Surrender
guru ki mauj raho tum dhaar,
guru ki raza samhaalo yaar.
guru jo karen so hitkar jaan,
guru jo kahen so chit dhar maan.Live in the will of the master, my friend,
and hold it dear to your heart.
Consider as beneficial
whatever the master does,
and accept with an open heart
whatever the master says.
Soami Ji Maharaj187
Most sevadars have heard the classic story of the mud platforms. This story is worth revisiting because it epitomizes the real meaning of surrender and beautifully illustrates the difference between obedience and surrender.
From obedience to surrender
The time had come for the third Sikh guru, Guru Amar Das, to declare
his successor. Several of his disciples believed they would be the
fortunate one. Guru Amar Das put them through a test. He asked each
disciple to build a small mud platform. When the platforms were built,
he said they weren’t good enough and requested his disciples to tear
them down and build them again. They obeyed. But then Guru Amar Das said
the platforms weren’t in the right location. He told his disciples to
demolish them and build new ones in another location.
This carried on. Each time the disciples built their platforms, the guru rejected them and asked that they be built again. Frustrated with the endless task, some of his disciples concluded that Guru Amar Das, who was very old at that time, had become senile, and they abandoned the seva. A few remained, but each time they built a platform he rejected it. One by one, they too gave up. In the end, only one disciple was left – Ram Das.
The other disciples mocked Ram Das as he continued to obey his guru’s instructions over and over again. They told him the guru had gone insane and it was foolish to try to please him. Ram Das responded, “Brothers, the whole world is blind. If there is one man who can see, it is the satguru. Then, too, the whole world is mad. It is only the satguru who is sane.”
The disciples responded that both he and the guru were out of their minds. Ram Das replied, “Brothers, you may say whatever you like about me, a worthless servant of the Lord. But do not, I beg of you, utter a single disrespectful word about my satguru. Even if I should have to make platforms for the rest of my life in obedience to the satguru’s wishes, by his grace I will continue to do so.”
Ram Das patiently and cheerfully made and remade his platform seventy times. Finally, Guru Amar Das said to him, ,“You may stop building now, Ram Das. I am very pleased with you, for you alone have given me implicit obedience and completely surrendered to my will.” He embraced Ram Das and filled him with spiritual wealth.
Turning to the others, Guru Amar Das said, “Not one of you obeyed one of the first rules of being a true disciple – to give the satguru your full love and devotion, have utter faith in him, and obey his wishes with a cheerful heart.”188
There is so much we can learn from this story. All the disciples were assigned a task; initially they obeyed the master because they loved and revered him, and obedience was automatically part of the relationship. Why then did they eventually stop building platforms? Because obedience is limited; obedience can take us only so far.
In obedience, we do as we are asked. In surrender, too, we do as we are asked. But there is a difference between the two. Obedience is an action, an action that is sometimes motivated by self-interest, sometimes by love, and sometimes by fear – fear of another person, fear of public opinion, fear of breaking age-old rules and traditions, or fear of offending the beloved.
Surrender goes beyond obedience. It stems from pure love; no fear or external factor is involved. Surrender is not an action; it is a state of being in which a person voluntarily, consistently, and cheerfully obeys another, without hesitation.
The relationship between obedience and surrender is that one leads to the other. We begin with obedience. With each small act of obedience we are being emptied of ego, attachments, and wants, and with this our love grows, our faith deepens. Ultimately, consistent acts of obedience – in both outer and inner seva – lead to surrender. The state of real surrender is a high spiritual state known as sharan, which means ‘to take refuge in someone.’
meena sam layi guru sarna,
ab raha na mohe kuchh karna.I have taken refuge in my guru
like a fish in the ocean,
And nothing else remains to be done.
Soami Ji Maharaj189
We have not yet reached this state of sharan because we still have ego – ‘me’ and ‘mine.’ To seek sharan means to pursue the process of giving ourselves up to the master, unconditionally. As we slowly learn to surrender ourselves to the inner master 100 percent, one day we will reach the state where we are able to say:
toohiyon hain main naahi ve sajjana,
toohiyon hain main naahi.You alone exist! I do not, O Beloved.
You alone exist, I do not.
Bulleh Shah190
In an evening meeting, Baba Ji was asked about surrender. He explained that surrender means that if the master looks at the sun and says, “What a beautiful moon!” then the disciple, without a thought, looks at the sun and says, “What a beautiful moon!” He added that if we could surrender like this we would not have to meditate, but surrender like this is not easy. It can be achieved only through meditation.
