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Seven Principles of Right Surrender
Introduction
All scriptures have emphasised the importance of Surrender for realising the Divine Self within. Every manifestation in the universe is based on some law and not mere desires, however well meaning they be. Surrender too, if not done in keeping with the laws governing it, becomes a mere desire. Honesty of purpose and zeal are not sufficient to make it effective if the principles behind Right Surrender are not followed. Concisely put, the Seven Principles of Right Surrender are as follows:-
1. ENTITY
(a) Select one and only one Entity to and through whom to surrender.
(b) Give that Entity a form.
(c) Let that form be fixed, not changing.
(d) Let there be one teacher to interpret the teaching of that Entity or other High Beings. Failing a teacher, let your conscience -- which should not be static, but should grow step by step -- be your teacher.
(e) Raise up your consciousness to a super-wakeful stage and watch your thoughts come and go. Do not fight with them, nor try to push them out of your mind.
2. HUMILITY: Have utter humility before your Entity.
3. ATTACHMENT: Transfer your attachment from all things, thoughts and persons to your Entity without trying to detach your consciousness from anything.
4. SURRENDER: Surrender all your thoughts and desires whatever they be to your Entity.
5. SILENCE: Do not give expression in words or action to the disturbing thoughts and emotions that arise. Live in the thoughts in Living Silence.
6. FORTITUDE: Bear with courage and fortitude the pain that is caused by living in the Living Silence.
7. FAITH: Cultivate belief amounting to conviction leading to faith that as you follow the first four principles, right surrender will and must become effective and your thoughts will get purified, unified and emptied ultimately raising your consciousness by a step a time, each step leading to the ultimate MUKTI or liberation.
Details of each of these Seven Principles of Right Surrender along with some other relevant principles are lucidly and systematically explained in this document.
This precious gift was given by Revered Dadaji, Dr. Dinshah K. Mehta, the Servant of Servants of God to the members and associates of the Society in the form of a Discourse at the premises of the Society at Mayfair, 34, Little Gibbs Road, Bombay-6 on July 15, 1967. The Discourse is reproduced here for the benefit of humanity.
These Seven Principles of Right Surrender have come as a revelation from the higher planes of consciousness and are a gift of God to humanity through our Society.
We now reproduce in Dadaji's own words the transcription of the Discourse on the Seven Principles of Right Surrender.
--Editor [Dr Sundri P. Vaswani].
Seven Principles of Right Surrender
THE LAW
While tuning this mind with the Mind that guides this mind at the level at which thoughts can be put in words understandable by men in general, the thought arose in this mind:
Will Divine wills to be all, through all,
Yet not all in all until ultimately. This is Law.OMNIPOTENCY OF THE DIVINE
If we examine this thought in detail, we see the omnipotency of the Divine. If the will of a creation is one with the Will Divine, the Will Divine works through the creation, but if the creation's will is contrary to the Will Divine, the Will Divine does not work through such a creation until as a last resort. Even though the Will Divine is omnipotent and omnipresent, freedom of will being a part and parcel of His creation, His Will is subservient to that of His creation except as a last resort. This is an important aspect for today's talk on the "Seven Principles of Right Surrender".
The other aspects of the Divine Will are understandable, though it is not very easy to know them by direct knowledge. Not with our human minds can we know that the Will Divine is within all of us. He is also all in all and is working out through all but not until ultimately, unless our will is in tune with His Will.
SURRENDER OF THE DIVINE
It is important for us to know that even the omnipotent Divine Will surrenders itself to the will of His creations. That Will is not all in all at a certain stage of its manifestation. It is in all, it is all, because all that is created is of and from the Divine Will; but it is not all in all. The Divine Will is not always asserting.
There is a state where even the Divine Will becomes subservient to the will of the creation. The very Divine surrenders His Will to our will! Can there be greater humility? The omnipotent Will from which all creations become, the Will which will always be omnipotent till eternity, gives us all the freedom to express our will until such time as the expression of our human will upsets the balance of the Divine Will in manifestation due to our will clashing with that manifestation. Then the Divine Will asserts; then, the omnipotency of the Divine Will must prevail. Otherwise, all creation based upon His Will would be shaken, even blasted. In the interest of the greater good, the Divine Will ultimately prevails.
This part of the Law is possible for us to understand with our human intellect which is a pin-point in the Universal Intelligence.
This is a very important lesson to learn, that even God the Omnipotent Creative Principle surrenders His Omnipotent Will to the small stupid human mind, to such a great extent that until the human will upsets the balance between His Will and the collective will, He does not assert His Will. Can we not at least take a lesson from that? What a great principle this surrender is! Are we worthy of such surrender on the part of the Divine? Nevertheless, it is so. It is the Law.
Yet, how often do we assert our will upon others, even upon the very Divine Creator, blaming Him for the suffering started by ourselves? Our suffering is a result of the human mind which wants everything the easy way. We want our own wishes and desires to be fructified in the way we like. If they do not get fructified, we blame even the Creator.
SURRENDER THE SMALL SELF TO KNOW THE DIVINE SELF
If we can understand this Law, we shall be able to appreciate what a great principle "self-surrender" is -- to surrender our small self to the Divine Self within us. In order to know the Divine Self within us, the spiritual Masters have shown the way of surrender in different ways. The principle of surrender is mentioned in every scripture -- Gita, Gatha, Bible, Koran, Buddhist scriptures.
The very first principle for one who wants to accept Buddhism is: "Buddham sharanam gachchhami" (I take refuge in the Lord Buddha). This is the most important surrender, the other two sharnams are of less importance. They are: "Sangham sharanam gachchhami" (I take refuge in the sangha of the Buddha. The sangha of the Buddha is the spiritual family of the Buddha, the sangha of the bhikshus, the real bhikshus, not those who merely claim to be bhikshus of the Buddha. Those who merely put on the Buddhist robe are not necessarily the real bhikshus. In ordinary clothes, there are people who follow the Buddha more in the spirit and the letter than many in the robe. All the same, those in the robe, particularly in the Theravada -- the Hinayana school of Buddhism -- are under some control of the higher hierarchy of the sangha in keeping with what is called the Vinaya. Such sanghas are in Thailand, Cambodia and some of their neighbouring countries to an extent, but Thailand has preserved the tradition of Theravada Hinayana. The third surrender is: "Dhammam sharanam gachchhami" (I take refuge in the teaching, the Dhamma, of the Buddha). The second and the third are subservient to the first: "I take refuge in the Buddha".
In every religion, the principle of surrender has been given a high place. In the Srimad Bhagvad Gita, Lord Krishna has shown many ways to grow towards mukti (liberation), but has given the highest value to the path of surrender. Says He: "Surrender all unto Me and I shall do the rest".
One of the many stories based on the principle of surrender is that of Draupadi told in the Mahabharat. Draupadi was being denuded in full court as a result of the conditions agreed to between the Kauravas and Pandavas in the gamble which the latter had lost. None present in the whole court could, therefore, help her, and she prayed to Lord Krishna. However, as long as she continued to cling to the last bit of her sari (dress), Lord Krishna was helpless. Ultimately, when surrendering completely to Krishna she gave up her hold on the last bit, piles of saris rushed to her rescue. Her victors found it impossible to denude