Meaning of Bhagavad Gita 7.14

[kralaro]

This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.

I can't understand the meaning of "surrender" here. If I surrender to him then what am I supposed to do?

[psychoslice]

Surrender just means realizing that your are not the mind body, that you are a spark of the divine, you are beyond the material world, and with this realization you can cross beyond the material world of ignorance.

[peteyzen]

lovely way of describing it psycho

[Amilius777]

I agree. Surrendering can mean something entirely different- especially geographically. In Islam it basically means to submit and shut up to God LOL. Well in the extremists it means that. Probably doesn't,

Surrender means to let go of your material self. Why worry? The only way we overcome the b/s of this world is if we just realize we are spirits, we are immortal bodies of pure consciousness, and there is nothing to worry about. - even death must be treated this way.

The three modes probably refer to birth, life, and death. They are illusions, or distractions to allow you to live your life as a human being. But they are not part of our true nature, true self which is a Spiritual Being. Realizing this gets us beyond the three imaginary modes- then all the fear, worrying, and obsessions end.

Dear Kralaro,

Nice replies so far. I might add, that as you are asking about a verse from Bhagavad-gita, it might be a good idea to hear what Bhagavad-gita itself describes as surrender.

On that note, at the end of the Sixth and Ninth Chapters, as well as in the 18th chapters, Lord Krishna, Who is right before Arjuna, there are specific directions how to surrender...which is also called "sharanagati".

Bg 9.33 - "How much more this is so of the righteous brähmaëas, the devotees and the saintly kings. Therefore, having come to this temporary, miserable world, engage in loving service unto Me."

"Bg 9.34 - Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, become My devotee, offer obeisances to Me and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me."

In other circles and areas there might be various ideas about surrender, but this is what the Gita itself describes as surrender.

I have to say that is challenging. I want to hang onto the idea of being independant and free to do whatever I want wherever I want. As Sri Krishna advises, "The mind can be the best of friends or one's worst enemy"

Due to many births of illusion, living in one material body after the other our mind's have become conditioned to the illusion we have nothing to do with God, like a hand somehow thinking it's not part of an arm. Or a hand hating the idea there is an arm!!!!

This is the spiritual disease. It is possible to cure this spiritual disease. If we want. If we can acknowledge our mind's are somewhat warped or not thinking properly.

Those who gave us the word "mantra', "yoga', the original authorities describe that in this day and age, a very, very effective cure is to meditate and call upon the Divine Names of Godhead, whichever we find comfortable with, and ask for clearing of our hearts and mind's.

Ask for strength to have integrity,humilty, and honesty of intellect. Drifting around trying to be "spiritual", without truly getting to the root of the issue will not serve our eternal souls very well.

[kris]

daivI hy eshA guNamayI mama mAyA durAtayA
mAm eva ye prpadyante mAyAm etAM taranti te

The creative power or mAyA which consists of constituents of nature or guNas is kRSNa's as indicated by the word mama or mine and it is divine - daivI and difficult to transcend or durAtayA. If we recognize this to be the case then rather than dealing with the reality as guNas, it is wiser to go straight to the source of the guNas, namely kRSNa himself.

[Miss Hepburn]

Bingo!

Originally Posted by chaitanyaram

....it might be a good idea to hear what Bhagavad-gita
itself describes as surrender.

On that note, at the end of the Sixth and Ninth Chapters, as well as in the 18th chapters, Lord Krishna, Who is right before Arjuna, there are specific directions how to surrender...which is also called "sharanagati".

Bg 9.33 - "How much more this is so of the righteous brähmaëas, the devotees and the saintly kings. Therefore, having come to this temporary, miserable world, engage in loving service unto Me."

"Bg 9.34 - Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, become My devotee, offer obeisances to Me and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me."

in other circles and areas there might be various ideas about surrender,
but this is what the Gita itself describes as surrender.

I have to say that is challenging. I want to hang onto the idea of being independant and free to do whatever I want wherever I want. As Sri Krishna advises, "The mind can be the best of friends or one's worst enemy"

Due to many births of illusion, living in one material body after the other our mind's have become conditioned to the illusion we have nothing to do with God, like a hand somehow thinking it's not part of an arm. Or a hand hating the idea there is an arm!!!!

This is the spiritual disease. It is possible to cure this spiritual disease. If we want. If we can acknowledge our mind's are somewhat warped or not thinking properly.

Those who gave us the word "mantra', "yoga', the original authorities describe that in this day and age, a very, very effective cure is to meditate and call upon the Divine Names of Godhead, whichever we find comfortable with, and ask for clearing of our hearts and mind's.

Ask for strength to have integrity,humilty, and honesty of intellect. Drifting around trying to be "spiritual", without truly getting to the root of the issue will not serve our eternal souls very well.

[kralaro]

Thanks everyone.

I've been taking "surrender" as its modern dictionary meaning:

"cease resistance to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority"

So I've been thinking that to surrender I'll need to know what God wants me to do at each moment or God has to start operating my body.

But before doing such surrender I would like to know why God does whatever he does. If then I decide to make his purpose mine then I'll surrender to him. In my current opinion, the best method for me to know his purpose will be to directly converse with him but I don't know how to do that. If someone on the forums knows how to hear him then please tell.

[kralaro]

This definition of surrender may or may not be what Krishna meant in Bhagavad Gita, I'm sorry for diverting the topic, but I think it's urgent that people should know what they should do at each moment or let their bodies be directed by God. If suppose a person helps someone but then the helped person uses that help for harming the world or a person is harmed, that may create some reactions which are beneficial to the world. How a human with limited knowledge can decide what's right or wrong? That's why I said "it's urgent".