Inquiry into Srimad Bhagavatam re: Surrender

June 7, 2002

another forum, sombody posted from the Bhagavatam:

>Bhagavatam 3.25.15

The cause of bondage and freedom is the MIND.

......Dear Bhaga,

why not go a bit deeper into the inquiry? for example, what is the

cause of this mind, from which bondage and freedom seem to be

arising? where is this mind appearing? what is there that can be

bound or freed?

>Hence the MIND alone that HAS TO BE SURRENDERED TO GOD.

.....who is going to do such surrender? if there is only God -- What

Is -- then who is surrendering what, and to what?

>SURRENDER OF THE MIND AMOUNTS TO SURRENDER OF EVERYTHING.

WHAT usually happens is that we worship GOD PHYSICALLY and SURRENDER

THE MIND TO THE MATERIAL WORLD.

....is it true that there is a difference? again, who is this "we"

that is supposedly worshipping and surrendering?

>Our attainments are always in accordance to the ATTACHMENT OF THE

MIND.

If we perform just physical actions with the body,but DO NOTHING

WITH THE MIND,EXCEPT SURRENDER TO GOD,then we will not be rewarded

for our PHYSICAL ACTIONS,but will instead attain SPIRITUAL BENEFIT.

.....so, you are saying that there is a separation between body and

mind? furthermore, where do these "spiritual benefits" accumulate? is

there some kind of 401K Plan for Spirit? is Spirit of such a nature

that it requires attaining benefits -- perhaps extra insurance

coverage?

>SURRENDER OF THE MIND IS ACTUAL SURRENDER.

..... it is mind itself that presumes there is some kind of way that

it can surrender itself, but can the eye see itself, the ear hear

itself?

>Just as it is impossible to run with the feet tied,or talk with the

mouth closed,

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DEVOTE ONESELF TO GOD WITH MIND ATTACHED

ELSEWHERE.

.....where is there any elsewhere from God? what is outside of God?

>In reality,IT IS ONLY THE ATTACHMENT OF THE MIND IS REFERRED TO AS

DEVOTION IN SPIRITUAL REALM(UPASANA).

But this same attachment directed to the material world, is

infatuation(Asakti).

....here you speak of reality, the spiritual realm, and the material

world, as if they were three. is this true? if the material world and

the spiritual realm are not arising in Reality, as an expression of

Reality, then where are they, that they can somehow be independent

from What Is, Which Is Reality?

>It is impossible to manage both attachment to the world and devotion

to God simultaneously,because the MIND CAN ONLY BE ATTACHED TO ONE

AREA AT ONE TIME.

.....it is impossible to manage anything, for to manage or manipulate,

you must be a subject distinct from the object which you are

attempting to manage. however, the subject/object dichotomy is a mere

modification in consciousness -- arbitrary and ephemeral, and of no

intrinsic meaning. in other words, there may be the illusion of

control, but inquiry reveals that there is in fact no body

controlling anything. the sense of a self is like the perfume of

roses on your lover's neck -- when you look for the actual roses, no

such flower is found.

>Besides,the material and spiritual are totally opposite worlds.

Whatever worship we perform,we will find ourselves bound to the

material world, IF THE MIND IS ATTACHED TO

WEALTH,SPOUSE,FAMILY,SOCIAL STATUS,NAME,FAME,PRESTIGE and so on.

..... the material and spiritual are totally opposite worlds in the

imagination. in fact, no such distinctions exist in Truth. Truth is

indivisible by nature, but if we imagine ourselves to be something

that can be bound, we will invariably play out that "story" -- such

is the result of "conditioning-in-the-moment".

>The Gopis(Cowherd girls) expressed their DEVOTIONAL CONDITION TO

Uddhavaji very beautifully in the following lines-

"O Uddhava!We have ONLY ONE MIND AND THAT TOO IS WITH SYAMA SUNDAR

(KRISHNA).

IF WE HAD TEN OR TWENTY MINDS,THEN WE COULD HAVE USED EACH ONE IN

DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS,AND MANAGED BOTH DEVOTION TO GOD AND THE

WORLD."

.....ya gotta love those cowgirls, but even cowgirls get the blues!

>But God is aware of the fact that

IF EACH INDIVIDUAL IS TO BE GIVEN TWO MINDS,THEN NO ONE WOULD HAVE

BEEN ABLE TO FULFILL THE CONDITION OF

"mAmekaM zaraNaM vraja",i.e.SURRENDER TO GOd ALONE.

.....much less pronounce it!

>To conclude,SURRENDER OF MIND alone IS TRUE SURRENDER to

God,whatever the physical actions be.

