What, actually, is surrender – and how does one differentiate surrendering from, say, taking no action in an abusive situation?
In Sanskrit the term for surrender is samarpana. Sama means equilibrium, arpanam means to offer. To offer one’s own self in equilibrium is surrender. It is different from someone holding a gun to our heads, and we say, “We surrender!” In that type of surrender we are really not offering ourselves in equilibrium. In that kind of surrender we always maintain some hope that we can escape and attain our freedom once again.
