We move into Timelessness. Surrender is complete when we move into the simultaneous integrality of Time eternity and Timeless eternity. It is then that we meet with instantaneous miraculousness.
• It is possible to comprehend surrender from any or all the principles of yoga. 1. Contradictions become complements, 2. Matter and Spirit are the same 3. Sat and Asat are parts of Brahman, 4. The subconscious and the superconscious meet in man, 5. The Universe and the Transcendent meet in the Individual, 6. The island ego joins the continent, 7. Reason becomes intuition shedding senses, 8. The hrdaya samudram takes over our life, 9. The Force is conscious, 10. The Bliss of Sachchidananda becomes the Delight in life, 11. The self-conception of Maya that creates changes into the Self-Conception of evolution to reveal the Joy of Self-discovery, 12. Mind awakens from its identification with the body, life and itself to know its origin as Supermind, 13. Consciousness of the ego universalises itself to join with the force, 14. Matter is Delight of existence, 15. The Many and the One unite in the Absolute, 16. The seven ignorances dissolve, 17. The surface moves into the subliminal, 18. The Aim moves through several steps to end in to be, 19. Triple transformation, 20. The outer shifts into the inner, 21. Transformation transfigures, 22. the taste of Ignorance has outlived itself.
• To be able to see all these processes in any one method makes it more and more complete. Not all methods admit of that interpretation to the end. Surrender permits every process to be discovered in it. This is the only method that includes all the processes. Therefore, it ceases to be a method and matures into the thing we seek.
• Life is full of the spirit of surrender, but nowhere is it complete or total.

- All subconscious learning of the body falls under this head.

- Society exists subconsciously. Man integrates himself into it unconsciously. That process is also surrender.

- Both these can be split into hundreds or thousands of individual items.

- Our reception of the superconscious too, as explained earlier, belongs to this category.

- The surrender of the human to the Divine is the surrender consciously desired and offered to the Superconscious for the purposes of Self-discovery of the Joy the Absolute is after.

 Levels of Surrender

• Man exists as thought in Mind, feelings in the vital, sensations in the body.
• Surrender becomes complete when the Mind, Life and Body are surrendered. In fact, it needs the surrender of the soul too.
• Before the parts of the being are surrendered, their actions must be offered to the Divine.
• Those actions exist in those parts of the being and their subtle parts.
• Thought is the action of Mind and the impulse to thought exists in the subtle mind. So too for the vital and the body.
• Confining ourselves to thought, the origin of thought is the urge of the body to action.
• It rises as a physical urge, passes through the vital as energy and presents in the mind as thought. Alongside, the subtle physical, subtle vital, and subtle mental play their parts as earlier sources of origin to the gross parts.
• We know thoughts are in the world and enter into us. The thoughts, again, originate in the physical consciousness of the universe and travel to the mental consciousness of the universe.
• All the points of existence of the individual are open to the corresponding points of the universal existence and entry is effected according to the opening in the human being, which is like a parallel to social gossip entering a family.
• We begin the movement of surrender at the point we are open to the universe outside, as well as to the inner domain. It completes itself when the impulses from inside as well as outside are met with in the different subtle parts and stopped from entering or surfacing.
• The journey from where we are to where we have to go is done by the human effort, by the human capacity. To surrender them both converts grace into Super grace.

Surrender and Accomplishment

• We do not accomplish what we do not aspire for. Nor do we accomplish what we do not know.
• Knowing is a bar to accomplishment. Wanting it will cancel the accomplishment.
• Accomplishment demands knowing and aspiring but both of them are effective bars.
• Then accomplishment is to aspire intensely without desire and attachment.
• The Unknowable formulates to our consciousness what it aspires for and goes back. The Unknowable is unknowable because it gives all that we want without losing anything or diminishing in its substance.
• Surrender in us accomplishes as Brahman does. That is why its results are great. It demands asking for a thing without any attachment.
• This expresses in our consecration at all levels beginning from gross thought and ending in the subtle physical impulse.
• Our scale spreads from gross thought in the mind to the subtle physical thought observed in the mind. The gradation will be self-evident.
• Whatever you want to accomplish, start consecrating the thought of it (gross thought in the mind). As the consecration advances, the accomplishment too will advance.
• Steadily moving on the successive levels, work too will progress. The final stage is the very impulse of the thought trying to appear in the mind as if it is miles away. Before it enters, consecrate it until it stops surfacing.
• An ocean of inner calm will enter you from above or outside. Maybe it will emerge from inside beyond which no consecration is necessary. The work will be over long before news comes to you.
• For those who cannot make a beginning in consecration and surrender, the task is uphill.
• Once they break that first barrier, Surrender or even consecration can be employed in several resourceful ways, if not for the final reward of yoga.
• For instance, one knows what he likes best. He may like to please others or be expansive on a fine occasion. Whatever it is, it is one expression of swabhava. Start consecrating an expression of swabhavam. It is the finest experiment one can make on oneself.
• He who succeeds here initiates himself into what we know to be transformation.
• What applies to the swabhava with great personal results, applies with equal force to opinions, judgments, and so on.
• Between a life of welfare and the pure yoga, lies the territory of psychological life which is meaningful as well as powerful. These suggestions belong to that layer.
• Anyone who is successful with consecration or even surrender desirous of a higher life or a life of higher consciousness can resort to these suggestions.
• Striking results will issue if one consecrates joy. It will be seen that the quality of joy will lose its basis of vital nerves and raise itself to the lowest levels of purest joy which we call inner felicity.
• At a lower level sadness consecrated will be seen transforming itself into joy or cheerfulness.
• In a small way, one can thus change pain into no pain.
• Consecration works even in dreams and would direct the course of them.
• The experiences of devotees have reported that the course of a story is influenced by successful consecration. Rationally one may console himself saying that his own responses are consecrated. The Truth is more than that. In the affairs of the subtle plane, more waits for you than meets the eye.

