Baba says, ‘there should be no ego in surrendering yourself‘. You have died alive but you first need to become pure.

Many souls think that surrendering physical wealth and assets and living in the ashram is surrender. Some even have arrogance about it, a kind of ‘holier than thou’ attitude based on a very misplaced belief that they are somehow more spiritual or closer to God than the rest of the world…’the lesser mortals’.

Baba quickly busts that whole myth: ‘don’t think that because you surrendered everything, you will receive a crown‘, He says. You still have to make effort to become pure.

This is a study, Baba reminds us every day. There are many in the world that also surrender their time and wealth for various causes or even become recluses. That doesn’t get them a right to the inheritance. Only those children who become pure by following the Father’s Shrimat receive the inheritance – of sovereignty. It doesn’t matter where you live- at home, in the ashram, which country…the geography is the mind and intellect, it’s not out there.

So, who can be called completely surrendered?

Baba says, those who have truly surrendered their body, mind, wealth, relationships and time. If I have surrendered my mind, I cannot use it without Shrimat. While it’s easier to use the body and wealth according to Shrimat, it’s harder with the mind. The stage where the mind does not create even one thought without Shrimat is called surrender. This is manmanabhav….the fundamental Shrimat that Baba gives me which literally translates into: belong to Me in your mind.

If the mind is completely surrendered, then it becomes easy to direct my body, wealth, relationships and time towards the One. Surrendering the mind can sound scary when not understood properly- it doesn’t mean blind obedience. Rather, it means to surrender the useless things that overwhelm me, that weaken me… to surrender the wasteful and vicious thoughts. This is the sign of a complete moth- the one that sacrifices itself to the Flame, this is what is dying alive.

When I am completely surrendered with my mind, I think thoughts that are elevated, I imbibe divine virtues, I am constantly working on moving the Father’s task of world transformation along. I have let go the old ways and patterns. But often the body consciousness of half a cycle does not leave that easily, it comes back and interferes in Baba’s Shrimat in the form of dictates of my own mind. And so the mind oscillates between different stages or awareness. It then gets caught in the ‘will this happen or that happen?’, ‘I don’t know what will happen..’ etc.

Complete surrender means I surrender my burden, my heaviness and become light. This requires a lot of courage and the first step of courage is surrender. Brahma Baba imbibed this lesson 200%- he surrendered himself completely and became the first angel.

With one strength and one support, he had faith in the intellect and became the #1 victorious soul. Because of this surrender, his intellect was always light. He didn’t have any burden on his intellect. His mind was carefree. On his face, one always saw the clear signs of a carefree emperor. Even under the most trying circumstances, he remained cheerful and unshakable. ‘This is the Father’s responsibility, not mine.  I belong to the Father and the children also belong to the Father. I am just an instrument’, he maintained. Only a soul who is surrendered with his mind and intellect can remain carefree. Brahma baba did not use his intellect, thinking, ‘I don’t know what is going to happen…’, he always had powerful thoughts: ‘The Father is always the Protector and the Benefactor’. This is the specialty of surrender. This is known as not having questions, not taking the crooked path, but always putting the full-stop of benefit.  Full-stop!  With this method, life becomes easy and I attain success. Becoming free from the burden of worry is not just surrender, it is giving the return of love by trusting the Father.

By having the aim of total surrender, Brahma baba became perfect. Often, we misunderstand ‘perfection’ and think about it in body conscious terms – we become ‘perfectionists’ instead. Becoming perfect means to be complete, to be free from needs, desires, dependencies. It means I have realized who I am, my innate nature, powers and qualities. I have realized that I already have all that I need within me, I have accepted the truth that I belong to the Father, that I am His child. I have accepted my part in the Drama – to be an angel. This is called becoming perfect, a sovereign.

‘Become sensible’, says Baba. Become soul conscious. I become perfect, I become sensible to the extent that I surrender. In addition to surrendering my thoughts, words, actions, that is, making them pure, I also need to surrender my relationships and wealth.

Which relationship- the one between the soul and the body. For half a cycle, I have held on to various identities associated with body consciousness with a clenched fist. Now, I surrender all the masks, the labels, the boxes – some fabricated by myself and some by others: ‘do this and you will be a good person’, ‘be this and you will belong’. Letting go of this is surrender. ‘Consider yourself a point of light and remember Me alone’, He says, ‘then you will continue to receive power from the Almighty Authority’.

Surrendering perishable wealth is not a big thing, but imperishable wealth is. Brahma baba surrendered the attainment of happiness, peace, purity, love and bliss – his inheritance, his birthright- in the service of other souls. He felt that peace for himself lay in the peace of the children. So he gave. This is what it means to surrender Godly wealth while staying in the stage of a detached observer. This is what it means to be a great donor and to have pure thoughts for others…no matter what. This is what it means to be stable in my own self-worth.

There is such a vast, unlimited significance in the word, ‘surrender’….let me not limit my understanding of it, let me not make it ordinary. Let me instead imbibe it to such an unlimited extent that I become an image of true success and true perfection. That is the mark of true and complete surrender.