Understanding Ishwarapranidhana

What is surrender to God? How can you surrender? How surrender will become possible?
A man who is making efforts, methods, using techniques, doing this and that - is bound to accumulate a certain sense of "I am": "I am superior, special, extraordinary. I am doing this and that - austerities, fasting, sadhana. I have done this much." Ego is bound to come.

If you can watch the ego, and you don’t accumulate ego, there is no need to surrender - because if there is no ego, there is nothing to surrender. This has to be understood very, very deeply. And when you are understanding - trying to understand Patanjali - this is a very fundamental thing.

Patanjali is very rare in this sense. He does not believe in God; he is not a God-believer. God is also a technique. Patanjali doesn’t believe in any God, that there is some God. No, he says God is a technique.

Patanjali says it is not a question whether God exists or not; that is not the point at all. The point is that God is hypothetical. Without God it will be difficult to surrender. You will ask, "To whom?".

So God is a hypothetical point just to help surrender. When you have surrendered you will know there is no God, but that is when you have surrendered and when you have known.

Surrender is the basic thing, not God. Patanjali says that because you have to surrender, posit a God. God is a posited thing.

When you have surrendered, you will laugh. There is no God But one thing more: there are gods - no God - a multiplicity of gods, because whenever you surrender you become a god. So don't be confused with Patanjali’s God and Christian-Jewish God. Patanjali says God is the potentiality of every being. Man is as if a seed of God - every man. And when the seed flowers, comes to a fulfillment, the seed has become a god. So every man, every being, will become finally a god.

"God" means just the ultimate culmination, the ultimate flowering. There is no God, but there are gods - infinite gods. This is a totally different conception. If you ask Mohammedans, they will say there is only one God. If you ask Christians, they also say there is only one God. But Patanjali is more scientific. He says God is a possibility. Everybody is carrying that possibility within the heart. Everybody is just a seed, a potentiality to become a god. When you reach to the highest beyond which nothing exists, you become a god. Many have reached before you, many will reach - and many will be reaching alter you.

Everyone becomes a god finally, because everyone is a god potentially, infinite gods. That is why it becomes difficult for Christians to understand. You call Rama a god, you call Krishna a god, you call Buddha a god, you call Mahavira a god. Even a Rajneesh you call a god. For Abrahamic religions only one God exists who has created the world. For Patanjali nobody has created the world. Millions of gods exist, and everybody is on the path to become a god. Whether you know it or not, you carry a god within your womb. And you may miss many times, but how can you miss it ultimately? If you carry it within you, some day or the other the seed is going to flower.

Nobody is sitting as a despot on the world; nobody is forcing you or creating you. Freedom is absolute. You can sin because of freedom, you can move away because of freedom. You suffer because of freedom, and when you understand this, there is no need to suffer; you can come back, that too because of freedom. Nobody is bringing you back, and there is going to be no judgment day. Nobody is there to judge you except your own being. You are the doer, you are the judge, you are the criminal, you are the law. You are all! You are a miniature existence.

What is God?
God is a state of consciousness. It is not a person, really, but "individual", so you will have to understand the difference between personality and individuality. Personality is the periphery. You say, "Nice personality, beautiful personality, ugly personality" – as you look to others. Your personality is the decision, the opinion of others about you.

If you are alone on the earth, you will have no personality because who will say you are beautiful, and who will say you are stupid, and who will say you are a great leader. The opinion will not be there, you will not have any personality.

Personality is that which you pose, a face, a mask. But if there is nobody in your bathroom, you don’t have any personality unless you look in the mirror. the personality comes because you yourself start doing the work of the other opinion. You look in the face and say, ”Beautiful”. Now you are divided, now you are two, giving opinion about yourself. But in the bathroom when nobody is there and you are completely unafraid, that nobody is looking from the keyhole... Because if somebody looks from the keyhole, personality comes in, you start behaving.

Individuality is that which you are; personality is that which you show that you are. Personality is your face; individuality is your being. God, in Patanjali’s conception, has no personality. He is an individual unit.

When you drop personalities, you become a sannyasin. When you renounce personalities, you become a sannyasin: you become an individual unit. When you don’t pose, you are not worried. When you don’t pose, you are unaffected by what others say. When you don’t pose, you remain detached.Personality cannot remain detached. It is a very fragile thing. It exists between you and the other, and it depends on the other. He can change his mind; he can destroy you completely.

Every moment you are afraid somebody may crush your personality. Then the whole world becomes an anxiety. A god has an individuality, but no personality.

In English it is translated, god is the supreme ruler. In Sanskrit he calls him purush-vishesh - a supreme being, not a ruler.

You can become a god right now because you are already that - just the thing has to be realized. You are already the case. It is not that you have to grow into a god. Really, you have to realize that you are already that. This happens through surrender.

That God is just a prop to help surrender. When the surrender happens you become a god, because surrender means, "Now I am not concerned with the result, I am not concerned with the future, I am not concerned with myself at all. I surrender."

When you say, ”I surrender”, what is surrender? I – the ego And without the ego how can you think about purpose, result?

The seeker is the sought; the traveler is the goal. You are not to reach somewhere else. You are to reach only to yourself. This can happen in a single moment; even a fraction of a moment is enough. If you are already the God, then just a look back, just a look within, then it can happen. You are so much involved in the dreams, you have so much invested in your dreams, that is why time is needed. Time is not needed because the seed has to become a flower; time is needed because you cannot open your eyes. With closed eyes you have become so much accustomed, it has become a deep habit.

The ego is the basic involvement. If you open your eyes, you disappear. Opening the eyes looks like death. It is. So you talk about it, you listen about it, you think about it, but you never open the eyes because if you really open the eyes you also know that you will disappear. Then who will be you? A nobody A nothingness This nothingness is there if you open the eyes; so it is better to believe that the eyes are already open, and you remain somebody.

And you are afraid that you may disappear, but that is the door, so you listen about it, you think about it, but you go on postponing – tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow.

That’s why Patanjali is needed. Patanjali says no need to open the eyes immediately; there are many steps. You can come out of your sleep in steps, in degrees. Certain things you do today, certain tomorrow, then day after tomorrow, and it is going to take a long time. Patanjali appeals because he gives you time to sleep. He says no need to come out of your sleep right now; just a turning over will do. Then have a little more sleep; then do something else. Then by and by, in degrees...

He is a great persuader. He persuades you out of your sleep. Zen shocks you out of your sleep. That’s why a Zen Master can hit you on your head; never a Patanjali. A Zen Master can throw you out of the window; never a Patanjali. Because a Zen Master uses shock treatment – you can be shocked out of a sleep,

Patanjali brings you by and by, by and by. He brings you out and you are not even aware what he is doing. He is just like a mother. He does just the opposite, but just like the mother. A mother persuades a child into sleep. She may sing a lullaby, let the child feel she is there, no need to be afraid. Repeating the same line again and again, the child feels seduced into sleep. He falls into sleep holding the hand of the mother. No need to be worried. The mother is there and she is singing, and singing is beautiful. And the mother is not saying that, ”Go into sleep,” because that will disturb. She is simply persuading indirectly. And then by and by she will take her hand out, and she will cover the blanket and move from the room, and the child is fast asleep.

Just the same Patanjali does in the reverse order. By and by he brings you out of your sleep. That’s why time is needed; otherwise the flower is already flowering. Look It is already there. Open the eyes and it is there.