Surrender: Fullness of Faith

The word surrender does not properly describe the Sanskrit word saranagathi. The Sanskrit word connotes surrender in terms of devotion to god and acceptance of his divine will. It implies not surrender to some other person, but surrender to our own inner divinity.

On the spiritual path, no one should be asked to relinquish their judgement or to accept ideas blindly. Nothing could be further from the truth. We must test all spiritual teachings with our own experience. To reach the goal of liberation, we must evaluate the benefits of all doctrines for ourselves. Surrender does not require discarding the intellect; it requires heightened spiritual discrimination. Surrender to God is surrender to our God-oriented aspirations --- to our own God nature, the atma.

It is not a question of surrendering or giving to some other one. One surrenders to oneself. Recognition that the atma is oneself is surrender. Surrender really means the realization that all is God, that there is nobody who surrenders, that there is nothing to be surrendered, nor is there anyone to accept surrender. All is God. There is only God.

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