The exercise in my last newsletter, Surrender to Surrender, is an exercise in honestly looking at your fears of surrender. We ask you to look at what you are holding onto and why. You ask yourself, “What am I afraid of giving up and why am I afraid of giving it up?” You ask, “Why do I think I won’t be happy if I give this or that up for Krsna?”

“Why?” is the important question to ask yourself.

The exercise is meant to help you realize the illusory nature of your concerns/fears about surrender, that most, if not all of these concerns are your own creations and have no basis in reality. This will enable you to see surrender as something sweet, as something to look forward to, as something easy and natural – and most importantly as something desirable.

By doing this you should see improved results in your chanting. As stated in the newsletter, these fears inhibit your willingness to call out fully to the name, to let the name control you and take you wherever it desires.

Here are two quotes from Srila Prabhupada to help you surrender. I have bolded several lines that I feel are important to emphasize.

Namah means surrender. Namah om namah, this is the way of chanting Vedic mantra. Om means addressing the Absolute, and namah means “I am surrendering.” Every Vedic mantra is begun om namah. Om means addressing. So this mantra is chanted with surrender, namah. Nothing can be done without surrender because our, this conditional life is rebellious life. We have rebelled against the supremacy of the Personality of Godhead… So without surrender, there is no question of making any spiritualprogress. Just like a person who has rebelled against the government– the first condition is to surrender; otherwise there is no questionof mercy from the government. Similarly anyone, the living entity, anyone of us who has rebelled against the supremacy of the Lord, the beginning of spiritual life is surrender.

There is no need of material qualifications for making progress on the path of spiritual perfection. In the material world, when one accepts some particular type of service, he is required to possess some particular type of  qualification also. Without that, one is unfit for such service. But in the devotional service of the Lord, the only qualification required is surrender. Surrendering oneself is in one’s own hand. If one likes, he can surrender unconditionally, without delay, and that begins his /her spiritual life”

Happy surrendering. It’s in your hand.