Surrender and Letting Go: Why ‘Ananda’ is the True Happiness

Welcome to an article by our new guest contributor, Dr. Bina Nangia. Dr. Nangia is a long-time spiritual seeker who works with children. This week she looks at what it really means to surrender and let go. 

by Dr. Bina Nangia

In this world of names and forms, we are easily tempted with our senses to pursue, that, which seems real to us. We have no experience of any other perception. The chase is endless and due to the ‘law of diminishing returns’ the chase never ends. 

With knowledge of our true nature, and the higher perception of the reality of names and forms, we can surrender and let go.

True nature means understanding our completeness and letting go of the need to run after names and forms to complete it. The incompleteness never gets full and our senses get dragged from objects, people, and situations. These being finite, are never able to complete us. So we can surrender to that completeness within us to feel complete and whole. This ‘ananda’ is the true happiness.

Recognising the infinite truth, being in the consciousness, we can surrender and experience the infinite happiness and bliss.

How is this possible? By ending every ‘perception’ with ‘perception’ and not letting our senses be pulled away. We need to let go of our attachments to names and forms and surrender to our higher self.

Attachments are not easy to let go, unless we have something higher and better to attach to. For example when we climb a ladder, unless we hold on to the higher rung, we will not let go of the lower one. Both activities need to go on simultaneously.

In our attachments, the higher rung is the true knowledge of ‘self’. By continuous practise, meditation and reading of scriptures, we can draw this knowledge from within us, where it already exists.

Spirituality is the direction of attaching to the higher and letting go of our attachments. It is a serious dedication to higher understanding and not a part-time pastime. It is the constant awareness of ‘truth’. Surrendering our ‘ego’ and limited self to this discovery pulls us towards completeness. Letting go happens as a result of this surrendering.

The mind can be our worst enemy or our best friend. It depends on how we recognise its usefulness and train it. It is powerful equipment for our use, but only under the guidance of a sharp intellect. With many births of conditioned thinking and responses, the intellect has fallen from its usefulness as an instrument of discrimination. Instead, the mind runs on its whims and fancies, without discrimination and endlessly attaches itself to various names, forms and situations.

It’s our work to lift the intellect from where it has fallen with regular practise of yoga and meditation.

The mind then gets tamed to surrender and let go.

 About Dr. Bina Nangia

Dr. Nangia currently works with special kids. This is her calling and she has been working in this field for 20 years.

A grandmother of two boys, Dr. Nangia has been practising yoga since her younger days. Her keen interest in spirituality over many years has got her in touch with many masters. They have contributed to her growth tremendously. She shares her thoughts in magazines and newspaper articles.

Dr. Nangia is the author of Dyslexia Decoded, a handbook for special educators, which was recently published by Penguin and Hayhouse.

She shares her experiences about special education on various social networking sites, and is a trained therapist and family networker.

Dr. Nangia lives in Delhi, India.