~~OM~~

Question: Swamiji, You spoke about surrender. Can you explain that in more practical terms?

Swamiji: No! Surrender is not a practical thing to do. Especially in English, surrender means the last thing that you do when you can't do anything else. You say, "I surrender!" But Samarpan -- sama means equilibrium and arpan means an offering -- I offer myself in equilibrium; I'm in perfect balance; I don't have too much, I don’t have too little.

This tool {gestures to body} is an extension of Your hand. And that is surrender in the context of Gita. Surrender means to give myself, to give the fullest love that I possibly can and give every action as the possibility to demonstrate to You the sincerity and the intensity of that feeling. I have this feeling of love and I don't want to just say "I love You, I love You, I love You." I must do something to make it manifest.

And that is what we are calling surrender. It's not enough just to tell you about my love. It's not enough just to talk about it. I really got to do something. If I'm in the presence of God; if I believe my Guru is God telling me the wisdom form the cow of the Upanishads taking all that cream and giving me the nectar to drink; I'm going to say, "Hey God, hey Guru! I am so privileged to be in your presence.

Let me manifest that sense of privilege in every action that I perform. And that is the sense of surrender in the Gita that we are talking about. We are not saying it as Western people in English say, "Hands up, I surrender. I'm waving the white flag! Don't shoot! I don't have any other alternative so now do with me as you will. But, I will constantly look for a means of escape."

That's what “surrender” means in English, but in Sanskrit we are offering ourselves in equilibrium. We are renouncing the fruits just as a privilege, I am giving this just for You, just because I love you, just because I want to show You that my love is sincere. It’s the only way I know how to tell You so that You'll understand.

Because talk is cheap, I can say it again and again and again but You won't believe me until I really do something to make that love manifest. And that’s what Gita is going to teach us: how do we make that love manifest and how do we surrender in terms of pure devotion towards God pure devotion towards our Guru where we give up all of our confusion and all of our doubt and all of our struggle to find freedom from my surrender.

Question: Swamiji, so suppose in our life we face a circumstance where we are not able to attain a result and we say, "I can't do anything. God, help me do this?" Isn’t that surrender?

Swamiji: No. That’s entreaty. That's a prayer. You are saying, "God, help me manifest my goal. I am not able to do it on my own. Help me manifest my goal." And that is not the same as surrender. Surrender is to be so much in love while you are doing the action that you aren't there. You know sometimes you get so deeply engrossed into your activities that you cease to be.

Thoreau said it in Walden Pond, "Sometimes I sit on Walden pond and I cease to be.” Many of us have had that experience where we get so deeply engrossed into the perception of consciousness that we forget that there is a distinction between subject and object. The perceiver and the perceived become one and that's the love I'm talking about.

That's surrender. It's not about, "Hey God! It's not happening for me. And I need Your help to make it happen the way I want it to happen." I don't quite equate that attitude with what we call surrender.

Question: In the Lord's Prayer, is that surrender?

Swamiji: It’s hopeful thinking, but it's not the same as surrender. I think more of St. Francis' prayer, "Oh Lord make us instruments of Your peace," is more of a surrender. But the act is more the surrender than the words. Let us be instruments of Her peace and then we have surrendered.

I think of St. Francis as a definition of surrender and a prayer to allow me to surrender. The Lord's prayer is not quite surrender because it is not manifesting action. "Thy will be done," means I'm not responsible. "Give us day our daily bread, "Hey, what can I do? And "forgive me" because I blew it just like everybody else did.

I think of surrender as being so much in love that I cease to be. And then that surrender is manifested. It is not spoken about. It's that equilibrium, that balance, that perfection of being, that sincerity of our intention. That sincerity of intention makes us pay attention and we pay attention to the exclusion of delusion. And thereafter we are surrendered!

Question: How do we know when the intention is sincere?

Swamiji: After we have defined the goal, we cultivate the love affair. And everyone knows that a good krishi, a cultivator, cultivates the kshetra. That’s where Krishna comes through us -- as we cultivate the ideals of perfection in the field of action. That’s what this book is going to teach us. This study is going to teach us how do we cultivate those qualities, those attitudes.