Sahajananda on Trust and Surrender
It’s natural for the human soul to be called beyond the material frontier. A bird cannot remain forever in its nest. It needs to fly. Trust is the faith of a bird that feels the lightness of the breeze under her wings before she ever opened them. Flying is a leap of faith; it is like surrender, since it requires both leaving a familiar, safe place and having the courage to jump into the unknown…
Why trust and surrender? Because you are infinitely more than your mind and body, infinitely vaster than what you take yourself to be. You don’t need to be frightened by the mystery and wonder of your own presence anymore.
The longing that starts as a vague intuition grows later into trust, to further complete itself in constant and total surrender.
This trust is Trust by excellence. It is not the mind’s belief in something. It’s not the trust of positive thinking adepts because it doesn’t refer to any object. It is just Trust… Not a “trust in…,” because ultimately it doesn’t address anything, or you could say it is trust in everything and nothing at the same time, trust in what you really are. Here, the Heart finds the most stable and certain embrace in her own glow and tremor…
This Trust is real Self-knowledge. It resonates with the sense of the Beyond in you… Trust is a sacred power and grace, which settles you into “That,” the most intimate you.
“I am That I am” is a trust of the Heart, in the Heart, in God, confessed by the Heart.
Trust is evidence that Love is stronger than death…
Surrender is the blossom of Trust. It is the only wise choice when you realize that you are in exile here and home is calling you from somewhere else.
Surrender is your main chance for realization. If humans weren’t gifted with the capacity of surrender, there wouldn’t be any chance to go beyond the cage of personal limits—we would just be ego-bubbles fighting each other for personal gain. Without surrendering your personality, there wouldn’t be longing, a spiritual path, empathy, compassion, and love. The real key to awakening is surrender.
Wherever the eternal is felt and honored, at the very core of any spiritual journey, lies surrender. You are like an artist who consciously jumps into the chasm of nothingness, to listen there, unwearyingly, for the whisper of grace.
The art of surrender is the science of Life. You seem to live in time and the secular world, yet surrender makes the touch of eternity and beauty so obvious.
Surrender is a paradox since it cannot be an act of personal will, yet it is also a conscious act of trust… Before, it seemed to be the most difficult thing, but when it happens, it’s so easy—the most freeing release. Surrender shrouds you in beauty, bringing awakening, inspiration, and love.
Rumi says:
If they ask what Love is, say, the sacrifice of will.
If you have not left will behind, you have no will at all.
Surrender is such a complete act since it echoes on all levels of the being. It means dropping all masks, the various layers of personality, all limitations (dogmas, attachments to sensations, emotions, feelings, thoughts, states of consciousness…). Ultimately, it is ahamkara, the ego, that is surrendered. And, at the same time, surrender means settling yourself in Self-awareness, in Truth.
Surrender to a limited aspect, to something contingent, is just another limitation. This is what differentiates surrender from passivity.
Real surrender means sacrificing individuality to universality, the temporal to the eternal, the limited form to infinity.
Surrender is freedom, beyond judgment, labeling, mental and emotional resistance, or personal intentionality. It is just another term for being aware, centered in the Spiritual Heart. It is a state of transparency to the Self. Absolute consciousness is pure surrender.
So, let your soul fly; just trust and surrender…
Sahajananda is the founder of Hridaya Yoga.
