Integral Surrender to the Divine

We tend to live under the illusion that we are one being and that what we think or feel represents ‘who we are’. We accept the idea that we are dedicated to a spiritual path, or we accept the sense of devotion that we feel as representing our surrender to the Divine Will. Yet, we have different aspects of our being that may not actually carry out this dedication or surrender in their day to day activities; rather, they may act from desire, or some egoistic impulsion. We may fail to notice this variance from our deeper aspirations if we do not appreciate both the complexity and the differing motivations that occur in our physical, vital, emotional and mental beings.

Once we recognise this complexity, we can begin to attend to it, using our core aspiration as a foundation, and then reviewing the various thought-processes, emotions, feelings, sensations and reactions to ensure they are adhering to this central aspiration and consecration, and to the extent they are not, withholding our sanction of those activities and providing new and focused direction to these parts of the being to align them with the need to open to and act based on the Divine Will.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “A complete surrender is not possible in so short a time, — for a complete surrender means to cut the knot of the ego in each part of the being and offer it, free and whole, to the Divine. The mind, the vital, the physical consciousness (and even each part of these in all its movements) have one after the other to surrender separately, to vie up their own way and to accept the way of the Divine. But what one can do is to make from the beginning a central resolve and self-dedication and to implement it in whatever way one finds open, at each step, taking advantage of each occasion that offers itself to make the self-giving complete. A surrender in one direction makes others easier, more inevitable; but it does not of itself cut or loosen the other knots, and especially those which are very intimately bound up with the present personality and its most cherished formations may often present great difficulties, even after the central will has been fixed and the first seals are put on its resolve in practice.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pp. 123-124