How to Surrender?
Acharya Prashant: So, you are asking, ‘How to surrender’?
If I say you can surrender by jumping from that hill top, you won’t take the advice, right? It would be foolish advice if I say that. If I say, you can surrender by jumping into leaping flames, that is again an advice that you won’t take and would sound foolish coming from me.
We are discussing the question of ‘how to’ – how to surrender? So, this how to can obviously be nothing that you cannot do. Or that which you would not do. When you ask how to surrender, you are surely asking for a method that is acceptable to you . If I say you can surrender by jumping from the hilltop, this may be a method, but you will not use this method because this won’t be acceptable to you. So even when we are asking for methods, we are asking for methods that are..?
Questioners: (In unison) Acceptable to us.
Acharya Prashant: Acceptable to us. Who is this ‘me’ that will decide on the acceptability? Who is this ‘me’? This ‘me’ is ‘you’. This ‘me’ is exactly the ‘you’ that you want to get rid off by surrendering. So you are saying ‘I want to surrender the self by using methods that are acceptable to the self’. Now, such methods, will they be helpful in surrendering or will they rather continue the self? But that is what is so wrong with all methods of surrender and meditation. You will only choose the method that is acceptable to you and is thereby acceptable to your ego. There are so many methods, right sir? We all love particular methods, we say it is my personal choice to meditate using this method and that method.
Have you ever gone into why you choose a particular method? And why wouldn't you choose the method of jumping from the hill-top? That is a method! And I am assuring you, it is a very powerful method.
(Laughter)
Questioner 1: It is taking risks.
Acharya Prashant: It is a risk, of course! (Sarcastically) Have tried it many times.
(Laughter)
Acharya Prashant: It’s a very nice method. But, would you try it? You won’t try it because you don’t like it. You would only try something that you personally like. And this person that likes and dislikes is exactly the one who needs to be surrendered.So can there be a ‘how to’ involved? Can there be a ‘how to’?
Just Surrender.
Surrender is not an art. It is not a skill. It is not a task. It is this: when you spoke, I surrendered to you.
Only by surrendering to your question could I listen to what your heart is asking. And when I speak, you have to surrender to me to really know what is coming through me, that is surrender — easy, simple, obvious; so damn straight forward.
Surrender is not something exotic. Not something far-fledged. Not something there (pointing towards the sky) in some other galaxy.
This is surrender.
Surrender.
Right now, you are in surrender. And when you speak, I must listen in surrender. And when I speak, I must speak in surrender. Surrender just means that the person who likes and dislikes is not too important for me. I can take her a little casually. I can treat her almost like a joke. So, when I speak to you, there is a person here who is reminding me of the breakfast, but right now, the movement towards breakfast is…surrendered.
The fellow who is asking for food cannot be taken seriously. This is surrender. So as you will climb to the hill-top this afternoon, you jump, there would be a person within you who would be saying don’t do that, you might get a, just a little hurt. You know, a few injuries here. You should not take her very seriously.
Just go and jump.
Are you getting it?
That is surrender.
Don’t be so particular about what you have been doing. Don’t be so adamant about what you will do. Let things happen.
Let things happen.
The person is a dictator. He says ‘No! I know everything. I will decide.’ You have to sometimes, you know, pinch the dictator behind and run away. He will get furious. But then you can hide under the bed and do something; when he has forgotten and he is again busy with his dictatorship, you can again pinch him in the back and again run away.
(Laughter)
That is all the respect that the person deserves. You don’t need to kill him. You only need to pinch him a little.
