Surrendering to Lord

Many a time this sentence or topic comes in spiritual discussion. Very often we hear some senior devotee or saints telling this "Surrender to god" or "Surrender at his lotus feet".

Even the very meaning of word Islam is "Surrender to Will of God".

When i was comprehending this statement "Surrender to Lord", i had debate within myself ...

First thought came to mind.. We should surrender our life to god .. then immediately second thought came saying ... this whole life is gift of God ..then how can i surrender back him his possession? We dont have any control over past nor future what can we surrender which is not in our control??

No then it cant be our life. Its his life , just we are experiencing it.

Moving a step a head.

First thought came to mind ,We should surrender our body to god. Here body means muscle power or our activities. Then immediately second thought came saying - this whole body is given by God then how can i surrender back him ? What ever service activities we do, it may be fasting, or community service its all because of his given strength , time and money. Then it cant be our body to be surrendered.

We need to surrender something else. What it can be?

When i went deeper, I thought we should surrender our mind , but again i was not fully satisfied with this thought. Surrendering mind means what?

Mind is just one of senses like eye , ear ..etc given by god. At best i can make my mind to be withdrawn in-ward and make it always contemplate on God's glory. Or i can keep my mind busy with chanting his name. But is this surrender? Spirituality lies far behind our senses and so mind.

Mind is just limited to worldly objects, so i can max control mind not to wander in this physical world.

With all limited knowledge i had , came to conclusion i dont have anything of my own which i can surrender to lord. All worldy objects we enjoy , our body ,our senses, our comforts ,our time , our energy ..etc every thing what we claim is ours is not really ours.

So what can i surrender to him?

I cant surrender anything to lord. Everything in this cosmos , things Chara ( living ) and Achara ( non-living) , seen ( Drashta) and un-seen ( Adrashta) is his property. Realizing that everything is his , and i am nothing and mine is nothing itself is surrender.

Accepting the fact that i dont have anything of my own and everything is him lord himself is surrender.

Realizing that i dont have anything to surrender itself is surrendering to lord.

Narasimha Avatar - what we learn from this ??

Yesterday ie on 26th of may we celebrated Narasimha jayanti. ie Birth day of lord Narasimha.

All avatars give a common message that whenever a devotee or a righteousness is in trouble lord will come to rescue them. But among all avatars of lord on this earth , narasimha avatar has a special and unique message. Entire human kind has a strong message to learn from this avatar.

Hiranyakashapu was a strong danava. He was the strongest at his time. All the devatas including indra were in fear of hiranyakashapu. He was fearless and declared himself as god. The reason being he was blessed by lord Brahma with a boon.

Hiranyakashapu took boon from brahma very intelligently so that he should live for ever and ever.

Hiranyakashapu thinking in every way took a boon from brahma that ,

1) No living being on this earth Man or Deva or Animals can kill him.

2) No Weapon can kill him

3) He cannot be killed in day or at night.

4) He cannot be killed inside palace or out side palace.

5) He cannot be killed on the earth or in the sky.

With such a powerful boon hiranyakashapu became fully powerfull so that no one on this earth can kill him. He became the supreme power at this time. He conquered all lokas ( worlds).

Today in kaliyug ( iron age ) we also have become some sort of hiranyakashapu. He dont have fear of anything now .. with these modern comforts , prosperity , lethal weapons , advanced medical systems we have started feeling that whatever we do we are safe. Mankind has started proving that he is more intelligent and can do anything on this earth.

All the devas were worried because boon given to hiranyakashapu was so strong that he cannot be killed by any one and in any way. Here we should not forget that unless god wills to do something nothing will happen.

And finally the time came when lord willed to finish the role of the demon hiranyakashapu. Lord willed to answer the call of his beloved devotee prahalada. Lord decided to answer prayers of many saints and sages to escape them from holds of hiranyakashapu.

Lord took form of semi - man (nara) and semi - lion ( simha ).

On this earth there is no such living creature which has head of lion and body of a man.

The time when lord took this avatar was during sandhya kala( union of day with night ).

It was neither day nor fully night.

Narasimha took hiranyakashapu on his laps.

So hiranyakashapu was not on earth nor in the sky.

Lord sat on door steps of his palace.

So now hiranyakashapu was neither inside palace nor out side palace.

Since hiranyakashapu was not supposed to be killed by any weapons,

Lord with his nails teared hiranyakashapu's stomach and killed him.

The message from this avatar is , lord if he wills can do anything , he can take any kind of avatar , he can do anything as per his interest. No power on this cosmos can stop his mission.

Even if entire world stand against his mission , he will succeed in his mission.

Narasimha avatar is a strong message to the mankind , that its only his will that succeeds.

Human intelligence cannot comprehend his divinity and no one can explain his divinity. So only vedas say "Yatho Vacho Nirvitante , aaprayapya manasyasaha".