Consecration of defects

• Defects are defects of temperament and cannot be easily removed, especially permanently.
• Once consecration is possible, it is possible to remove them.
• Vanity, impatience, fear, greed, interruption of speech and such other defects are endless.
• Consider any one of them. Suppose one recognizes vanity to be his defect and wants to get rid of it by consecration, he will find himself at the following points at various times.

- Conscious vain initiative.

- Vain ideas overcoming one without conscious initiative.

- Responding to the others' vain ideas.

- One can see the vital urge that pushes such a thought.

- Similarly the physical habit behind the vital urge will be seen.

- When the force of ideas subsides, it will present itself as a mental impulse in the subtle mind.

- Similar vital, physical impulses can be seen in the subtle vital and the subtle physical.

• To observe all these stages inside is the first equipment.
• To get rid of each of them by consecration is next.
• Man is capable of outwardly undoing his inner conquests.
• That is his part. He must make those inner conquests secure.
• Let us consider one who has progressed enough and is able to see the last stage of the impulse - the subtle physical impulse.
• The normal tendency is to overlook its presence. That little impulse is as powerful as the conscious vain initiative.
• One who has gone up to it, who is aware of its presentation, can decide to refuse it or better still consecrate it.
• Its successful consecration is the end of that vibration in him.
• Employing consecration for this purpose is like replacing a messenger to far off places by a telephone call.

Concentration that Precedes Consecration

• Sri Aurobindo calls it all-inclusive concentration.
• He says it is centred above the head and behind the heart.
• We find our concentration in the heart, vital or head.
• It is ordinary concentration in a part or of a part.
• When concentration develops simultaneously in all these three parts, it glides behind the heart and stays there.
• That was His secret which he made public. All the foregoing pages are for those who cannot develop it behind the heart or above the head.
• Splitting the process into parts and stages, the previous pages try to make the impossible possible.
• In other words, to be concentrated behind the heart means to be emotionally aware of one's own godhead. To feel it above the head is to spiritually conceive that one is God.
• Complete comprehension of The Life Divine can give that concept and raise the thinking centre above the head giving a feeling of the mental consciousness expanding. It is actually felt as the head expanding.
• A ray of emotional recognition of The Mother while before Her or at the Samadhi fills the centre behind the heart likewise and intensifies the higher emotion that is a rich wholesomeness.
• Any strong human vibration such as goodwill or service can have the same effect.
• Though momentary, these are spiritual experiences the rishis were unaware of.
• Gulzarilal Nanda who was twice acting Prime Minister for 15 days each was evicted by his landlord for non-payment of rent for one and a half years. The exalted status of the Prime Ministership too cannot replace the concrete practical reality of a regular income that pays interest. Being a good efficient devotee is thus essential.
• The fact that effort is indispensable for accomplishment and that effort is a bar to accomplishment is a contradiction.
• The physical man takes the physical effort, the vital man vital effort, and the mental man mental effort. This is indispensable.
• Not only is the effort indispensable, but it is necessary to exhaust that effort.
• One who is capable and eager to endeavour is sure to be rewarded in time. Another higher opportunity awaits him at that point which is not open to one who is incapable of that effort. As he is capable and willing, surrender is open to him. By surrendering his capacity for work, he can accomplish the same result earlier.
• One surrenders the results of his work. It is possible to surrender his work, his capacity for work, his motive to work and thus proceed to surrender the consciousness of work.
• Capacity to discriminate results of work from work and thus proceed along the same lines until one can surrender his consciousness leaves only one further step of surrendering the being of work.
• That capacity, if available, can be repeated at all levels of work to reach the end of it.
• When Sri Aurobindo speaks of the birth of the Supramental Being now, instead of 30,000 years later, He speaks of surrendering the Being, Consciousness, Power and Delight of the human being into that of the Divine Being.
• One who has ten stages of work meant for twenty five years can think of this, if he has already succeeded in consecration or surrender in any work of his.
• The power of Surrender is the power of Brahman, as it is only Brahman who has nothing as the one who has surrendered.
• The Principle of Surrender as a Method is the principle of the existence of Brahman.