65. Surrender.
There was an enlightened Master sitting under a tree. A family man approached him and asked for some boons. The Master said: Go northward into the forest. You will see a big cave. What you want is available there.
He believed him and went there.
He carried off the silver materials lying strewn there, returned and thanked the Master. The Master said: Tomorrow, you go still further a little.
Believing this he went and found another cave filled with gold coins. He gathered them, returned and thanked the Master.
The Master again said: You proceed still further ahead.
This time, having found a cave filled with diamonds, and having collected them as much as possible, and while returning home, the family man got a new idea.
The question arose in him: Even after knowing the location of so much of treasure, without caring for all these, what is it that makes the Master calmly and peacefully stay under the tree?
This time, without thanking the Master, the family man fell at the feet of the Master. He surrendered to the Master saying: What is it that is with you, which is beyond all these treasures? I want that.
- Every one of us is trying in our own way to find out only that treasure of all the treasures which is within us. For that surrender is an easy path.
It can happen after we have lived, enjoyed and experienced all sorts of things. Or else, it can happen by mere devotion, by total wisdom, by understanding or by any means. All the meditation techniques, all religious teachings, strive to make only one thing happen - that is to make surrender be born within you.
Neither my body will be flexible for meditation, nor will my mind control itself by meditation. But I have full belief in spirituality. For a person feels this way, surrender is an easy path.
-----------
- Only a deep rooted love and wholesome respect are the very basic essential requirements necessary for surrender.
- Well beyond grief, for worry less, blissful life, the one that takes you quickly is the rocket of surrender.
- Surrender should not be born just from the lips. It should be born from deep inside the heart and be a conscious one.
Surrender, which is, the belief, 'You entrust yourself to me. I will look after you,' is certainly required by all people during some periods of life, to tide over some kind of helpless situations.
- Why do you fear when I am here?
- Unload all your worries on me.
- Don't be afraid. We will look after.
Such soothing statements which heal and give succour to the mind have come into being in all religions, based on the principle of surrender only.
Here is a beautiful incident which happened in the life of Ramakrishna. It was a time when the devotee Girish Chandra Ghosh had accepted Ramakrishna as his Master whole-heartedly.
Girish asked Ramakrishna: After this, what is it that I have to do in my life?
Ramakrishna said: Keep both the world you live in and the God with you. Continue to remember God both morning and evening.
Then, God or the world – any one of these will slip away from you. Whatever is to happen, will happen.
'I am not properly taking care of even bodily necessities of eating, sleeping and clothing. While it is so, if you want me to think of God both morning and evening! Is it possible at all? It is not possible for me to remain controlled by compulsions.' Thinking like this, Girish was hesitating as to how to tell this to the Master.
If Girish had expressed it out in words instead of merely thinking so, whatever reply Ramakrishna would have then given, Ramakrishna gave that very same reply now. Those present there were rather confused. But Girish was happy since he knew that his Master had read his mind.
Ramakrishna said, 'Yes, it is not possible only for you to think about God in the morning and evening.
Therefore, once before you take your food and again before you go to sleep, try to think about God.' Ramakrishna spoke in a graceful and peaceful voice.
'The case is dragging on in the court. As my own worries and frustration are pulling me up and down, on some days; I eat my breakfast after 10 o'clock and lunch after 5 o'clock in the evening.
As Girish went on thinking ...'Is it possible at all for me to think about God, before eating and before sleeping, when the actual situation is that, when I eat, I am never conscious at all that 'I am eating' since I possess a mind which is ever wandering here and there due to worries.'
Ramakrishna said with a loving and encouraging smile, 'All right, Girish, you want to tell me that even this is not possible. Well, you are not able to do that. Therefore entrust it to me. I will look after everything.'
Girish thought, 'Oh! How easy it is. I have no controls at all. Master will look after every thing. Whatever good and bad that happens to me is only due to his spiritual power's guidance. I have no worries hereafter'. Girish felt relieved and happy.
To trust one is not a matter of play.
Girish, who thought that to think about God for two times a day is rather difficult and that he will not get caught in such a net, got himself caught in the love- net of Ramakrishna.
After that, there was not a single moment when he was not thinking about Ramakrishna. He had stated with tears in his eyes later on, that he had got himself filled up fully with the blissful power of Ramakrishna.
Having come to know about the life of Girish, Mr. Anunithan got the desire, 'I should also meet a living Master, surrender to him and become filled up with Ananda or bliss.' He went in search of a living Master.
At last, he found one living enlightened Master. He had stayed in his ashram after deciding to surrender himself to him and be peaceful. He had told the Master about his desire and had asked him to accept his surrender.
On hearing this, the Master began to laugh. Anunithan got confused. 'Why is he laughing?'
'Do you know about the trials and tribulations Girish had to undergo before he became overwhelmed with the blissful power of Ramakrishna? He could not examine his own good and bads after that. He should understand that whatever happens to him is only for his welfare and it is due to the blessings of the Master. When once Girish said, 'I do this', Ramakrishna told him, 'When you have entrusted yourself to me, then how can you act by yourself? You should say only, 'If God's grace is there, if God permits, I will do it. Do you understand?'
Girish had no independence even for that. 'Have you taken this decision only after knowing all this?' he asked.
Anunithan had hesitated a little bit and then said, 'Yes'.
But after that, unable to stay there even for a week, he came running away from there. After that only he came to see me.
He said to Anunithan, 'There is no limit at all for the deceptive nature of the ego. It will point out that path which does not affect or inflict pain to it as correct. Ego will make you run away from that place which was responsible for causing even a little pain to it. What has happened to you is only this. Surrender is only the technique which Ramakrishna had selected for the ego of Girish to dissolve and melt away. Surrender may look rather hard in the beginning. The reason is only that the ego is beginning to get dissolved. You should not be afraid. The action, laughter, talk of the living Master – all will be aimed at destroying the man's ego only.
I finished it, saying, 'If you come over the hard times, like Girish, it is only possible to overcome it by blissful power.'
Surrender is a wonderful technique.
Moreover, for the modern man, who has been affected both psychologically and physically as well, it can be said that it is a great boon.
Anunithan understood the truth. Then he understood that living Master totally.
Surrender will melt away the ego, which has become a part of you... Only if you understand it!
----------
A meaningful incident.
If the wise men say, 'It is very easy to become enlightened.' Men struggle badly to understand it. Why?
When Dr.Nitty said to a blind man, in a free eye camp, 'If a small operation is done ... your blindness of many years will become all right. Thereafter you can walk without the stick. The blind man, it seems, said, 'I am able to understand that, after the operation, I will be able to see. But you say that I would be able to walk without the stick, I am not able to understand how I could do that.'
- For that blind man, the stick has become a part of the body. In the same way, the human mind which is full of sorrow and inability, believes that it is also a part of the man. Mind is only the root cause for all struggles.
-----------
Meditation chisels. Chisel No.20.