Surrender all effort, surrender into the sensation, surrender completely. It is one of these phrases yoga and meditation teachers use frequently. This article explores the meaning of surrender and what wisdom is implied in its invitation. You will also discover guided practices that teach you how to surrender in yoga and meditation.
How To Surrender All Efforts
This will never work..
No matter how much we plan, our practice and our lives will unfold in ways we never could have accounted for. If we’re lucky, our yoga or meditation practice will break down the illusion that we’re in control. We might even intentionally give up control.
We try so hard to be good yogis and meditators!
We put in the effort. We wake up for 6 am classes, attend retreats, workshops and listen to online sessions. We gather props, clothing, teachers and information. During our practice, when discomfort or distraction arises, we fight against it. We push against tightness. We strive in spite of fatigue. We try to control our thoughts. We battle our bodies and minds.
War. What is it good for?
We often (unconsciously) relate to our practice as a war. In the same vein, we associate the concept of surrender with raising the white flag.
The word “surrender” can trigger negative perceptions of quitting, giving up, or throwing in the towel.
When we’re particularly distracted in a meditation session, or when we fail to execute the peak pose offered in our yoga class, we may feel as though we’ve failed. Our egos are so adept at judging, ranking, and labeling, that we see ourselves as losers, and in the worst-case think we can’t.
I can’t do yoga. I can’t meditate.
When we reach this point, we do need to quit. Not our practice, but our expectations, the insertion of our ego, and our effort. We need to yield to a new definition of “surrender.”
The Meaning Of Surrender In The Yoga Sutras: Isvarapranidhana
In Master Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, the 5th of the niyamas (ethical guidelines for practice) is isvarapranidhana (YS 1.23). This Sanskrit word can be translated as the surrender of the self or complete surrender to a supreme being or higher power.
Isvara translates to the divine, God, supreme being, higher power, ultimate reality, or true self. While pranidhana is usually translated as surrender, offer, dedicate or devote.
Surrender As Turning Inward
The ego is the doer who relies on separation to operate. Forego, subject and object are distinct. The ego is outwardly focused, seeking reward in the form of praise, recognition or achievement, the getting of things.
The yogi who has completely surrendered in yoga practice is looking within. Yoga Sutra 1.25 speaks of the omniscient qualities of our master, our higher power, while 1.26 remind us that this supreme being is the highest teacher of all and that by turning inward and connecting to them, by contemplating their name and their nature, we will reach the ability to focus the mind and avoid all obstacles. (YS 1.27-1.28)
Read more: Explore how to bring awareness to your asana practice and attain a deeper level of consciousness.
Within isvarapranidhana, “surrender” is not a failure. To surrender is to let go, to yield to experience, to rest back, to witness, to go with the flow. It’s imbued with complete devotion and dedication to a higher power. It’s giving up the desires of the ego and identifying instead with a universal desire. For those who have difficulty with the concept of “God,” remember, we can translate isvara here as “ultimate reality.”
Surrendering The Ego
When we dedicate our practice to a supreme being, when we wholeheartedly rest back into ultimate reality and the way things are, we begin to move past separateness.
This surrender, dedication, or acceptance frees us from relying on ego and the thinking mind to do our work and allows us to get in touch with something deeper. We’re moved instead by the intuition of the subtle body, the divine within us.
The ego does things. Surrender does nothing. Surrender feels and opens to experience and allows. To surrender is to be free from the compulsion to act. It’s the steadiness and ease that our yoga and meditation promises. It’s the stillness and quiet of mind that we once sought to achieve. With isvarapranidhana, we arrive at this peace and freedom not through action, but cessation.
How To Surrender To Reality
Surrendering to ultimate reality is to accept reality in all its forms. We accept that we cannot yet touch our toes. We accept the discomfort and heat of utkatasana, or chair pose. We accept the arising of thoughts in meditation. We equally accept the joy found in our practice and the ease found in the process of yielding to reality.
By no longer trying to fight against the way things are, we open to the experience of spaciousness. Inviting in spaciousness in yoga or meditation invites in possibility. When we let go of the battle against body and mind, both body and mind are offered the freedom to reveal to us the inner peace that is already present.
Free from expectations, and free from needing things to be one certain way, the barriers between subject and object begin to dissolve.
Learn how to surrender by practicing with these guided surrender meditations by popular teachers. These practices help you to connect with what this word makes you feel when being invited to it:
- The Energy Of Surrender Bethany Auriel-Hagan 4:42
- Learning To Surrender Sarah Blondin 8:07
- Surrender To The Breath (Extended) Gemma Gambee Lewis 19:08
- Surrender To The Silence Within davidji 16:50
- Yoga Nidra: Surrender Lynette Suchar 33:45
- Morning Meditation: Surrender, Allow & Trust (S.A.T.) Vanessa Loder 11:45
See and bookmark the full playlist here.
How To Surrender In Yoga And Meditation
Try the following suggestions to bring isvarapranidhana and surrender to your yoga or meditation practice.
- Set an intention. Offer your practice to a higher being, make it less about you.
- Be present. Let go of all expectations and see what unfolds.
- Practice equanimity. See everything that arises as equally sent by the divine to help strengthen your practice.
- Listen. Rest when you need to rest. Move when you need to move.
- Question. In moments of discomfort, stay and question the sensation.
- Cease effort. Rest in spaciousness instead.
- Dedicate. Let go of the fruits of your actions. Offer them up to someone else.
What is a better yoga pose for surrendering than corpse pose? Discover the meaning of savasana at the end of every yoga class and the benefits of staying even longer.
The results of our yoga and meditation practice are not something we get, they are something we reveal. We cannot reach these highest states of being by doing and trying. We can only reach them through surrender. Yoga Sutra 2.45 tells us that through isvarapranidhana, this devotion and willingness to let go, full integration, samadhi, is achieved.
Our yoga and meditation practice requires trust and faith that all we need is already within us. Our relationship to a higher being can help us see these qualities “outside” ourselves, and through the practice of surrender, isvarapranidhana, we ultimately recognize these qualities within, as the distinction between “within” and “without” breaks down.
