Art of Surrendering

Someone may raise the eye brows on reading the title of this blog: art of surrendering! Is it an art, like those conventional art forms? I call surrendering an art, basically on two grounds : like all art forms, surrendering needs to be cultivated, and one may partake of the aesthetic joy, even after surrendering oneself to the Supreme. This may already imply that surrendering demands something very precious from me, and until I am ready to place myself before the situation and prepare myself to accept whatever may be for the greater good of society, I may not be partaking of the solution, but continue to be only part of the problem.

The very word carries with it a lot of negative connotations, and as soon as one hears the word surrendering, one is sure to think that it is going to cost a lot, and sure it is! But what it costs is not as much as the joy and peace of actually surrendering. Listening to the wisdom of Echart Tolle, the master who popularised the concept of the power of now, lays great emphasis on surrendering, and I realize that surrendering places before me immense possibilities, and provides me in a much more secure zone than all that the world can offer me when I keep holding to the treasures of the world around me.

You may wonder, how can surrendering give me real security, and placate the annoying fear, anxiety, and worry, the three enemies who are responsible for messing up my peace and joy. Every time when I trust the world around me, my own talents and capabilities, my store house of treasures (in the form of acquired knowledge base, accumulated wealth and projected support systems at my disposal), I am creating an imaginary wall around me, and keep telling myself that no rain and shine can ever touch me. But the moment when I hear the thunder and my eyes are blinded by lightning, then I know that the wall around me is only fictitious.

It is then no time to start building real wall around me; before I raise up a wall barely enough to protect myself, I would realize that the thunder showers have destroyed the wall I had built. Besides I realize that there are hardly any people who would join me in raising up this wall of protection. But if I were wise, I would not try to raise up a wall, but look all around me, surrender myself to all the forces which surround me. I invoke my inner resources to acquire the strength and energy to face all rain and shine, thunder and lightning. I can hear the whisper of my heart: nothing can really shake me and pull me down.

But that is the moment when I look to the world around that I am being so very vulnerable (and in the true sense I am being very vulnerable), that I may not survive even a gusty wind. The external reality does not change; it is just as it used to be, but my approach to this reality has changed considerably. I don't look at the world around me as ravenous wolves, ready to tear me to pieces, but as beings as vulnerable as I am. There is a sense of camaraderie, and of solidarity. But what if the external (and internal) realities were to militate against me? I know that my inner self will provide me with the stamina to protect me from their onslaught. In surrendering, I come in face to face with my true identity as a vulnerable human person!