Surrender

You do not know where God is. You do not know who God is. You do not know where your soul is or what it looks like. You do not even know what your heart is. But you can imagine the spiritual heart, and you can surrender to the heart. You can surrender to something tinier than the tiniest.

Let us say that your youngest brother is very, very cute, extremely cute. Whatever he is doing, you are enjoying. While he is playing with sand or pebbles or marbles, you are getting joy because you have surrendered to him. You are so strong, and his strength is nothing in comparison. But your whole life you are surrendering to this little child, because he is giving you boundless joy. You are getting such joy while he is throwing, playing and moving around.

Now, God you do not know. Your soul you do not know, and your heart you do not know, but you have to feel that inside your heart there is something or someone very cute. You can allow yourself to surrender even to the whims, let us say, of the little child who is always playing, playing, playing inside your heart. If you can surrender all your will to this little child, you will get tremendous joy.

It is very easy to surrender when you love someone. Even on the ordinary vital plane, how many sacrifices a boyfriend and girlfriend will make for each other! But in your case, you are surrendering to something sweet, something divine, something immortal. By surrendering to something sweet, something divine, something immortal, what are you losing?

Always the mind thinks that it knows better. The human mind will never say that somebody else can be better. The human mind will always say, “I am the best.” But that mind has to say, “No, there is something sweeter, something more beautiful, something more perfect than I am, and that is the heart.” Always think of yourself as the heart. Do not think of your mind. If you feel, “I am the heart,” there is nothing wrong in it. Let people think you are crazy. If you say to yourself, “I am the heart, I am the heart, I am the heart,” all the divine qualities of your heart will come forward.

In India they say, Brahmosmi — “I am the Brahman, I am Lord Shiva.” Yes, we may be full of imperfections, but we can say, “I am Lord Shiva, I am Lord Shiva,” when we do japa. We can repeat that mantra. In your case you can repeat, “Surrender, surrender, surrender, surrender, surrender, surrender.” Let this be your japa: “Unconditional surrender, surrender to my Guru, surrender to God, surrender to my soul.” If you do japa like this, easily the beauty, the fragrance, the capacity and the divinity of surrender you will be able to get. But always remember that surrender is in the heart, not in the mind. The mind never surrenders. Even if it surrenders for one day, for ten days it will revolt. Why do you need the mind when you have something else which is far superior? If you are identified with the heart, once the heart surrenders, it is very difficult to take that surrender away from the heart. So the best thing is always to remain in the heart and repeat the mantra: “Surrender, surrender, surrender.”