There are a few things to understand here.
First of all, life was never meant to be a rat race. If it was so then creation or rather the creative Spirit behind it would not have revelled in variety where each creatures thrives and expresses its joy in the great adventure of life in its own way. Human beings are programmed to evolve consciously and it is this urge to go beyond their set limits that is the basis of all education and of progress. This urge however takes the form of a competitive strife when we are not conscious of its true meaning. In ignorance of the true purpose of life perhaps a strong desire, ambition, greed are the only goads to push us. For the same reason outer difficulties and challenges are placed before us to help awaken in us the spirit of evolution.
The question is if this is the whole and sole intention of nature or hidden behind this surface play of clasp and strife there is a deeper intent, a hidden meaning of which these surface renderings are incorrect inferences derived from inadequate data. In fact, if life had nothing deeper than the proposed rat race then nothing makes any sense including the rat race itself. Who would be satisfied with remaining the same forever? Whether the first rat in the race or the last one would remain the same rat forever! This would be fine if being a rat or a human for that instance was a perfect beautiful thing to be.
But such is not the case. Human life is always a mixed bag for everybody. But there is also within it an aspiration for a nobler kind, a will for a greater becoming, a faith, almost an intuition for things that are not and yet can be. While the average human being is satisfied with remaining what he inwardly is while striving to exceed outside, there are amidst us, in fact to a varying extent in all human beings the dream of a perfect life, not only in terms of what we have outside but also in terms of what we are within. It declares itself in the dream and hope of an unerring knowledge, unconditional love, true understanding, unmixed bliss, unchanging peace, invincible power. The sign of an ascending humanity is that instead of remaining tied to the surface toys one begins to strive for these higher possibilities of our own being. It is to this highest possibility of our own Self that we give the name God.
God is not just a passive Witness but also an Omniscient Omnipotent Guide and Master. To become one with Him is to share His qualities and possibilities of a greater knowledge, an enduring power, a higher form of love, an abiding joy and peace. That this is not a vain dream has been testified by mystics right through all the Ages of mankind. That this can be realized not only in individuals but larger groups of mankind as a collective evolution which has been declared by Sri Aurobindo. Not only has he shown the way but by the example of his own life and the Mother’s convinces us that this can be done here and now. Of course, the only bit that remains as an unfinished agenda if you like, is the physical conquest over death and ageing but all the rest has been abundantly shown to us by them and in the life of those who have the wisdom and faith to follow the way earnestly.
So where does surrender come in all this. Well surrender means offering our lower and lesser self to our own greater and higher Self. We call it God because He appears as a stranger too high and mighty for our limited vision just as the brain or the heart may appear to strange and mighty to a little cell in our feet that must bear all the crushing of the ground below it. Yet just as this tiniest cell is supported in all its efforts by the whole human being and must remain in harmony with the centrality of our existence, so too we as a human being must remain in a kind of centrality and aligned to this Higher Self or the True Self within us. The ego however pushes us to act as if it is separate and entirely independent of everything else. The result is what happens when a single cell begins to behave as if it is independent of the rest of the organism. It either perishes or else turns into cancer. In practice this means that the ego-self within us should surrender to our own true or grater Self rather than to the whims and fancies of the desire-self within us. By doing so we begin to ascend along the (vertical) higher grades of our unfinished human evolution. The result is that we become better and better humanity util one day we break out from the human barrier into the utter infinity of the Divine Existence and its greater possibilities. On the other hand, if we remain bound to the desire self and its endless circles of ambition and greed and lusts then we stay chained to what we are and inwardly where we are. Thankfully however nature does not allow this for long. Initially she tries to push us through subtler ways and means but when we do not heed her promptings then she often uses harder methods which get translated into the stuff of our ego as pleasure and pain, suffering and struggle.
Of course, one can look at surrender in a very practical way as well. If we wish to learn something, do we not submit to a teacher in whom we trust, someone who has a greater knowledge of the subject and knows all its finer details that no book can mention. If we undertake a difficult journey through unknown terrains, is it not more logical to get in touch with someone who knows the way and has been there? Here comes the value of surrender to a Master who looks like us but inwardly is much more than us. To this the heart endowed with faith adds that since I have handed over my difficulties, my being, my destiny to the Divine Master, whether embodied in a human Guru or an Avatar or within, He will carry me through all the troubled isles and stormy seas. Even if I fail or seem to fail, he knows the way and has the strength to pull me through everything. It is this faith that is the living core of surrender, a faith that is justified by all who have walked the way. Surely surrender cannot be forced. It has to be a glad and living choice, a conscious handing over of ourselves to the Divine and not a religious code or a ritual enforced by a common religious dogma. Though even when done thus it can bring miraculous results since the Divine within knows us and uses any little means of support within to reach out and help and to succour the soul struggling through the haze and maze of our life in ignorance.
Love
Alok da