.....again, why stop short of Freedom? obviously, physical actions are

not independent from mind, although it may seem that way during rush

hour. the surrender that can be done is not true surrender, since

there is a presumption of an independent doer, or operator, who can

either surrender or not, but what is truly surrendering? in other

words, most believe that "I" is surrendering or resisting

surrendering, but what doesn't exist cannot turn around and start

surrendering, any more than the movie character can walk off the

screen to empty its bladder.

>Now the question is,what is the DIFFICULTY IN SURRENDER OF THE MIND?

....well, for starters, there is no such thing. sure -- thoughts

appear and disappear, but where? the concept generally called "the

mind" is nothing but a symbol innocently mistaken for an actual

entity.

>The only difficulty is that THE MIND IS ATTACHED TO THE MATERIAL

WORLD SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL AND THIS ATTACHMENT HAS BECOME VERY

FIRM.

Had the mind been not attached to the world,surrender to God would

have been effortless.

.... LOL --

"If wishes were horse, beggars would ride!"

on the other hand, is it true that God, mind, and any world (material

or otherwise) are independent from each other? even modern quantum

physics is demonstrating that what we consider "the material world"

is nothing but Consciousness Itself, which is indivisible.

>ANOTHER IMPORTANT characterstic of TRUE SURRENDER OF MIND TO GOD is -

If any other subject apart from LORD enters the mind of surrendering

devotee,Surrender is obstructed and deprives the devotee from

attaining His Beloved.

....Beloved is not an object(or Object)to be attained. there is only

Beloved. it is the effort to attain Beloved that fuels the separative

imagination, and obstructs the present Re-cognition of Beloved.

If we proceed with the inquiry, we arrive at a place, the same "gate"

that all brave hearts must arrive at, where our utter powerlessness

to control outcomes is acknowledged, where our true ignorance in the

face of the Mystery is recognized, where all that we believed we were

is demolished like the bottom card pulled out from a house of cards,

and to just stand there, in that fire, and be reduced to ash. And

then, gracefully, there may be something like an acceptance that

dawns, and there is really no word for this peace, but since we are

in the medium of words here, Peace seems like a good descriptor.

Conditional and traditional negative self-images about "mind" have no

place to land in this "space" of Awareness. They may arise, but there

is no way they can survive in this fire of true inquiry. Ideas of

ownership of any body/mind dissolve in the recognition that we

are not the somebody in that story -- we are indeed no-body, No Body,

and what we appear to be is being Lived by a Mystery beyond

comprehension. Ideas of ownership are based upon a core assumption

of "I", and that assumption is undermined in the Remembrance of our

True Nature, which is unspeakable vastness, and this Vastness, which

has no qualities in Itself, expresses Itself in the world of form as

Love, and all that has yet to re-cognize itself as that Love can be

submitted to the Light of this Love -- not by "us" -- but by That

Which is living us, even now.

We are already that for which we have been looking. The search for

the True Self, or God, to Whom we would surrender ceases when it is

realized that one has never been anything other than the True Self.

Liberation is from all fixed notions of self-hood, the discarding of

the pretense of separateness, the leaving behind of past, present and

future, of all that is entailed with imagining oneself to be a known

entity in a made up world. There is nothing to do to wake up out of a

dream that never was. There is just the awakening out of the dream

of 'me', out of all stories that are centered around this 'me'. Who

is it that believes in a self and other, in imaginary realms, in

bondage and freedom? If one abandons all stories about

oneself, others, the world, and even enlightenment, what is left?

In our meeting here, we can investigate, inquire into, and discover

what we really Are, prior to all notions of identity. All that one

imagines is true about oneself is burned in the fire of That which is

really True. Beyond the notions of surrendering to something outside

of ourselves, we already ARE Free, pure Awareness. This realization

is not dependent on external circumstances, or on internal states of

consciousness, on any kind of purification or ritual practices, or

anything that can be done by a fictional self. What IS doesn't come

and go, and is not given or taken, nor can It be controlled or

managed. There are no methods or modalities to realize This, and no

dogmas or authority figures to use as an excuse to keep the immediate

recognition of our True Nature at a distance. Can you allow this

Freedom, which Is who you Are, to simply be the case, regardless of

any circumstances which may arise in this life that seem to argue

against such acceptance? Can you lovingly forgive this little ghost

you call "the mind", and allow these wounds of presumed separation

from Beloved to be healed by the Love that you Are, in your Child

Heart?

Yes, you are so completely and infinitely loved, and as you

awaken to this Love, all ideas of something that is less than

absolutely Perfect in this Mystery we call Life will be Outshone by a

Beauty that will simply take your breath away and leave you

speechless. Let this in. It so wants to embrace you, and that is why

It is here, right here, right now.

>This is the secret behind the SURRENDER.

....Indeed!

June 7, 2002

on 6/7/02 11:33 AM, hrtbeat7 at hrtbeat7 wrote: