Surrenderness
Imagine yourself in a ICU. Doctors are not sure of what to do to save you. You are there all alone to fight for yourself. Everything that you call 'yours' has already been taken away from you before you entered the ICU ward. Everything you spent your entire life building and collecting seem insignificant.
But there is something within you that no one can take from you. Your soul. This infinite energy is beyond your mind and consciousness. It is where all the energy is concentrated.
We tap into this energy when we surrender ourselves to God.
Remember the last time you pushed yourself beyond your limits or outperformed your own expectations. Did you feel that the voice within you tell you - "Yes, you can". Things somehow fall into place once you decide to commit yourself to the task. Who helps you in such situations?
But doesn’t all of this seem to be too abstract? How can someone surrender himself to a formless entity - GOD?
Guru is our guide who takes us through the path of surrenderness. With his love and empathy he helps us to surrender before God. A guru does this by first surrending himself to god. His life exemplifies devotion to god. We automatically walk on this path by following his example.
But how do we surrender before our guru?
The first step is to leave aside our ego. The next step is to trust the guru blindly just like a close friend.
A true guru sees equal potential in everyone. He does not have disciples or followers but according to him everyone is a fellow traveller, walking on the path of self realization.
When we apply our guru’s teachings we are able to analyse our thoughts and behaviour. We become the seer and not the doer. Eventually we start loving everyone as we love ourselves. The world becomes our own extension and our potential increases exponentially.
But how can we love all alike? Everyone’s behavior towards us is different. Someone might like us, someone might dislike us.
When we surrender ourselves before our guru we understand that everyone is in this journey of self realisation. Someone might be behind us, someone might be ahead of us. If someone’s words or actions seem wrong to us, we need to understand that at some point of time even we were at that stage of self awareness. We need to measure our response according to the situation and never loose control as everyone has a role to play in this drama called 'Life’.
At the kumbh mela we see photos of naked Naga sadhus with ash smeared on their bodies. They symbolise complete detatchment from worldly possessions. They have given up clothes because according to them even clothes will lead to attachment with worldly possessions. Similarly we need to detatch ourselves from all external stimulus like words and actions of anyone. Even our own words and actions should be limited and precise. We speak or do more than required when we want to assert our presence. This is because of our ego.
We try to defeat others through our words and actions but we need to realise that our words have the power to make or break someone. Our words should be like the golden fillings in Kinsugi art. Words that heal relationships and spread love.
By being mindfull of our words and actions we not only save our energy but are also able to realise our true self. This is why our guru teaches us to be nothing and do nothing.
