Not Fight, Not Flight, Not Freeze — Just Surrender
By Gurucharan Das
We often hear about the human nervous system’s response to fear and difficulty: Fight. Flight. Freeze. Three primal reactions when we feel threatened, stuck, or overwhelmed.
But what does that look like on the bhakti path? When you’re walking with Ram, with Hanuman, with Maharajji… what is the response when life shakes you?
It’s not fight.
It’s not flight.
It’s not freeze.
It’s surrender.
Surrender. Surrender. Surrender.
Again and again, until there’s nothing left but love.
Before Bhakti
I didn’t grow up with temples being places of devotion. We went, yes — lit diyas, did pujas, said the prayers. But it was ritual. Cultural. Sometimes fearful.
Even when people say “God-loving,” that doesn’t always mean surrendered. Love can still hold control. Still carry expectation. But surrender — that’s a different realm.
You can be God-fearing. You can be God-loving. But that doesn’t always mean you’ve let go. It doesn’t always mean you trust.
What Happens When Nothing Works?
In my life, I’ve faced moments where fight didn’t work. Flight didn’t work. Freeze brought no peace.
What remained? Giving it to Maharajji.
Not because I figured it out. But because I couldn’t figure it out.
It’s not “giving your problems to the guru” like outsourcing. It’s laying them down at the feet of grace and saying, “You see the whole picture. I don’t. I trust You.”
The Guru Knows
Would Dr. Richard Alpert have become Ram Dass if he hadn’t been fired from Harvard?
Probably not.
That moment — which surely felt like collapse — became the doorway to liberation, transformation, and his real work.
And so it is for us, too.
Rock bottom isn’t always the end. It’s often the beginning. Because only from there can we fully let go… and fall into the arms of the One who has bigger plans than we can imagine.
Not Passive. Not Blind.
Surrender is not weakness. It’s not blind faith.
We still show up. We still make the calls, clean the house, speak the truth, carry the weight.
But we stop carrying it alone.
Surrender means:
- “I’ll do the karma, Maharajji — but You hold the outcome.”
- “I’ll walk, but You guide the road.”
- “I’ll try, but I won’t grip so tightly that I forget who I really am.”
And Something Changes…
When we move from fight/flight/freeze to surrender, the problem… shifts.
Sometimes it dissolves. Sometimes it stays — but we change.
We soften. We breathe. We remember.
We serve. We love. We surrender.
And in that surrender — even the familiar becomes sacred.
You may have sung Om Jai Jagdish Hare a hundred times. But one day, when your plans haven’t worked, when nothing makes sense, when you’re tired of fighting and ready to lay it all down…
You reach that line:
“Mātā pitā tum mere, śaraṇa gahuṁ kisakī…” — You are my mother and father — whom else can I turn to?
And something shifts.
Or you sing:
“Tumhi ho mātā, pitā tumhi ho…” — You are my mother. You are my father. You are my everything.
And this time, it’s not the lips moving. It’s the heart singing. The same words — but now soaked in surrender.
That’s when bhakti awakens. Not in the ritual, but in the release. Not in the precision, but in the presence.
An Invitation
So next time you feel stuck, scared, or grasping for control… pause. Light a candle. Whisper Ram Ram Ram.
Try surrender. Not to escape. But to enter. To be held by something larger than your pain, more loving than your fear, and more patient than your timeline.
Because eventually,
fight becomes surrender.
Flight becomes surrender.
Freeze becomes surrender.
Surrender. Surrender. Surrender.
And when we truly do — when we really let go and let Maharajji lead — that surrender ripens into something even deeper.
From fight, flight, freeze
To surrender, surrender, surrender
To love. serve. remember.
And that… is a whole way of living.
But we’ll talk about that next time.
Jai Shri Ram.
Jai Hanuman.
Jai Neem Karoli Baba.
Reflect:
Have you ever reached a moment when surrender was the only path left? What shifted when you let go?