Surrender

                                                                                    August 12, 1991

    All progress in a fresh field proceeds by innovation and new creation. All progress in a structured field proceeds by demolition of the existing structure. At later stages or rather final stages of the destruction of the old order, a voluntary self-abnegation is often seen as part of the historical or evolutionary process. That is possible either under duress or anticipatory apprehension or evolutionary enlightenment. For the last to take place, the power of the lower should get the enlightenment of the higher. Neither the power of the lower nor the enlightenment of the higher by itself will serve the purpose. One example from history can be cited.

   Monarchy was replaced by democracy by force. It was not given to the monarchy to abdicate itself out of enlightenment. The ruling British monarch of India took the extraordinary step of relinquishing his power because the Labour Party came into power in England. It was given to the Labour to espouse the cause of Indian freedom. While out of governmental power, Labour's espousal of Indian freedom had as much significance as the support of certain enlightened aristocrats to the same cause. Only when the seat of power received the enlightenment could the process be made in an evolutionary direction instead of the usual revolutionary process.

   The evolution of the human being into a supramental being is to be preceded by the destruction of the structures of mind, vital and body. This is the slow process of evolution where the lower outgrows the higher. Sri Aurobindo postulates that it could be hastened. The principle HE has in view is self-surrender. So far Yoga has not attempted evolution and therefore the question of comparing HIS method with others does not arise. The point at which we are is the point of Mind trying to rise to Supermind. The power of evolution just now is vested in nature which proceeds at its own pace. If Nature gets the enlightenment of the Spirit, the self-abnegation of structures is possible. The spiritual part of Nature is the psychic. The psychic is known to offer guidance without imposing it on the personality.

   The psychic in the mind, a part of the Nature, is powerless. Granting the mental psychic emerging in a man, it can be shining without being effective. Sri Aurobindo's process of SURRENDER posits that the first realisation be the release of the pranamaya purusha, killing desires. Pranamaya Purusha is the vital purusha. Its emergence into the picture cannot enjoy the enlightenment needed here. HE says the psychic should emerge as a second step shedding ego, whose roots are in the thinking mind. Shedding of the ego liberates the mind while earlier the shedding of the desire has liberated the vital being. HIS next step is spiritual transformation which means the aspects of spirit should saturate the part of being liberated. Mind liberated from the ego and desire, must be filled with Light to be spiritualised. Thought rising to Light is spiritual transformation of the mind. Supramental Transformation is in order when these two earlier transformations have been completed.

   In the plane of Mind, the emergence of the psychic through the liberation of the vital being, and its spiritual transformation into a plane of Light, endows it with the capacity to surrender itself. The vital power saturated with the enlightenment of the Spiritual Light is capable of self-abnegation which the mind by itself cannot initiate like the monarchy in authority.

   Surrender as an evolutionary instrument is conceived by HIM and its process perfected in thought and practice. For the mind to surrender itself, the vital power in it should be armed by the spiritual enlightenment.

   On the same lines for the vital to surrender itself, the physical power should receive the spiritual enlightenment of Love.

   For surrender to be practised at the level of the body, there is no lower power than the body. Hence the spiritual term below the physical consciousness should emerge to the surface. Hence its greater difficulty and complexity.

--          Only the higher can control the lower.

--          Enlightened power of the higher plane which has totality alone  can surrender the lower.

--          Work in the organised world is by authority, in the free world by interest.

--          A higher method of work hastens the period of accomplishment.

--          Enlightenment of the lower parts, is higher than the enlighten-ment of the higher parts.

--          Surrender is a voluntary method, voluntary abdication of power  and enjoyment.

--          To abdicate voluntarily, one should have outlived the enjoyment of that.

--          Sattwic enjoyment cannot abdicate, it can only illumine.

--          Abdication needs the power of enlightenment that is greater than the thing abdicated.

--          Giving up human enjoyment, enjoyment of physical existence, vital activity and mental comprehension, one should have Peace,

            Silent Energy and self-awareness which means Psychic energy whose motion is silent.

--          Spiritual transformation makes the psychic energy SILENT.

Surrender as a method of yoga can be described as the self-aware soul moving to the Universal and Transcendent giving up ego, desire and gunas, having outlived them in Essence.

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--          Commercially, we avail of a newer facility, giving up the old   changing cycle for a motorbike.

--          In social organisation, this readiness is not there. There is some  resistance too. American Indians are an example.

--          In psychological structure, change is full of resistance in spite  of evident material benefit. Changing family patterns evoke resistance.

--          Biologically it is not in the power of man to accept the new,  surrendering the old. It is not given to man to change his  breathing system.

Commercially the ego is unformed. Socially the collective ego and its structures take time and need external pressure to crack. Psychologically only wider pressure over a long time brings these changes. We have not yet heard of biological changes.

1. A new, useful product gaining popularity, catching the fancy of  people does it.

2. Until the organisations of production re-adjust at a higher level through new organisations, the change remains half-achieved. The group ego should break.

3. New modes of personal enjoyment should overwhelm the old ones with the full approval of the collective ego. Vital ego should expand.

4. Here one needs to overcome the physical ego by conquering death.

   Surrender in Sri Aurobindo's yoga demands from one that his being be enamoured of the higher enjoyments without dualities. We may even say he should be 'enamoured' of death.