Do you trust your mind more than Existence? Do you believe your future possibilities more than your past failures?
For some people, trust comes easily without much struggle, but for some, trust can be an enormously frightening word to them due to some past hangovers. Your ability to trust life and take a leap of faith into the Unknown is the biggest test in life. The truth is without trust, we can never surrender the cunning mind.
See, if you observe your pet dog, you will find that even if you cheat him once in a while, he will come back to you with utmost trust. His trust is absolute and innocent. The trust comes without reason. He has no questions; he sees no utility in anything. He just exists like an open book, that’s all. The same thing happens in children with innocence.
According to Bhagawan Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam, a living Avatar (fondly known as Swamiji), he says that it is only innocence that is capable of taking the leap into trust and surrender to a higher force which is more intelligent than your mind. With the mind, intellectual knowledge somehow sees utility in everything. It looks for reason in everything. However, you should know that surrender with trust and reason are mutually exclusive. Surrender is to do with trust. Surrender is possible only out of innocence, because out of innocence arises trust. With trust arises acceptance as well. Acceptance does not mean compromising to life, situations and persons. It means welcoming life and all its forms as a wonderful gift from Existence. Each person or situation is a fresh happening at every moment and our ability to accept the happening as it is at a deep level is surrender. People and situations have to be handled with the required tact and sensitivity. But the spontaneous and deep acceptance of the moment is surrender. Acceptance is the deep humility towards the profound Existence that takes care of everything including you. It is like saying a big ‘YES’ to Existence. When you say ‘YES’, you are acknowledging the presence of the all-pervading life force that is conducting this universe. That is surrender.
As a part of my volunteering service, I work with a lot of kids in Online Gurukul (Vedic learning program) and also my own son, I couldn’t agree more with Swamiji that innocence is one key quality in trusting life. My 15 years-old son whose inner space remains innocent and pure, has such a complete trust in his Guru and life. This ability to trust life in children comes from having at least one trusting relationship (whether it is with mother or father) in their childhood.
One beautiful effect of surrender with trust, it becomes difficult to cheat you. Innocent trust always protects from deceit. When trust happens with the utmost understanding, nothing can be lost. When you trust, all material possessions will seem like they belong to Existence. The very attitude of possessing drops, that relaxes the mind. That is the sacred space for relaxing. Then, you can simply do, leaving the result to Existence. It is out of surrender that arises a deep relaxation and a fresh intelligence that knows on a different plane. On this plane, there is no worry of result, there is only action driven by pure energy. Pure energy is intelligence.
I like to share an interesting conversation between a devotee and Swamiji. He asked:” Swamiji, you said that when I want a headache to disappear, I have given more energy for it to stay in me. In that case, why have I not given more energy to spiritual experiences like Kundalini energy (inner potential energy) or Samadhi (in tune with the Source), even though I want it?”
Swamiji beautifully replied him:“Please understand, wanting it is one thing, believing it is possible, trusting it is possible is another thing! Perhaps you wanted your Kundalini energy to awaken, maybe you wanted to experience Samadhi. But behind that, your mind, your unconscious, is constantly denying all this. Your trust in Samadhi is not as strong as your trust in headache! You need to understand – authentic trust is the essence.” Now catch it! Namaste 😀