Page 52 - Dawn of Reality an Exposition of REALITY AT DAWN of Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj

Self-Surrender
We practise Bhakti or devotion in order to achieve communion with the Supreme Master. We look upon Him with faith and reverence. By degrees we become so closely intimate to Him that every other object loses prominence in our eyes. This is submission to the will of the Master, or in other words, the beginning of self -surrender. It goes on developing, as our faith grows stronger. It brings us to a stationary condition stopping the oscillations of the mind. In due course we begin to feel ourselves overpowered by some great force, which drives our mind away from everything else. We become free of the unwanted activities sticking all the time to the right functioning of the organs (the Indriyas). Self-surrender is nothing but a state of complete resignation to the will of the Master, with total disregard of self. A permanent stay in this condition leads to the beginning of the state of negation. When we surrender ourselves to the great Master we begin to attract a constant flow of the highest Divine force from Him. In this state a man thinks or does only that which is his Master’s will. He feels nothing in the world to be his belonging but everything as a sacred trust from the Master and he does everything, thinking it to be his Master’s bidding. His will becomes completely subservient to the will of the Master. A beautiful example of surrender is presented to us by Bharata, the son of Dasharatha, when he went to the forest along with the people of Ayodhya to induce his brother Rama to return. In reply to the entreaties of the people Rama gravely replied that he would be quite willing to return to the capital provided Bharat asked him to do so. All eyes were turned towards Bharata, who was himself there to induce him to return. But he calmly replied, “It is not for me to command but only to follow.”
The Bhagavad Gita, too, deals with the state of surrender. It is not an ordinary thing to be achieved easily. It begins after complete negation of all senses and faculties for which we proceed by elementary rules of devotion. We submit to our master, thinking him to be a super-human being. We love him with faith and reverence trying by all means to attract his attention and favour. For this purpose we connect our link with him in the light of the worldly relationship only for the sake of facility. We think of him as father, brother, master or beloved. The process, if taken up in right earnest, is greatly helpful to a disciple. The strong link of attraction thus established leads him to a state of devotion and surrender. The conception of a Guru as a mother is, in my opinion, by far the most appropriate and advantageous to a disciple. A mother is the very embodiment of love and affection. Only a mother’s heart can forbear with patience all the troubles and miseries caused to her son, thinking