Drona - The perfect master

We all might have heard story of Ekalavya in Mahabharata. Just to brief , ekalavya was leader of Nishada trible group. Who was staying nearby Dronacharyas ashram where in princes of hastinapur use to learn archery. From the childhood Ekalavya wanted to learn archery from Drona, but because of his lower caste he knew Drona will not accept him as his disciple. So he made out idol of drona and started practicing archery.With his efforts and faith in guru he became one of the best archer.

Later when Arjuna and drona came to know about Ekalavya and his archery , drona ask's for ekalavya's right thumb as guru dakshina ( offering to guru ). Ekalavya happily cut his right thumb and offered at Drona's feet.

Many people blame drona because of this incident. People say drona did it for blind love towards arjuna.

Drona wanted only Arjuna to be best archer at that time so he asked Ekalvya's right thumb so that ekalavya can no more use bow and arrow.

Even i had same stand towards drona till my guru explained the real truth behind this incident.

Just imagine what would have happened if drona could have excepted Ekalavya as his disciple.

Ekalavya could have become still more better archer , say equal to arjuna or even better then arjuna. Here one should not forget that Arjun was very strong and powerful archer. Drona knew that in battle filed it was very difficult for Ekalavya to defect arjuna. For sure Ekalavya could have been defeted and killed by arjuna , by his bravery and grace of krishna.

If this could have happened people could have never remembered name of Ekalavya so much.

Ekalavya's could have been remembered as a normal soldier who died in battle.

My guruji explained the real truth. Drona was immensely pleased with Ekalavyas faith in him and effort he has put to learn archery. And drona wanted coming generation to remember Ekalavya's name and his faith in guru. Drona was a perfect master who knew what should be given to whom. So he asked Ekalavyas right thumb so that he will not get chance to fight with Arjuna and people will respect Ekalavya till end as brave archer.

Dronacharya , kripacharya and Bhishmacharya were highly knowledgeable ,capable gurus who can never make mistakes. We people with limited knowledge and vision underestimate them.

Its only a guru can understand ability of another guru. Its only a guru who know 's faith of all and he is the perfect master who knows what and when should be given to whom.

Rudraarpitam

Sai Ram,

Rudraarpitam meaning offering to lord rudra (shiva). This project is taken by youths of bangalore as an offering to Bhagawan on his 85th birth day. This project is brain child of my friend Sai Krishna.
As part of this project 85 home's are selected and all rudra chanters will go to each home and chant rudra for 11 times. This chanting of rudra by 11 ( minumum) chanters for 11 times is called Ekadasha rudra. Then once chanting is done vibrating shiva bhajans are sung.
I was enough fortunate to host rundraarpitam at my home on 17th Jan.
Some 40 people gathered including chanters , friends and relatives.

After chanting is done , one person will give a small talk , its a standard message which will be read in all sessions of rudraarpitam. Here is a part of message that was read by me on that day,

“RUDRAARPITHAM” as you are aware is essentially performed for both Chitta Suddhi and Loka Kalyana.

Let us dedicate today’s Ekadasa Rudram chanting at the lotus feet of our

Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and Pray for LOKA KSHEMA.

Here are some messages extracted from various discourses of Bhagawan on chanting of the Rudram.

· Rudram is the Heart of the Krishna Yajur Veda and is in the Center of Taitriya Samhitha.

· Sri Shiva Panchakshari Mantram”Om Namah Shivaya” is enshrined in it.

· Sri. Rudram is also known as ‘Rudropanishad’ though it forms a part of the Karma kanda, it ranks with the Upanishads of Gnana Kanda.

· Rudram contains both Namakkam and Chamakkam.

· Namakkam has 74 stanzas and Chamakkam contains 21 stanzas.

Ancient Sages had prescribed 5 spiritual texts for constant Repetition and Meditation They are:

1. Upanishad of one’s own Shaka

2. Bhagawad Gita

3. Vishnu Sahasranama

4. Rudram &

5. Purushasuktham

Rudram contains Prayers to the Almighty for both Material and Spiritual Treasures. Rudra is one who destroys Sorrow and Sin.

The Mantras in the Rudram guide us how to pray and what to Pray

After bhajans were done , prasadam was served to all. And the whole night i spent in full bliss.


JAI SAI RAM

The following benefits will accrue to the one who chants Rudram with Sincerity:

· Health & Stamina-Strength of the Body

· Mental & Intellectual Prowess ( Tejas & Ojas )

· Material Wealth & Prosperity

· Physical Welfare & Security

· Respect , Status & Reputation

· Good Human Relations

· Humility & Courtesy towards elders & teachers

· Ability to guide and warn Youngsters

· Destruction of Internal & external enemies

· Removal of Sin & Sorrow

· Strength to Walk on the Spiritual Path

· Shradha & Bhakthi

· Spiritual Bliss & Joy and Peace of Mind and

· Liberation.

One of the main Objectives of Bhagawan’s Avataric Mission is the Revival and Rejunuvation of the Vedas.