Surrendering to success

Success lies in gauging the true purpose of free will and being able to surrender oneself to God, says AJIT KUMAR BISHNOI

The Pandavas were invited by the Kauravas for gambling. Yudhisthira — the eldest Pandava had a weakness for this, because he had convinced himself about his expertise in gambling. Due to this overconfidence, he even agreed that Shakuni could throw dice for Duryodhana — the eldest Kaurava, and Shakuni was a proven master in this activity. It was no wonder that the Kauravas began to win. Still, Yudhisthira did not give up. He kept on staking his kingdom, brothers, etc. After losing all, he staked Draupadi and lost her. Draupadi was dragged to the assembly hall. Dushashan tried to disrobe her on the instruction of Duryodhana. No one came to her rescue. Draupadi did not need anyone’s help; she was fully surrendered to Lord Krishna. She called for His help and the Lord came and saved her honour. God never disappoints those who have taken His shelter. Such is the cosmic design.

What is this surrender? This is to realize that we, souls, are very small and quite helpless. We need help from God and others in order to even exist. A newly born child’s example will suffice, though there is a difference between that dependency and taking shelter of God. One is forced in the child’s case and the other is intentional exercising of one’s freewill; God never forces anyone to surrender to Him. If He did, He will effectively take away our freewill, which establishes our identity as an independent soul.

Then, how does one really surrender to God. The following facts will help in making such a decision. God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. He is forever willing to help those who surrender to Him. Nothing exists separate from Him. We also are very much living in Him — His universal form — the creation. One must begin to believe that God exists, and He is not just a concept having been floated around. This is the difficult part. If one doesn’t have faith that God exists, then, whom do you surrender to? One is not going to put one’s trust in some concept. It may take a long time before one realizes the reality of God.

Once someone reaches that stage, he or she derives enormous benefits. God reveals Himself more and more, which helps in building faith in Him. One will be attracted to study the instructions given by God during His incarnations. Not only that, one will be motivated to follow those instructions and begin to derive many benefits, because such instructions reveal to us the ultimate truth. And one who does so becomes dear to God; he or she gets all kinds of encouragement and help from God.

One who takes refuge in God is able to transcend the very difficult ‘maya’ — the force which bemuses us and distracts us from the right path. Without God’s help,  maya will make us see everything upside down, i.e. what appears good for us is not and vice-versa. One gradually becomes free of sins. As very small entities, we are always susceptible to make mistakes. These bring us adversities or punishments. Those who have taken shelter of God become wise and do not sin anymore, thus they, over the years, become free from sins. Surely, their life becomes more pleasant. Not that one will not have bodily changes or diseases but these will affect less.

At some point, one attains the eternal imperishable state by God’s grace, ie liberation. I have been saving one benefit, which really affects our lives more than anything and that is supreme peace, which we get when we are well and truly surrendered to God. This is unlike being quiet for some time. It is the feeling of being in control over oneself. Mental health of such persons is exceptional. Such sound mental health also contributes to good physical health. There is no limit to what all one can achieve; such human life becomes one success story.

Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reached at spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com