The True Meaning of Sharanagati/Surrender

It appears to Me that the real meaning of the word sharanagati or surrender has not been properly understood. Our elders, by the study of many scriptures and texts, have conveyed to us the meaning. Despite this, we get the impression that the word surrender means putting at the disposal of God our body, our mind, all our powers, and all that we have. We take it that “placing these before God” is the true meaning of the word surrender. This is not the correct and proper meaning of the word. Our body is not in our control at all. Our body, under some circumstances, is posing to us several problems. Under such circumstances, when the body is not under our control, it is not understandable how we can say that we will take such a body and surrender it to God.

When we look at the mind, it is even worse. It leads us to many distorted meanings. While we are not only not in control of our mind even for one moment, but we are even slaves to our mind, and we foolishly enjoy the mind’s wanderings. Under such circumstances, to say that you are surrendering your mind to God is something quite un-understandable. When you must struggle so much to control your own mind, even for a short while, and when your attempts in this direction are often futile, to take such a mind and put it at the feet of God and say that “I am surrendering my mind to you,” seems to Me to be ridiculous. Let us take the case of your various organs. When the situation is that the mind, which is the ruler and controller of all your organs, is in such a condition, what is the point in talking about the organs and surrendering all your organs to God.

So, when you say that you are surrendering to God your thought, your word, your deed, it is simply a kind of trivial satisfaction to yourself. This cannot represent the truth and the meaning of the word surrender. God also never wants you to surrender and hand over to Him everything that you own. In fact, God has never asked for such a thing. If you make a proper attempt to understand the true meaning of the word sharanagati or surrender, you will understand that sharanagati really relates to another aspect and it should be interpreted in the background and context of Divinity only. Only when you accept and when you believe that the Divine is present in every human being and in every living thing, that Divinity is omnipresent, can you understand the meaning of surrendering in thought, word, and deed and you will also become one with God. There is some justification for your talking of sharanagati or surrender when you are in full control of your mind, your words, and your body. As soon as you can recognize the aspects of the omnipresence and the omnipotence of God, the feeling of ego, the feeling that there is an “I”, which is a distinct thing, will disappear.

~Summer Showers 1972

Of course, you can and do announce, “I surrender my mind, my thoughts, my feelings and imaginings to God.” But your monkey-mind escapes from your hold; how then can you capture it and claim it and surrender it to God? What authority do you possess to offer something you are not master of? The whole process reminds one of the Telugu proverb about gift by son-in-law of the property owned by the mother-in-law. How can anyone give another what he does not own?

Is your body under full control? When blood starts flowing out of a vein on your hand, you cannot stop the flow. You rush to a hospital and call out, “Doctor! Doctor! Tie a bandage!” When you suffer from a stroke, and limbs on one side are paralyzed, you are helplessly unable to repair them. How can you dedicate your body, which you cannot rule over? Such statements like surrendering body, mind, and heart are only rhetoric sanctioned by tradition and long usage.

The act of surrender is often highlighted as atma-arpana [complete surrendering of the self]. The expression is even more ridiculous. When you are atma in essence, how can atma (self) offer it to itself? The body is a composite of the five elements; it cannot avoid disintegration, but the dweller within the body has no birth or death, no desire or despair, no attachment or bondage. In truth, that dweller is the God of Gods who resides as atma in you. This is what the seers have experienced. So atma-arpana is a meaningless expression. You have nothing in you or belonging to you that you can claim as yours to offer to God. Then, what does surrender of the self signify or imply? To experience God as Omnipresent, to be aware of nothing other than God—this is true surrender. To see God in everything, everywhere, always is true sharanagati.

~Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 15, Dasara, Vijayadashami