SURRENDERING TO WHOM?

DR ICHAK K. ADIZES challenges us all to learn to listen to what feels right and wrong in the heart. He encourages us to find God’s will within ourselves.

- DR ICHAK K. ADIZES

It is a cornerstone of many religions and spiritual practices to prescribe surrendering to God or His representative. For instance, in the Catholic religion it is the Pope. His decision is final and to be adhered to. In India, there is a proliferation of gurus who claim that they know God’s will, and people follow their decisions religiously.

There is a benefit in surrendering to the wishes of a guru. Once you surrender, you emancipate yourself from the terror the ego imposes on you. You surrender to the Master who will make the decisions for you. The danger is that you subordinate your will to someone else, and retreat from being an adult and taking responsibility for your actions. Furthermore, what if the person we surrender to is corrupt, like the guru of Jonestown, who ordered all his disciples to commit suicide, and they did? Is that what we want?