Even while acknowledging Her grace and presence, prolonged difficulty wears away hope, breeding pessimism and the fear that life will remain an endless test. Is letting go from exhaustion a form of true surrender, or merely resignation masquerading as it? How does one navigate this creeping hopelessness and surrender truly, without being crushed by unfulfilled expectations?
The problem here is not of surrender but of faith and trust in the Divine. When faith depends upon certain expectations, then it is more of a vital faith that can easily get disturbed when life does not flow according to our expectations. At that time we must bring in or awaken a still deeper faith, a faith that is consistent with reason as well as with common sense that the Divine knows better than what we do. And if something has been denied to us, then it must be for our good. We may not see it now, or perhaps we may not be able to see it at all, but the Divine knows it and has done whatever He does for our good. This good may not be the good as I want it to be, but the good as the Divine sees in His all-wise vision. After all, we see only a fraction of the surfaces of life, whereas He knows our past as well as the future.ย
This faith is also the basis of true surrender, for it means that I give myself to The Divine so that His Will (and not mine) be fulfilled. This is the spirit of surrender that I belong to the Divine and give myself to Him with complete faith. Let Him do with me as He Wills since He knows best what is good for me. He will surely take me to the Divine Goal through everything, the difficulties of the way notwithstanding.
Read the lives of the great ones, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and see how the Divine prepared those who had the faith and surrender to be His channels and instruments for His Work.
Affectionately,ย
Alok da