The key words in the master’s definition are “without a thought.” Let us imagine a scenario. A few sevadars are walking with the master, and as they pass a lake he suddenly turns towards them and says, “Jump in.” Immediately an avalanche of thoughts cascades through their minds: Why does he want us to jump in? The water doesn’t look clean. My clothes will get wet! After all these thoughts, if they go ahead and jump in, this is an act of obedience. Surrender is something quite different. In surrender, we just jump in – we obey without hesitation.
To surrender to the master, first we try to understand the will of the master:
What is the master’s will? If we don’t know what the will of the master is, how can we surrender to it? 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, the will of the master.
Maharaj Charan Singh191
A disciple once asked Great Master if there was any other way besides meditation to achieve salvation. Great Master promptly replied, “Surrender.” The disciple asked, “How can I surrender?” Great Master responded, “Through your meditation.” He then added, “Rest assured, meditation is the easy way. Surrender, only one in a million can do.”192
For us, the only way to achieve surrender, and ultimately liberation, is through meditation:
You can’t surrender your ego without meditation. These are all intellectual surrenderings: “I have given my ego to you; I have surrendered my mind to you; I live in the will of the Father; I don’t do anything without the master’s permission” – and the next moment you will dance to the tune of the mind. This is no surrender. It may be good to think like that, but real surrender comes only by meditation.
Maharaj Charan Singh193
There are two levels of surrender, however: outer and inner. Outer surrender is what we can practise every day. It involves consistent acts of obedience – doing our meditation every day, aligning our way of life with the principles of the path, and being obedient to the master’s instructions in seva. This outer surrender ultimately leads to inner or real surrender:
To attain that real surrender, which we call sharan, we have to remain within the dictates and principles that were told to us at the time of initiation. We have to put forth our honest efforts to remain on the path, to give time to meditation. That, in a way, is surrender to the master, and this surrender will lead to the internal surrender, the real or unconditional surrender. That will be when we see the master inside, forget our self, and merge in his will, in his love.
Maharaj Charan Singh194
While it can take a lifetime to achieve inner surrender, we can support our progress through outer surrender. In seva, this means approaching our tasks as the master’s agents and practising an attitude of acceptance.
Being the master’s agents
A young man, relatively new to seva, walked out of the head sevadar’s
office. He had just been given a significant responsibility, and he was
in a state of shock. As he sat on a bench waiting for a fellow sevadar
to come out of the office, an elderly, experienced sevadar walked by.
Noticing that he looked upset, the sevadar approached him and asked,
“Dear son, are you okay?”
“I don’t know,” he cried in distress, and described the nature of the project he had just been given.
“So what is the problem?” asked the elderly sevadar.
“I’m terrified. This seva is so important. I’ve never done anything remotely like this before. I’m just not capable of doing something so huge!”
“Well!” said the elderly sevadar. “First, every seva is important. And second, who are you to be doing it? Take yourself out of it. He is the one who does the seva. Think of yourself simply as his agent, then do your seva.”
While walking or working, sitting or sleeping, or doing your official duties, always remember: “I am nothing; all is satguru’s work, I am merely an instrument.”
Baba Jaimal Singh195
When we believe that we are doing the seva, we may think: ,“I have achieved this success; no one has this skill but me; look how much I have grown this department,” and so on. There is ego in this. Conversely, we may think: “I can’t do this project; I am not capable of managing this department; I am not good enough to give satsang,” and so on. But there is ego in this too, because the ‘I’ is still there.
Saints urge us to forget about our talents, abilities, faults, and imperfections and to look within and see for ourselves that we are simply agents – we are not doing anything.
I always say I am a little pencil in God’s hands. He does the thinking. He does the writing. He does everything, and sometimes it is really hard because it is a broken pencil and he has to sharpen it a little more. Be a little instrument in his hands so that he can use you anytime, anywhere.
Mother Teresa196
An experienced sevadar used to say about seva: “Disconnect from the role. Let the work be done through you, rather than by you.” Another sevadar explains it this way: “You just have to show up at seva, then get out of the way and let him do it. It’s interesting. He is the one doing it, but you have to be there for him to do it. And then you have to not be there for him to do it.”
When the ‘I’ comes into seva, stress, worry, and fatigue come in too, because we think we are responsible. We worry about decisions and outcomes. We worry about little details that seem huge in the moment. We walk around as if the weight of the whole world is on our shoulders. Sardar Bahadur Ji used to say that worry shows a lack of faith in the master.
So long as we lean on others he lets us do so, but when after repeated disappointments, we surrender to him completely, regarding him as our only sheet anchor, he comes to our succour instantly.
