Four Steps To Surrender

Shri Shri Nimishananda Guruji outlines four simple steps that can be practiced by anybody with a will to be transformed, which will lead to destruction of the ego, and foster an attitude of total surrender to the Universe. Guruji assures us that total surrender will lead to mitigation of karma, good and bad, spelling doom for the eternal cycle of birth and death. And that is the ultimate purpose of human life.

Here are the four steps in Guruji’s own words.

Step 1
Every day, as soon as you wake up, say a small prayer to God. God could be anything, because it is such a wonderful energy which is inside all of us. Let the prayer be in any language, and phrased in any manner you like, but the prayer should come from your heart. God can hear the call of your soul because it belongs to him.

“Dear God, please pardon me for all the mistakes that I have ignorantly committed till now. From today, please hold my hand, help me and guide me so that I don’t commit any more mistakes. Give me also the capacity to recognize a mistake, so that I can avoid it.”

This is a cleansing prayer that will take you closer to God. This is a way of tuning yourself to live harmoniously with your fellow beings. Once you ask for His forgiveness, you will feel light and peaceful. You have shed the guilt that was gnawing at your heart, like a worm. When you unburden yourself like this every day and make it a practice, you’ll see that you have a glow about you which everybody will notice!

Step 2
The second step is to start talking to God. Talk to him about anything you like. The more you talk to him internally, the more peace and happiness you will experience. You can ask God for anything you want, and it shall be given to you, in this life or the next. Whatever you have ever asked of God has reached as soon as your karmas got absolved. But most of you don’t know how to get rid of bad karma, which is why good things will reach you in the next life. That’s the reason why some of you are born with golden spoons in your mouth, and some are born on the streets. Talking to God is a way of absolving your bad karma. Then grace shall flow from Him immediately, and you will not have to wait for lifetimes for your wishes to materialize.

Step 3
The third step is a prayer to God to remove your pride and vanity, which are the root cause of all problems. You cannot commune with God until they are removed. Tell God sincerely every morning, “God, please remove my pride and vanity with which I am operating and teach me to be humble.” Get rid of the ego thus, and you’ll be able to see and talk to God directly.

Step 4
Now we come to the fourth step. When your ego is gone, what else is there within you? Nothing. Steps one, two and three have made you surrender to God unknowingly. As soon as you start cultivating this habit, without your knowledge, all of you will close your eyes and think of God. This is step four, and this is called meditation. Once you practice meditation, many things will be revealed to you, like who you are. You’ll forget the identification with the body, and will see and experience your real Self.

Surrender and communion with God will help you unload your karmic bags, freeing you of the cycle of suffering. The happiness and prosperity that will come to you thereafter is permanent. Grace and blessings are showered upon you, and all the different forms of that one Almighty God will reside in your house, making it a powerhouse of divinity.

Follow these four steps, and experience divinity, filling your life with love, light and bliss.

(Guruji has spoken more elaborately on the topic in his booklet, Develop Your Inner Personality)