In this episode of “5 Minutes,” Dr. Robert Svoboda explores surrender and the process of aligning the ego with Supreme Reality.

By surrender, I do not mean being in charge of a large army and putting down weapons. I mean taking the army of thoughts that you have within yourself, along with the ego that acts as the field marshal of that army, and surrendering them to reality.

This means becoming less identified as the doer of everything in your world. Yes, you are doing things. Yes, you are here because of things you have done in the past. As a result of those actions, and because you identified yourself as the doer, you are now experiencing the results of those karmas in the present.

Now is the time not to create more karma by continuing to identify yourself as the doer, either in a positive or negative way. In the positive sense, you may think, “I achieved this. I did this. This happened because of me. Nobody else could have done it.” But in reality, it is not only about you. You received help, whether through the circumstances that brought you to that point or through the support that allowed you to accomplish what you did.

Similarly, when you fail and say, “I am useless. I am foolish. Everything is terrible. It is all because of me,” that is also not the complete reality. Failure may involve many things. It may not have been the right time. It may have been the way you approached the situation. It may have been your attitude. It may even be that you were not meant to pursue that particular direction.

There can be many factors that you cannot see when you are completely focused on judging yourself.

This is why the best way to work with the ego is to make the ego bow down. The ego always wants to raise its head, stand proudly, and explain how great it is. It is much better for the ego to bow down and surrender to reality.

You can surrender to a Guru, to a deity, to a mountain, or to a tree. The specific object is not the most important thing. Whatever you surrender to becomes a symbol of surrendering to Supreme Reality, the reality that is truly guiding and moving everything.

In Sanskrit, there are several words related to surrender. One is prapanna or prapatti. Another is sharana, which literally means to fall at the feet of. When you fall at the feet of something, your head comes down to the feet of that which you are approaching. This represents lowering and humbling the ego. Sharana also means taking refuge.

Taking refuge means coming to a person, place, or reality and saying, “I recognize that I am not completely in control in the way I may have believed. I take refuge in the Supreme Reality. I request that you guide my steps.”

Then surrender becomes a process of listening carefully to the inspiration that comes from that Supreme Reality. You are able to listen because your head is bowed at the feet of reality. It becomes much easier to hear what is true when you are not standing proudly and only listening to the voice inside your own head.

When the ego is uncontrolled and you are constantly focused on yourself, you may not recognize reality even if it comes directly in front of you.