Maharaj Jagat Singh197
What a comforting assurance this is – if we let go of the worry and just send up an internal prayer, the master comes to our succour instantly. But there is a caveat – we have to genuinely give the problem to the master:
If you give your problem to the master, then there’s no problem. We give it to him to solve it – but we remain obsessed with the problem. That’s not giving it to the master.
Maharaj Charan Singh198
Baba Ji often says in satsang that when we think we are doing it, we have to carry the burden; but when we hand it over to the master, then it becomes his responsibility. What a relief it is to know that our worries and cares – in both seva and in life – are unnecessary weights; we don’t have to carry them at all.
One with a heavy load on one’s head cannot ascend the difficult heights where the Lord resides. Throw away the unnecessary weight and ‘travel light.’ When you think it over a little seriously, you will find that all weights upon your heart or head are quite ‘unnecessary weights.’
Maharaj Jagat Singh199
Physical seva done under the guidance of a living master is a training ground. It provides us with opportunities to reflect on what we are doing and how we are doing it – on what is simply our wilfulness and what is our master’s will.
Great Master says, “Those who act in accordance with the divine law or Will are conscious co-workers with it and act according to its provisions.”200 When we follow the master’s instructions and meditate, we step out of the will of the mind and into the will of the master; we put our spiritual consciousness to work in his will. Similarly, when we do our physical seva as the master’s agents – with a feeling of humility, submission, and love – we put our physical and mental abilities to work for the master. He works through us, and we have the rare opportunity to be conscious co-workers with the master in seeing to the needs of the sangat. We become his agents.
An attitude of acceptance
Through seva the master presents us with many opportunities to
practise acceptance. For instance, there may be times when we are asked
to do a seva we don’t want to do. A sevadar who is an accountant may
quite understandably want to do seva in the accounting department. But
the accounting department may have all the sevadars it needs, so the
sevadar may be asked to clean windows instead. This person has been
presented with an opportunity to practice acceptance, to surrender.
A person may request some seva, but if there isn’t enough seva for everyone who wants it, he or she may be told to wait for a while – another opportunity to accept, to surrender. The disappointed sevadar can accept the decision gracefully, knowing that patiently waiting for seva is also seva.
There may be times when we are asked to redo our seva. An architect may work for months on the design of a building at a seva site, but in the end the design may be rejected. The architect may have to go back to the drawing board over and over again before it is finally accepted. Another opportunity to surrender. Guru Ram Das cheerfully did the same seva, without question, seventy times. Are we able to respond in the same way when we are asked to do our seva a second or even a third time? Does it matter if we are assigned to seventy different tasks or to the same task seventy times? Ultimately, it is seva.
When we accept whatever unfolds with an open heart, we begin to see that everything is in our best interest. Through different types of seva we are moulded, transformed, into the kind of disciples – into the kind of human beings – he knows we can be.
Slowly we learn to accept that along with the good times will come some challenging times in seva. Sometimes we may be assigned to a seva we love, in a team we love, with a head sevadar whose attitude to seva is an inspiration. At times like this, seva is a joy and surrender is easy, because things are going our way. We can consider these to be the rest periods. But we cannot relax for too long in seva; the moment we get comfortable, something unpredictable seems to happen. Soon we may be assigned a seva task which is out of our comfort zone. Or we may have to cooperate with sevadars who are challenging to work with. We may make mistakes. We may receive criticism. At times like this, seva can be difficult, but this is where the learning comes. Such seva is not without its benefits.
As our awareness grows, our judgements about seva – ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ ‘easy’ or ‘challenging’ – begin to fade away. We no longer think: that department was so wonderful, this one is not; there I was happy, here I am not.
Always remember: you are never to feel perturbed that you were happy there and are unhappy here. Consider it all as his will.
Baba Jaimal Singh201
Slowly, our judgements about our fellow sevadars begin to fade away. We no longer get elated or upset: This sevadar has spoken angrily to me; this sevadar has reconciled with me; this sevadar has hurt me; this sevadar has praised me. We begin to realize that there are no accidents, no coincidences, no random events, and no bad people – it is the master who acts through others to teach us the lessons we need to learn:
Whatever good or bad happens to you, through whatever person or object, directly proceeds from our loving Father. All persons or objects are but tools in his hand…. Suppose someone ill-treats you without any fault on your part, you should see in this ill-treatment the hand of the master working. He wants you to find out whether your pride has died or not, and how deep has meekness and love taken root in your mind.
