Talk:Sharaṇāgati - Everything is the will of God

By Vishal Agarwal

Sharaṇāgati - Everything is the will of God

The Bhakta Yogī surrenders completely to the Divine Will and accepts whatever comes his way in life, sorrows or happiness, death or life, luxury or poverty, fame or disgrace – as a Divine Gift. He places his very life in His hands with full commitment and focus (Īshvara-Prāṇidhāna) believing that only the Lord can save oneself because we are weak, helpless, incapable and sinful. He never complains to Bhagavān. Other than the Lord, there is no hope for deliverance in this Saṃsāra. The following verses of Bhagavad Gita illustrate this quality of the Bhakti Yogī –

Krishna said: Bhārata, seek refuge in Him alone with your whole being. By His grace, you shall obtain supreme peace and eternal abode. Gita 18.62 Fix your mind on Me, be devoted to Me, worship Me, and make reverence (bow) to Me. In this way, you shall truly come to Me. I promise you, because you are dear to Me. Gita 18.65 Abandoning all dharmas completely, take refuge in Me alone. I shall liberate you from all evils, do not grieve. Gita 18.66

The verse 18.66 is regarded as the ‘charama shloka’ of the Bhagavad Gita by several Hindus (especially those who follow the teachings of Shri Ramanujacharya) because of two reasons. First, it is believed to represent the ‘highest teaching’ of the Gita. And second, it is the final or the last teaching of Krishna to Arjuna in the scripture. In the tradition of Advaita Vedānta, the commentary of Shankaracharya, though not calling out this verse as the ‘charama shloka’, nevertheless exalts a similar verse (Gita 11.55) and calls it to be the epitome of Gita’s entire teaching. When the entire Gita is chanted, it is a popular practice to chant only this verse thrice, to indicate its exalted status. If this verse is read in its context, it appears that Krishna is describing the Bhakti Yogī, who is no longer dependent on the dictates of Dharma in doing his duty OR in refraining from doing adharma. This supreme Bhakta, who has complete surrendered his ātman, his intellect, his mind – his entire being, to Bhagavān, becomes an agent or instrument of the Divine Will. Whatever he does is not due to his own resolve, or driven by his ego. Instead, all the actions of this supreme Bhakta’s actions are but a manifestation of the Divine Will. He surrenders his inner being to the Internal Ruler, the Lord. He approaches the Lord as his only Goal and object of worship, accepts the Lord alone as the dispenser of the results and accepts whatever results he begets in his life as a gift from the Lord. Such a person transcends Dharma, because his entire being has become the embodiment of Brahman, Who is the very source and the upholder of Dharma. Therefore, nothing that this Bhakta does can ever violate Dharma whether we ordinary mortals see it that way or not, and no action performed by him will bear any fruit that adds to his reservoir of karmaphala. Furthermore, Krishna assures that such a Bhakta does not have fear or worry about the possibility of doing anything that is evil, or of reaping the results of his karma. This is because the supreme Bhakta is already saturated with the purity of the Divine, and is completely untainted by human frailties. Even if he does a karma that is sinful or mixed in nature, Bhagavān will free us of the fruit of these actions.

The following verse highlights the conviction of the Bhakti Yogī that only Paramātmā can provide true peace and happiness. Therefore, it is only He that we must resort to as our refuge-

In this world there are ready remedies given for sorrows and sufferings. But they often fail, or their effects are of short duration in the case of those who have been abandoned by You. For it is seen that a father may fail to give shelter to a child, a medicine can fail to cure an ailment, and a boat may fail to serve a man drowning in the sea. And he whom You have forsaken has no shelter. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 7.9.19

The Bhakti Yogī accepts completely to the good or bad things that happen in his life and takes them as gifts from the Lord-

I know of no one except Krishna as my Lord, and He will always remain my Lord, even if He handles me roughly by His embrace or makes me broken-hearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything and everything, for I will forever worship him unconditionally. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s last prayer Rishi Nārada too declares-

The Bhakti Yogī has no reason to worry himself over the miseries of the world because he has surrendered his own self, the world as well as the Vedas to the Lord. Nārada Bhakti Sūtra 61

In fact, he embraces challenges and sorrows in life as if they accelerate the burndown of evil Karma and hasten the journey towards Moksha-

Father, I desire Moksha. Therefore, may I become one with you and may I not be reborn in this world again. When I am dying, may my intellect constantly dwell on you. May I always remain devoted to you and may I always seek refuge in you. May I constantly remember you. Due to evil karma that I have committed in my past lives, may various kinds of illness torment my body and different sorrows afflict me so that I get freed of the fruit of all my evil karma. Lord, I have remembered you so that I am not reborn. Therefore, I request again that the fruit of all my past karma gets exhausted, and may I not owe a debt to anyone. Whatever karma I have done in my previous lives, may their fruit take the form of various diseases and dwell in my body because I want to shake off all my karmic debts and attain the supreme abode of Vishnu. Mahābhārata (Southern recension) 12.209

Monkeys and Cats (Markata-Mārjara Bhāva):

In the Vishishtadvaita Vedānta tradition, two modes of complete surrender to the Lord are discussed and these constitute two viewpoints.

