The Intricate Game of Love

What would it mean to say, “God, I’m placing my life in your hands – God, you decide what is best for me”? Hafiz reminds us that in our confusion with our mind and ego, reality is something quite different from what we may think:

From man’s perspective in this intricate game of love,
It is easy to become confused and think
  you are the do-er.
But from God’s infinite certainty, he always knows
that he is the only one
  who should ever be put on trial.¹

The last line of Hafiz’s verse indicates that God is the creator, and if there is anyone who should be held accountable, then God knows in his “infinite certainty” that the Lord God is the one. Is Hafiz excusing us from being accountable for our actions? Many of us would like to be immune from the karmic liability of our actions, but Hafiz may be speaking to something much greater than our karma: the game of love and who really is the “do-er” in this game.

Maharaj Charan Singh says:

People hardly pray to him for his grace, for his blessings.… We are asking the Lord to fulfill our desires…. Unless we completely surrender ourselves to him, driving all these desires out of our mind, we cannot achieve our destination, because he will always give us what we want. We will have to surrender to him. When we just want him from him, then only we can merge back into him.²

What does it mean to surrender, to free ourselves from doing and just be, to let go and place our life in his hands? All Masters explain that surrender is essential on our spiritual journey. The reward of surrender is self-realization and ultimately God-realization. Hazur Maharaj Ji explains:

What is surrendering to the will of the Master? ... Surrendering to the will of the Master means helping ourselves to rise above the realm of mind and maya, helping our soul to leave the mind. When we make the soul whole and pure, then we are surrendering to the will of the Father.³

Helping our soul can only be accomplished by one method and that is meditation. The technique of this meditation is explained to us at the time of initiation. Then, Great Master emphasizes, “The soul is conscious.... It can be really happy only on uniting with super-consciousness.”⁴

This consciousness is Love, the Shabd. To surrender to the Will of the Lord is to fall in love with the inner Master and merge into that divine melody, the Word or Shabd. The method is meditation. But surrender is difficult both in concept and in practice as long as our ego dominates. Maharaj Charan Singh further explains:

We feel that we have surrendered, even in physical love, when we submerge our will into the will of the other person. We try to merge our happiness into the happiness of the other person. We always try to do what pleases the other person and never try to assert ourself or to adjust the other person to us.… Spiritual love is the same. We have to surrender ourself to the Master. It means that we have to take our ego out of us and blend our whole heart with his heart.… That can be done only by meditation.⁵

Baba Ji reminds us in his satsangs and question-and-answer sessions that we are afraid of the unknown, and until we experience this love which lies beyond the mind and ego, surrender is just a concept. In truth, surrender is a profound state of being beyond what we can imagine. Maharaj Charan Singh continues:

When you absolutely blend yourself into the love of another person, then you forget what you are. Then you know that you are nothing.… Similarly, we have to forget by meditation that we are anything and know that everything is the Master.⁶

Maharaj Charan Singh is telling us that by this meditation technique we begin to surrender and blend ourselves into the love of another, i.e., the Word, Shabd, holy spirit, audible life stream. When we truly turn to the inner Master for everything in our life, the process of surrender begins to integrate into our everyday life. We begin to experience that divine Love and become conscious, on our way to the Super-conscious.