Maharaj Sawan Singh202
Ultimately we reach the point where even the desire to walk away from challenging seva or sevadars evaporates. There is a quiet awareness that if the master is making us face a challenge, it is because it is necessary, and he has confidence that we can do it. We remind ourselves that the challenges he puts us through will never exceed his grace, and he will always give a supporting hand from within to help us through. We learn to be content no matter where we are placed in seva. We learn to accept his will, even when it is not immediately comprehensible.
If you can take what comes to you through him, then, whatever it is, it becomes divine in itself; shame becomes honour, bitterness becomes sweet, and gross darkness clear light. Everything takes its flavour from God and turns divine; everything that happens reveals God.
Maharaj Charan Singh203
From surrender to freedom
A sevadar arrived at a large satsang centre just before the master’s
visit. More than a hundred thousand people were expected the next day
for the satsang programme. It had rained non-stop for two days and the
parking lots were full of water. Worse, it looked like it would continue
to rain throughout the programme – a nightmare scenario for sevadars.
When the sevadar entered the centre she found the atmosphere was more
frenetic than usual as sevadars grappled with the implications of the
rain. People were frazzled, scurrying about, frantic. In the midst of
all this was the coordinator of the centre, the one who was in charge of
it all – calm, relaxed, giving instructions, but also making jokes,
smiling, and laughing.
“You must be exhausted,” the sevadar said. “You haven’t slept more than three hours a night for several days!”
“Oh, I’m not tired,” the coordinator replied. “One doesn’t get tired when one is having fun.”
“Fun? This is fun? But aren’t you worried? In addition to all the normal visit-related seva, there is now so much more work due to the rain! How will it all get done by tomorrow? The traffic jams will be worse than usual. And how will cars park in these pools of water? How will the sangat walk through it? What about the elderly sangat? What if it continues to rain for the next three days? Aren’t you stressed out?”
“I would be worried and stressed if I were doing it, if the responsibility were mine,” the coordinator replied. “But I’m doing nothing. I’m just going through the motions of making decisions. He is doing it all. He puts the words in my mouth, he puts the thoughts in my head, he is the one who is guiding all these sevadars on what to do. We are doing our best, but in the end, it is all him. Don’t worry, it will all come together tomorrow. I can’t explain how it happens. But it always does.”
Paltu sovai magan mein, saahib chaukeedaar,
saahib chaukeedaar magan hoye sovan laage.Paltu sleeps carefree –
the Lord himself is his watchman.
The Lord being his watchman,
Paltu enjoys blissful sleep.
Paltu Sahib204
Of course, it doesn’t always come together in the end. There are times when we wish the outcome could have been better. But if we genuinely give our seva our very best effort, keep the master in mind as much as possible, accept what comes as his will, and act as his agent, then the responsibility of the seva shifts to the master, and we become carefree:
When the disciple surrenders himself to the master for good, the master looks after him in every way…. The child who sits in the lap of his mother need not worry, because all his worries are hers. He is carefree and happy. Similarly, the disciple, after taking shelter with the master, becomes carefree and happy.
Maharaj Sawan Singh205
All our attempts to surrender in seva accumulate over time and create a deep impression on our mind, and this has an impact on our worldly life as well. Our outlook towards events begins to change; we begin to accept everything that comes to us in life, good or bad, with greater equanimity, as gifts from our loving father. We begin to see his hand in everything that happens, and because it comes from him, we stop struggling – we learn to accept. More and more we are able to take the self out of our actions and dedicate all our actions to him.
This change in perspective brings a deep inner peace, an expanding calmness, which then makes it easier to still the mind during meditation. Meditation, in turn, helps us surrender more and more in seva and in life. Thus unfolds an intensely beautiful, gradual, lifelong process of surrendering to love.
This is the path to Truth: to walk in the footsteps of the master and to align ourselves, through obedience and surrender, with the Lord’s will.
kiv sachiyaara ho’eeyai kiv koorhai tutai paal.
hukam rajaa’i chalna, Nanak likhiya naal.How can one become true
and dispel the veil of illusion?
Nanak says, by obeying the command of the Lord
and surrendering to his Will.
Guru Nanak Dev206
Finally, as one sevadar puts it: “What is the alternative to surrendering to the master? To surrender to the mind? To surrender to worldly pleasures? To surrender to another person? As sevadars we have come too far along on this path to even consider the alternatives. All other doors have been closed. Now we are simply standing before his door and waiting.”
A sevadar once said in satsang that if an item in a jeweller’s shop has been sold, it might remain in the window – but it cannot be bought by anyone else. It bears a notice: ‘Sold.’ He said: “If you give yourself to the master’s service, this is the notice you should bear upon your sleeve.”