Absolute Surrender: Shiva Sutra 3.13, Part Two

Conclusion to Shiva Sutra 3.13: siddhaḥ svatantrabhāvaḥ // The state of absolute independence is already achieved.”

This Sutra describes the realized practitioner as powerful, very powerful. It writes “All elementary worlds, all individuals, all words and all sentences are absolutely dependent on and under the control of such a yogī, who is always intent on determining the reality of Śiva. Whatever they do and whatever they will will do and undo.”

This power, though, is not how our small self would imagine it. As we see in the quote, this power is for the individual who “is always intent on determining the reality of Shiva,” which means that this individual is focused on Shiva’s Will, not their own will. This means that their power is not actually ‘theirs’, it’s Shiva’s. 

Imagine the power of a river. Sometimes the river is calm, and sometimes it’s mighty. When the river gets rushing, we have to really work to stay ‘with it’, avoiding obstacles and paddling to keep ourselves pointed in the right direction. This takes persistent hard work and a willingness to let go of distractions. When we’re tired, or resistant to this work, we might reach for a branch to cling to for a while, trying to ‘take a break from it all'. We don’t realize, though, that clinging to this branch still takes energy, and that this kind of clinging actually weakens our muscles and tires us out in its own way. Eventually, the river consumes the object, whether it’s a movie or a sunset, and we are all pulled back into the current. Hopefully we ‘get back to work’ as Rudi would say, but for many, they just look for another branch to ‘binge watch’—  this is the state of samsara, ‘holding on’ desperately to temporary distractions. 

This River is the Svatantrya Shakti of Shiva. Learning to swim or paddle with the current is our daily practice, time we set aside to release ‘object clinging’ and practice moving with the flow of our being. As Babaji teaches, we can’t swim with the current to Shiva while holding on to a bunch of branches (our small self’s likes and dislikes)- in fact, as we all know from his teachings, these are the very anchors that keep us out of the flow the most. So not only can we not bring our small self with us to Shiva, our small self is the very thing we have to let go of to rise up to meet Shiva.

The sutra teaches that when we learn to move with this river of shakti, our words and actions are imbued with power of the river itself. This means that when you’re in a surrendered state, your actions have the power of Shiva behind them— and we all know how powerful it feels to swim “with the current“. But of course, it is not our power,  but the power of Shiva. And this power takes consistent surrender to sustain.

So how do you ‘rise up’ to meet Shiva in your meditation practice or in your day? How do move in such a way that you enable the river of Svatantrya Shakti to move with you, and not against you, empowering your daily life with spiritual energy?

“When I marinate in my deep wish to grow I feel the shedding of the small self, it helps me shed any yuckiness and crunchiness and rise to meet Shiva”— Lilavati, Eldorado Ashram

“Rising to meet Shiva feels like trying to end a relationship with my small self, to let the small self down gently and let them know that we are not going to “keep going steady” any longer. And when the small self hears this, I see that it will say anything to keep me from breaking up with it, and I see how insidious it can be, always clinging to the way things were. This shows me how important the 3 Jewels are for our growth: our practice, our Teacher and our sangha are what get me through it.”— Dharma, Chicago

“At Monday night meditation, when I sat down to begin my practice, I saw my mind begin it’s to-do list, and I realized “OK, I’m not being present“. This showed me that rising to Shiva means being present, to work hard to be exactly where I am, doing exactly what I’m doing. Whenever I am just present, I feel free, and connected to that place inside.— Ture, Eldorado Ashram

“The Sutra made me see the important difference between ‘releasing’ the small self and ‘rejecting’ it. I noticed that when I’m “releasing”, I don’t get caught up in rejecting and I am able to embrace my small self without judgment and rise above it towards the Shiva state.” Anju, Canada

“After reflecting on the prompt of rising up to meet Shiva, and seeing what everyone shared, I started asking myself “how can I do this here at my job?“ And it just hit me as I walked out of a patient’s room and began our usual ‘ritual’ of washing my hands, which we always do when we leave a patient’s room. Instead of rushing through this, though, I just stopped and took my time with it, and it was such a cool moment to feel “oh, everything is resetting, I am resetting to the inner self, I am resetting to Shiva here.“ And so I did this each time I left a patient’s room for the rest of that day, using each hand washing moment to reset, and I could feel my whole body empty out, and my mind calm down. Hearing everyone’s response inspired me to find this in my own life, and I’ve now found a new ritual to help me connect with the inner self throughout the day. I really appreciate what we are sharing with each other here." Mahadev, Kansas