There is an amazing power and mystery in surrender. Most fear it. Most believe that if you surrender you diminish yourself and become a slave to another. But that depends upon whom you surrender to and your understanding of what it means to surrender.

When you surrender, you lose one part of yourself and become the one you surrender to. If you surrender to God, you become God. If you surrender to an enlightened master, you become an enlightened master. You do lose a part of yourself. What you lose is your ego, your smallness. You surrender your small sense of self and gain the universal Self.

How many ways do you surrender now? You surrender to partying, drinking, worldly life, constantly thinking, wasting your Shakti, and losing your peace. You do not hesitate to surrender to your senses, your cravings and the judgments and suspicions of the monkey mind. And, in that, you gain bondage, exhaustion and limitation. When you surrender to the universal you absorb vastness.

It is important to understand what you are surrendering to. If you are surrendering to a true enlightened master, you are not surrendering to an individual. You are surrendering to the universal consciousness and energy that that enlightened master is. In effect, you are surrendering to the Shakti and Presence that is your own Self. That Presence and Energy is within you, hidden, and your surrender to That is your most powerful opening to revealing That which is within. It is your Shakti, your Awareness, Energy and Power, that is God and that is the enlightened master and your Self. When you surrender to That you become That.

Surrender is the most powerful way to attain God and know your Self. As separation begins to ease, surrender will become more easily entered into. Non-surrender is ego. It is the small, bound self. In holding onto a small sense of individuality you miss the possibility of truly honoring all that you are, unbounded, universal consciousness and power.

For some surrender has become impossible because you hold yourself with unworthiness and un-lovability. Surrender begins with Self-love, Self-compassion. Then the idea of surrendering to what is within will be possible. You are never surrendering to something new, or something other. Surrender is recognizing the God in the enlightened master and the God within you. It is recognizing that surrender is losing your small self in God, and God is within you, as you.

In surrender you are taking refuge in the universal love, compassion and grace of God. It has nothing to do with submitting to another person. It is not about giving up your power or position and becoming subservient. It is about acceptance. If you accept love, you will receive it. If you accept compassion, you will receive it. If you accept grace, you will receive it. Surrender is acceptance. It is opening to receive.

To draw God’s grace, give yourself completely to God. In giving yourself completely you can receive completely. When you hold the thought of God, when you hold the Shakti of God, when you follow the love and compassion of God, you imbibe those qualities. When you follow the practices and disciplines of an enlightened master you become the love and compassion.

So why do you fear surrender? You do not trust. Maybe the one you thought was enlightened disappointed you. Maybe God did not answer your prayer. Trust your Self. Allow trust to grow, little by little. Allow your individuality to become universal little by little. The death of the ego is your greatest fear. And the ego, as you know it now, must die to gain the universal. But it is not really death. It is the small and limited becoming everything.

You think you are the doer. You think you cause and control your life. You do not want to give up control and doing. But it is God who acts and God who sends all that is in your life. Holding onto your small sense of ego dis-allows receiving. Surrendering opens you to receiving. You can only be where God puts you. You can only have what God sends you. You can only receive what you allow. When you surrender to God, you become God’s responsibility and all that you are is turned over to God.

When you go to the temple and worship God it is not God that benefits. You experience the love and contentment that worship arouses. That is because in worshiping God or the enlightened master, you are worshiping your Self and recognizing the Self. God, the master and You are the same. In worship and surrender you are allowing the small river to flow into the ocean, and then you become the ocean.

It is surrender that ends your bondage. When you love God, when you love the enlightened ones, when you love your Self, you end separateness. Lose yourself in the Self. Lose yourself in God and the enlightened ones. Allow the seed to be destroyed and become the tree with its fruit that feeds the world. Don’t you lose the waking state to gain sleep and lose sleep to gain the waking state? Don’t you lose darkness to gain the light? Maybe at times you surrendered yourself to loving a child or a pet or nature and that benefitted you. Maybe you surrendered yourself to anger and became anger. That didn’t benefit you. What would happen if you surrendered yourself to God and became God?

Learn to trust. Your lack of trust stems from lack of Self-trust. It is not that you need trust the outside world. Trust your Self. The Self is the real God. That Presence, that awareness, that consciousness is God. You trust your doctor’s medicine. You trust your hairdresser even when they yield a razor next to your neck. You trust the restaurant’s food. But you do not fully trust your Self. That Self-distrust is reflected outwardly onto the world. It arises from your confusion about who you are. You believe you are less than, a sinner, one who makes mistakes, and one who fails. Go within and realize you are God, the Self, the purest Presence and Shakti. Then the truth will be revealed and full trust will arise.

Have faith in the Absolute. Have trust in your highest Self. The mother wants to feed her child but sometimes the child closes his mouth and will not receive. God wants to give you God’s grace but you must be open to receive. Surrender is you releasing your control and allowing yourself to receive. When you open to God’s grace you receive all of God’s grace. Then your journey ends in God. God is in you. God has become you. You are sufficient in your Godhood. Trust that. Surrender to God, to your Self, to the Presence and Power that lies within. Then there is revelation.