What is Purna samarpana (Complete Surrender)?
Complete surrender does not merely mean an external action. It is not just about giving up something or showing devotion to someone.
Complete surrender means – to completely renounce your ego, your own selfishness, and your personal resolutions, so that you can be inwardly devoted to that Supreme Truth, that God, or that highest consciousness.
Until you are ready to renounce your ego, your liberation is impossible. Think – you are holding a crab in your hand, and it keeps biting you. Now the question is – what will you do? Will you keep holding it, or will you remain in pain from its bites? If you truly desire liberation, you must let it go. You must release it. Why hold it, when by nature it causes you harm? It will find its own path – to the river, pond, or wherever it is meant to be.
But the problem is, often we do not want to release the crab. We want it to bite us no longer, yet we also do not want to let it go. This is impossible. It is a crab – its nature is to bite. This is exactly the situation in life as well. We want our beloved things to always remain with us, to give us pleasure, and never cause sorrow. This is impossible.
When we say “complete surrender,” it means that you completely hand over to God all your beloved and unpleasant things, your pleasures and pains, and your ego. Letting go of unpleasant things is easy – if something causes you pain, renouncing it is simple. But what is dear, what we consider part of our life, giving that up is difficult. This is the real challenge.
All things in this world – body, family, relationships, possessions – are dear to us. We want to gain pleasure from them. But if you observe carefully, those very things contain sorrow within them. Pleasure is only an illusion; in reality, it is transient and uncertain. Until you realize that what you are holding does not bring happiness but hides sorrow, you will keep chasing them. You are trying to hold onto sorrow, while sorrow simply wants to move away from you.
Complete surrender means – to dedicate yourself to God or the Truth, to rise above your selfishness, desires, and attachments. It also means that divinity or spiritual consciousness occupies the foremost place in your life. Those hundred things in your life – all your control and authority over them are only an illusion. First, you must renounce ego over your own body. Then gradually, distance yourself from worldly things.
You want bondage as well as liberation. But liberation cannot be attained while in bondage. If you desire liberation, you must rise a little above those hundred things, reduce your self-attachment to them. Liberation is not in a single object, relationship, or experience; it is attained by going beyond all of them and surrendering to the reality of the Self.
Whatever is in your hand, is it truly yours? Can you survive without any help, without the things of this world? Was your body created by you, or is it a gift of nature? Whose possessions are you considering your own? What you claim as your right, one day it can be taken away from you. If it comes to you right now and says – “Give me back my things,” are you ready to give?
Most people are afraid. The fear is not even theirs; it comes from external objects and circumstances. Complete surrender means – you must also renounce this fear, and be ready to accept that nothing of your “Self” is truly yours. Even emptiness is not yours; it belongs to the Supreme. That which you call “I” is also not yours.
If all this is true, then why do you foolishly keep saying “I, me, mine”? Why remain trapped in your ego? Ask yourself – do I really have any rights? Do I have true happiness? Can I always keep anything with me?
The true meaning of complete surrender is – to give everything to God, to let go of your ego, desires, fears, and beloved things. This does not mean that you renounce your body, family, or relationships; it means to let go of attachment and ownership over them. When you do this, you will experience peace and true liberation within.
Just as when the crab is released, it goes on its path, similarly, you must rise above all bonds, fears, and attachments. This is complete surrender – opening your mind and Self fully to God or the Supreme Truth, without any expectation.
The path of complete surrender is difficult, but it is the purest and most certain path. When you become fully surrendered, your life automatically becomes simple and free. This surrender liberates you from every sorrow in life and connects you to that imperishable consciousness which is always unbroken and eternal.
