This is a collection of teachings on Self-Surrender based on Hinduism by Swami Ramdas (1884 – 1963) (affectionately known as Papa Ramdas) of Anandashram.
Self-surrender means offering of all your actions to the divine Shakti, i.e. to become conscious by gradual practice that you, as a separate individual doer, do not exist.
To maintain the equilibrium of mind, the sovereign remedy is to submit calmly to the will and workings of God who guides and controls the destinies of the universe.
Take anything that comes as being for your best.
Have implicit trust in His mercy and goodness.
Be brave and cheerful always and let no passing storms of life overpower you.
Surrender yourself to the divine Mother who is the Shakti that works in you, and She will see that you live a true and peaceful life, ever guided and led by Her omniscient will.
Make your entire life and all its activities a blissful expression of Truth.
To realise His presence within us and be the willing and playful instrument in His hands, is to be perfectly free and blissful.
It is He within you who animates your existence and actuates all your works. Know that you are eternally one with Him; and still be His servant and child.
Have unshakeable faith in the Almighty Lord of the universe.
What a glorious privilege it is to know, by the grace of the Lord, that He is the sole doer and that He is all in all.
God places us in our respective situations which, however miserable or happy they may be from the external point of view, are always for our good.
Life becomes blessed and glorious when all its varied activities are dedicated in their entirety to Bhagavan and Master of the worlds, who is eternally seated in our hearts.
Believe always that you are an instrument in the divine hands. If you do so, there will be no reason to think that you have any drawbacks.
Do not eschew the usual work that falls to your lot in the worldly life. Do all such work in the light of sadhana itself, as the pure service of the Lord.
To reach the Divine Mother in Her all inclusive swarupa you ought to transcend the symbol that represents Her, and attain the nirguna aspect of God by complete surrender of all your actions to Her.
Submission to God's will in all things is the keynote of the universal vision. Man in this state realizes that he is a mere instrument worked by the divine will and power, ever resigned and cheerful, accepting all change of time andplace as determined by Him for the fulfilment of His plan and purpose.
The antagonistic influences are not without us; they raise their hood from within. Resignation to God destroys them.
Truly, surrender to the divine Mother's will is the sure way to receive right guidance and lead in all things. Depend upon Her in all matters. Feel Her presence in yourself always and be free and blissful at all times.
To be dispirited by the sufferings of others, be they one's relatives or not, is clearly due to the obsession of oneself by moha. For one who is a mere plaything in the hands of every passing passion and emotion, all in regard to the perishable and the transient, surrender to God is certainly a self-deception and an illusion. Because, self-surrender denotes a state beyond the passions and affections of the ignorant human nature.
To understand the working of God's will you have to submit to it unreservedly. Then you come to know that everything happens by His will, and for good.
Impatience in any matter is a sign of weakness. So, to be free from it, submission to God's will in all things is the way.
It is He who gives us every situation and every change. He knows what is good for us. His main object is to draw us towards Himself. He brings about all incidents in our life to fulfil this purpose of His.
To realise prakriti as the doer is to identify oneself with purusha, that is, to realise immortality. This is what is meant by surrender to the will of God. The will here is prakriti as the doer; God, as purusha, is the non-doer. Purusha and prakriti are one.
We want Him and Him alone, because He is the only reality. Our work, thought and love must therefore always be for Him.
External forms and slavish adoption of the distorted rules of shastras cannot save you. You have to surrender yourself entirely to the supreme Lord dwelling in your heart and in the hearts of all, and dedicate all your actions to Him.
Contentment comes only to those who have submitted to the will of the supreme Lord of the universe.
Grumbling denotes want of faith in God. Rejoice in the good fortune of others and find contentment in the situation in which God has at present placed you.
The defect solely lies in our attitude towards the outside life. The path is self surrender. You can be without the ego sense and still live engaged in the activities of the world in a state of perfect freedom and peace.
God-realisation is not renunciation of the world but to look upon the world as a manifestation of the Lord and to serve Him in all creatures and beings, in a condition of perfect submission to His will.
If we look at life with a purified vision, we behold in all happenings and events the finger of God working for the good of all. In the so-called tribulations and trials of life there is a spring of pure wisdom flowing.
When a man offers himself entirely to God in all the activities of his life he attains true freedom and pure joy. Life then becomes a beautiful flower ever spreading its fragrance all round.
Don't forget, that, as an aid to meditation, dedication of all your activities to the divine Shakti is essential.
There is no disorder in the universe, because all things happen by the will of God, who is harmony and peace themselves. He always determines things and events for good and good alone.
The Lord assures us that no storm of life, however terrifying, can overwhelm us if we take complete refuge in Him.
Blessed is he who throws the whole burden of his life on the divine Mother and Master of our existence and of that of the world.
Self-surrender is not a state to be attained. We live always in that state. We are simply to become conscious of it. Situations need not change, there need be no alterations in activity.
Things may appear to be out of joint. But that is due to our distorted vision. Purify the vision by self-surrender, and you see everything for good. There is nothing to find fault with, here. God's work is always for unity, harmony and joy.
Every activity, great or small, performed by us consciously or unconsciously, within us or without us, is all the work of Shakti. Our mind calls a particular activity virtuous and dockets some other as sinful. This estimation of the mind is entirely false, based upon ignorance. No action is sinful, no action is virtuous. All action is simply the work of Prakriti or Shakti.