Bhakti-Surrender

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Teachings of Sri Ramana MaharshiBhakti - SurrenderPreambleBy David

GodmanMany of the world’s religious traditions advocate surrender to

God as means of transcending the individual self. Sri Ramana Mahrshi

accepted the validity of such an approach and often said that this

method was effective as self-enquiry. Traditionally the path of

surrender is associated with dualistic devotional practices, but such

activities were of only secondary importance to Sri Ramana. Instead he

stressed that true surrender transcended worshipping God in a

subject–object relationship since it could only be successfully

accomplished when the one who imagined that he was separate from God

had ceased to exist. To achieve this goal he recommended two distinct

practices:Holding on to the ‘I’-thought until the one who imagines

that he is separate from God disappears.Completely surrendering all

responsibility for one’s life to God or the Self. For such

self-surrender to be effective one must have no will or desire of

one’s own and one must be completely free of the idea that there is

an individual person who is capable of acting independently of

God.The first method is clearly self-enquiry masquerading under a

different name. Sri Ramana Maharshi often equated the practices of

surrender and enquiry either by saying that they were different names

for the same process or that they were the only two effective means by

which Self-realization could be achieved. This is quite consistent

with his view that any practice which involved awareness of the

‘I’-thought was a valid and direct route to the Self, whereas all

practices, which didn’t, were not.This insistence on the subjective

awareness of ‘I’ as the only means of reaching the Self coloured his

attitude towards practices of devotion (Bhakti) and worship which are

usually associated with surrender to God. He never discouraged his

devotees from following such practices, but he pointed out that any

relationship with God (devotee, worshipper, servant, etc.) was an

illusory one since God alone exists. True devotion, he said, is to

remain as one really is, in the state of being in which all ideas

about relationships with God have ceased to exist.The second method,

of surrendering responsibility for one’s life to God, is also related

to self-enquiry since it aims to eliminate the ‘I’-thought by

separating it from the objects and actions that it constantly

identifies with. In following this practice there should be a

constant awareness that there is no individual ‘I’ who acts or

desires, that only the Self exists and that there is nothing apart

from the Self that is capable of acting independently of it. When

following this practice, whenever one becomes aware that one is

assuming responsibility for thoughts and actions- for example, ‘I

want’ or ‘I am doing this’ – one should try to withdraw the mind from

its external contacts and fix it in the Self. This is analogous to the

transfer of attention which takes place in self-enquiry when one

realises that self-attention has been lost. In both cases the aim is

to isolate the ‘I’-thought and make it disappear in its source. Sri

Ramana Maharshi himself admitted that spontaneous and complete

surrender of the ‘I’ by this method was an impossible goal for many

people and so he sometimes advised his followers to undertake

preliminary exercises which would cultivate their devotion and

control their minds. Most of these practices involved thinking of or

meditating on God or the Guru either by constantly repeating His name

(japa) or by visualizing His form. He told his devotees that if this

were done regularly with love and devotion then the mind would become

effortlessly absorbed in the object of meditation.Once this has been

achieved complete surrender becomes much easier. The constant

awareness of God prevents the mind from identifying with other

objects and enhances the conviction that God alone exists. It also

produces a reciprocal flow of power or grace from the Self, which

weakens the hold of the ‘I’-thought and destroys the Vasanas (mental

tendencies) which perpetuate and reinforce its existence. Eventually

the ‘I’-thought is reduced to manageable proportions and with a

little self-attention it can be made to sink temporarily into the

Heart.As with self-enquiry, final realization is brought about

automatically by the power of the Self. When all the outgoing

tendencies of the mind have been dissolved in the repeated

experiences of being, the Self destroys the vestigial ‘I’-thought so

completely that it never rises again. This final destruction of the

‘I’ takes place only if the self-surrender has been completely

motiveless. If it is done with a desire for grace or Self-realization

it can never be more than partial surrender, a business transaction in

which the ‘I’-thought makes an effort in the expectation of receiving

a reward. ___________

http://www.hinduism.co.za/bhakti-.htm

to be continued...

Let my every word be a prayer to Thee, Every movement of my hands a

ritual gesture to Thee, Every step I take a circumambulation of Thy

image,Every morsel I eat a rite of sacrifice to Thee, Every time I

lay down a prostration at Thy feet; Every act of personal pleasure

and all else that I do,Let it all be a form of worshiping Thee."

>From Verse 27 of Shri Aadi Shankara's Saundaryalahari