Yoga of Surrender-TWO

by Swami Sivananda

Give up egoism and throw your whole burden of anxieties on the Lord. Do total self-surrender to Him. You will attain His grace. He will take care of you completely in all ways.

In difficulties and struggles, God will give you strength and inner peace to bear them. This is His grace.

Constant remembrance of the Lord, constant recitation of His Name will fill your heart with Sattva or purity and immense strength and peace to face the most trying conditions with perfect calmness and serenity.

Have perfect trust in God. Do total surrender unto Him. Place yourself in His loving care. Do this with your whole heart and mind, with perfect confidence and faith. Worry not about your future, about money, about your health. He will take care of you. You will have plenty, immense strength and wonderful health.

Repeat this formula very often with intense faith: The Lord is my strength, my support and stay. You will derive strength, power and peace.

After surrendering to the Lord, do not grumble if you get difficulties and troubles. This goes against self-surrender.

God knows what is best for you. He does what is best for you. His ways are mysterious. Know His mysterious ways and become wise.

Egoism and desire are obstacles to self-surrender. Slay these two enemies of self-surrender ruthlessly.

You may accuse Him now and say: He is not just. He is cruel. He has no eyes. Vicious persons are thriving well in the world. I am virtuous and I suffer. There is no God. Later on you will realise that He has done the best thing for you.

Do not pray to the Lord for removal of sufferings. Pray to Him for granting you power of endurance and patience to bear the calamity.

A devotee remains unaffected by adversities, trials and tribulations. He knows and feels that they are all Karmic purgations and are the real messengers of God; he welcomes them calmly.

A devotee alone gets troubles and adversities, because this is his last birth; many Karmas have to be worked out and he must be united with the Lord in this very birth.

He gives immense patience and strength to His devotee to bear troubles and calamities. The devotee is ever calm and cheerful. He is not in the least affected by them as his mind ever dwells in the contemplation of the Lord. He has no body-consciousness.

Murmur not, grumble not. Even a leaf cannot move without the Will of God. What is destined to take place as willed by God, takes place. Face every difficulty and the battle of life with a smile patiently and heroically. Become a brave soldier. Become an Adhyatmic hero.

Troubles and difficulties come to intensify your faith, to strenghten your will and power of endurance and turn your mind more and more towards God.

Pain is a great eye-opener. It is your silent teacher. It is the only best thing in the world. It will make you remember God. Kunti prayed: O God! Lord Krishna! Give me pain always, so that I may ever remember You.

The more troubles and adversities you get, the stronger and firmer will become your faith in God. The worst troubles and adversities that come to you have the greatest purpose and meaning in them. They will mould you into a divine being. Welcome them and say: I am Thine, all is Thine, Thy Will be done, my Lord.

Approach the Lord with Sarva-Bhava with all your heart, mind and soul, with your whole being. Do not keep any reservation. Do not keep any secret gratification. The mind, Chitta, intellect and the ego should all agree to surrender wholly. You will be supremely blessed. You will obtain His full grace.

Prahlada, Mira and Sakku Bai were tortured in various ways. But the Lord gave them strength and peace. They did not feel torture even a bit. He gave them Darshan and blessed them.

Lord’s grace is in proportion to the degree of self-surrender. The more the surrender, the more is His grace.

Yoga of Surrender-TWO – Devotion, Letting Go, and Inner Freedom

Yoga of Surrender-TWO is a sacred path that teaches the seeker how to offer the ego, desires, fears, actions, and results to the Divine. Surrender does not mean weakness, laziness, or escape from responsibility. It means living with faith, doing one’s duty sincerely, and accepting life with trust in a higher wisdom. When surrender becomes sincere, the burden of ego slowly becomes lighter.

The ordinary mind wants to control everything. It wants success without failure, pleasure without pain, praise without criticism, and security without uncertainty. But life does not always move according to personal desire. When the mind resists every change, suffering increases. Surrender teaches the seeker to act wisely while inwardly remaining peaceful and open to divine guidance.

Yoga of Surrender-TWO begins with humility. The ego says, “I am the doer, I am the controller, I know everything.” Humility says, “I will do my best, but the final result belongs to the Divine.” This attitude does not reduce effort. In fact, it purifies effort. The seeker works with sincerity, but without anxiety, pride, or selfish expectation.

Surrender also requires trust. A person may not understand why certain events happen, why difficulties arise, or why prayers are not answered immediately. Faith does not always remove problems, but it gives strength to pass through them. The surrendered heart believes that even struggle can become a teacher and that grace can work silently behind visible circumstances.

Yoga of Surrender-TWO is closely connected with devotion. Prayer, mantra repetition, worship, and remembrance of God soften the heart and reduce inner resistance. When love for the Divine grows, the seeker does not feel alone. The mind begins to depend less on outer support and more on inner faith. Devotion turns surrender from a dry idea into a living experience.

The biggest obstacle is ego. The ego wants recognition, control, superiority, and personal importance. It becomes hurt when ignored, angry when opposed, and proud when praised. Surrender weakens this false centre. The seeker learns to offer success, failure, praise, blame, joy, and sorrow to the Divine. Slowly, the heart becomes simpler and freer.

True surrender does not mean giving up action. A surrendered person may work hard, serve others, fulfill duties, study, meditate, and take practical decisions. The difference is inner attitude. Work is done as worship, not as ego-display. Duty is performed as offering, not as bondage. Results are accepted with balance, not with agitation.

Yoga of Surrender-TWO also teaches freedom from excessive worry. Worry comes when the mind imagines that everything depends only on personal power. Surrender reminds the seeker that human effort is necessary, but grace is also real. Do what is right, prepare carefully, speak truthfully, serve sincerely, and then leave the result to the Divine will.

Surrender helps in relationships. Many conflicts arise because people want others to behave exactly according to their expectations. When surrender deepens, the seeker becomes less demanding and more compassionate. One still practices wisdom and sets healthy boundaries, but the heart becomes softer. Forgiveness becomes easier, and the need to control others becomes weaker.

This path also requires self-examination. Ask yourself: Am I surrendering, or am I only escaping effort? Am I accepting God’s will, or am I hiding behind passivity? Am I offering my actions, or am I secretly demanding certain results? Such honest questioning protects surrender from becoming weakness or self-deception.

Yoga of Surrender-TWO becomes practical in daily life. Begin the day with prayer. Offer your work before starting it. Remember the Divine during difficulty. Repeat the mantra when anxiety rises. Accept success with gratitude and failure with patience. Before sleep, offer the whole day—its mistakes, efforts, joys, and struggles—to the Divine presence.

The surrendered seeker becomes peaceful because they no longer carry life alone. This does not remove all pain, but it changes the way pain is experienced. Instead of asking only, “Why did this happen to me?” the seeker asks, “What can I learn? How can I grow? How can I remain connected with the Divine through this?” Such an attitude transforms suffering into spiritual practice.

Surrender and wisdom support each other. Wisdom teaches that the individual ego is limited, while the Divine reality is vast. Surrender allows the heart to accept this truth lovingly. The seeker gradually understands that personal will becomes purified when aligned with divine will. Then life becomes less selfish and more sacred.

In the end, Yoga of Surrender-TWO is the path of offering the ego into the hands of the Divine. Through humility, devotion, prayer, selfless action, trust, patience, and constant remembrance, the seeker becomes free from anxiety and pride. Surrender brings peace to the mind, purity to the heart, strength in difficulty, and steady progress toward spiritual freedom.

Precepts for Practice of Mind Control