According to the first viewpoint, the ideal Bhakti Yogī clasps with his own conscious effort onto the Lord as the baby monkey holds onto his mother-

“…..The baby monkey clutches the stomach of the mother and holds it with the forepaws and the legs. It holds her entire body, hanging underneath. The mother monkey does not even worry about the baby. She just jumps from branch to branch. It is the baby’s duty to cling to the mother. Whenever the baby wants to go somewhere, all it has to do is to take hold of the mother and then the mother jumps. When the mother jumps from branch to branch, who has the fear of falling down? The baby. It is depending upon its mother, no doubt, but it still depends on its own strength. So also this type of devotee feels, “God, I won’t leave You. I am holding on tight.””

According to the second, the devotee who surrenders to the Lord like a kitten doesn’t have to apply any effort and surrenders to the mother cat. This is described as follows-

“There is another animal that also depends on its mother for movement – the kitten. Whenever the kitten wants to move, all it has to do is meow. The mother comes, picks it up by the back of the neck, and jumps here and there. When the mother jumps with the baby, who has the fear of dropping the baby? The mother.”

The difference in the two viewpoints is also summarized in the following words,

“Both the baby monkey and the kitten depend upon their mothers for their movement. But in the first case, the anxiety is in the heart of the baby monkey whereas with the cat, the responsibility rests with the mother. The kitten is totally free. Some devotees are of this type. Their surrender is absolute.”

An important feature of complete surrender is the merger of the Bhakta Yogī’s identity with that of the Lord. “One who wants to retain his separateness as an individual cannot make a real self-surrender; his so-called surrender with that reservation does not destroy his ego-sense.

Once, a young man came to Ramana Maharshi in a disordered state of mind. He believed he had had a vision of God, in which he was promised great things if he surrendered himself. He said he had done so, but that God failed to carry out His promise. He demanded the Maharshi: “Show me God and I shall chop off His head, or let him chop off my head.” Maharshi asked someone to read from a Tamil commentary on his own writings, and then made this remark: “ If the surrender is real, then who is there remaining and able to question God’s doings?” The young man’s eyes were opened; he acknowledged that it was his own mistake and went away pacified. Self-surrender must be without any reservations and without conditions; there is no room in it for bargaining.”

Some stories below illustrate the concept of Sharaṇāgati.

Story: Rama and the Frog.

This story illustrates the Bhakti Yogī’s greatest sorrows as Divine Will that must be embraced cheerfully.

“When Rama and Lakshmana went to take their bath in Pampa Lake, they thrust their bows into the ground. Coming out of water, Lakshmana took out his bow and found its tip stained with blood. Rama said to him: ‘Look, brother! Look. Perhaps we have hurt some creature.” Lakshmana dug in the earth and found a big bull frog. It was dying. Rama said in a sorrowful voice: “Why didn’t you croak? We should have tried to save you. You croak a lot when you are in the jaws of a snake.” The frog said: “O Lord, when I am attacked by a snake I croak saying: ‘O Rama, save me!’ This time I found that it was Rama Himself who was killing me; so I have kept still.””

Story: Accepting the Massacre of the Mahābhārata War as Divine Will

Before the Mahābhārata war started, all the major kings of the Indian subcontinent decided to align either with the Pandavas or the Kauravas – the two warring sides. But, the King of Udipi took an interesting decision and said to Krishna, “I will neither join the Pandavas nor the Kauravas. Instead, I will use my resources to feed the surviving soldiers of both the armies at the end of every day of the war.” Krishna was really pleased to hear the Udipi King’s decision and blessed him with Divine vision. Every morning, he would order his assistants to cook food for an exact number of soldiers. At night, he would serve food to Krishna and King Yudhishthira with his own hand. Interestingly, he served a pudding containing peanuts to Krishna every night and watched him eat the desert carefully. After a few days, the Pandavas realized that the food cooked at the orders of the Udipi King was sufficient every night. They were perplexed and went to Krishna with the question, “Bhagavān, we have a doubt about the abilities of the King of Udipi. No one can predict how many soldiers die every day, and there are millions of them fighting this war. Then how is it that the food cooked every day turns out to be sufficient, and no soldier goes hungry?” Krishna replied, “Why don’t we ask our generous host?”

They all went to the King of Udipi and asked for the secret of how he ensured that the quantity of food ordered for being cooked each day was always sufficient, and never less than needed. His replied, “I serve the peanut pudding to Krishna with my own hands every night, and watch him eat it. I estimate how many peanuts in the putting he ate, and then multiply it by 1000 to calculate the number of soldiers who will die the next day. This has been a secret between Bhagavān and myself from the first day.”

The Pandavas were surprised at the answer. They appreciated the honesty and the hospitality of the King of Udipi and said, “You have truly understood the greatness of Bhagavān. Every day after fighting the battle for the day, we get bloated with pride on how many enemy warriors each one of us had killed. But the truth is that it is Bhagavān whose will decides who and how many will die or live each moment. Our fighting is a mere show. All of our experiences are designed by Him to make us grow spiritually and become perfect. And yet, looking at our successes which are really so little in the larger scheme of things, we become proud of our achievements, forgetting that it is all the grace of Bhagavān.”

Story: The True Spiritual Aspirant “Once Buddha asked Sariputta, one of his most brilliant disciples, …. “Well monk, does not life burden you and don’t you like to be released by death? Or, does living fascinate you, because there is a noble mission to fulfill?” Sariputta replied, “Venerable Teacher, I desire not life. I desire not death. I wait until my hour shall come, like a servant that waits for his wages.” ….Even so should be the attitude of an aspirant. He has nothing to fulfill of his own, since his life is a fulfilment of the will of God. Even the desire to be born again in order to foster a worthy spiritual mission should find no place in him. For, does not God know better as to whom to send as His messenger to this world?”