October 9, 2026
The Durga Saptashati is a small text of 700 verses - the same number as that of The Bhagavad Gita. Perhaps the number 700 and its association with The Bhagavad Gita were deliberately contrived to illustrate one of the most emphatic declarations of Sri Krishna concerning Divine Incarnation. The whole universe is depicted and conceived of as a play of contrary forces, which frequently create an imbalance. To restore balance the Divine incarnates again and again.
Thus we are told in The Durga Saptashati that after a long, long penance of self-negation, when the seeker had a vision of the Divine Mother, he prayed to her: "Please relieve me of ego and egoistic relationships." This is surrender. Perhaps to bring home to us a strange problem, the scripture tells us that even the breath-taking austerities of the king could not eradicate the extended ego: hence the king prayed to the Divine Mother for power and position - there was no surrender.
So, first there has to be this inner awakening, and in that awakening this awareness keeps watch over all one's thoughts, words and deeds. Life doesn't change overnight, but as life flows on this awareness, the monitor, detects our defects and shortcomings. Whether they go away immediately or not, they begin to hurt and hurt and this hurt is very good. We become more and more intensely frustrated and dissatisfied with what we are, not with what we have. When even to live seems impossible, then there is a revelation of the Divine Mother.
To pretend to have surrendered before this happens is pretension, not surrender. Surrender must happen in its own good time. First you were bad, then you struggled hard and you became good. Then you struggled harder and you became better. Completely free of all evil qualities, you were the embodiment of all good qualities - and immediately you became worse because you were full of vanity. That is the time to surrender, and from there on surrender flows and all that you do flows to the feet of the Divine Mother.