Surrender

Once, during my school days, my teacher asked me about my aim in life. I told him that my aim was to be a happy person. He huffed, “Well, We all want to be happy, but it is not our aim, what profession do you  want to join in  future?” I was confounded. “I want to be an Engineer,” I said , only to avoid his stern look. “Good boy,” He replied and patted me on my shoulder. His reply  prompted me to imbibe that Engineering was a great profession. Since that day, I tried to persuade myself to be an Engineer.This conversation marked a deep impression on me. I seriously  wanted to be an Engineer by the time I reached  to  +2 level.  

Today, I am an Engineer. I have already become what I once longed to be. However, I  feel something missing in my life. I still feel  I haven’t achieved a whit  of  my aim. I have come to  realize that  to be an Engineer  had never  been my aim. It can never be anyone’s aim indeed. I think, the word ‘aim’ is highly misunderstood by people. Doctors, Engineers  and all other professions  can't be referred to  as  an aim. Professions are merely a path through which we try to reach to our aim. The ultimate aim  of everyone has to be happiness. Profession is something through which we try to embrace happiness. One doesn’t  aim  to be a doctor  for nothing. His temptation of being doctor is driven by various other factors like money, social status, satisfaction of treating sick people and so on. All these factors are directly or indirectly linked with happiness, the ultimate aim of everyone.

Beatle's maestro, George Harrison always wanted to be musician form his childhood. At the age of 15, he became a member of most celebrated band of all time. He got huge stardom. People used to travel across thousand of miles just to get his one glimpse. He achieved much more than he would have ever desired. He should have been a very happy person. Ironically, he wasn't. He became suffocated with the brunt of stardom and publicity. He came to realize that being a superstar had  never been his aim. Then he started seeking happiness  at  every possible corner. During this process, he detached himself from stardom, learned yoga, joined a class of Indian classical music, came India to learn meditation  and tried many other tricks too. There is a song written by him that unveils  how  desperately he was craving for inner peace.

Give me love, give me love , give me peace on earth,

Give me light, give me life, keep me free from birth,

Give me hope, help me cope with this heavy load,

Trying to touch and reach  you with heart and soul.

His pursuit of inner peace made him immensely spiritual. He became a devotee of Lord Krishna and surrendered himself to almighty. Eventually, he was able to find inner peace. He finally got what he was seeking for through devotion for Krishna. However, it doesn’t mean that  everyone has to be devoted to Krishna for inner happiness. Devotion is necessary. 'To whom' does not simply matter. One can surrender oneself  to Jesus , Buddha or anyone as per one’s choice. Not only to spiritual figures, devotion can be towards any person or simply things. Vivekanada used to say that if one loves to play football, he should keep on playing football instead  of forcing himslef into chanting verses of Geeta. One should do what makes one happy. God resides in happy heart, not on heavy mind full of Mantras. 

Making love gives immense pleasure. The reason behind it is nothing but devotion. During the instant of making love, two persons are fully devoted to one another. When a person surrenders  himself, he ceases to exist for a moment and with him ceases all his troubles and worries. His mind becomes empty and empty mind leads to  the realm of happiness. Happiness can not lie in loaded mind.  A man  doesn’t  attain orgasm with a prostitute. Why is it so? Sex is there too, what is  missing then? The only thing missing is devotion. Prostitute is simply doing her duty and a man is just getting reward for his payment. No one surrenders. There is no love and trust. We  can not surrender ourselves to someone whom  we do not  trust and there's no peace without surrender.

I don’t find it absurd when a person  bows down in front of stone thinking it to be God. It is better to surrender to stone than to yearn for whole life in search of happiness. Peace lies in the feeling of surrendering, no matter to whom or what. When we surrender, our mind stops functioning. Once the mind stops functioning, there is pure bliss. In my opinion, practice of idol worship must have been established by some truly intelligent people in past. They must have known that people of future would be too pompous and skeptic to surrender to one another. That’s why they created statue and told us that it is god, so that we would at least surrender ourselves  to stone, if not to a living person.