Abandon All and Surrender
The Teaching
Abandon all varieties of dharma and simply surrender unto me alone. I shall liberate you from all sinful reactions; do not fear.
Commentary
The culminating verse of the entire Bhagavad Gita, the charama sloka. After eighteen chapters of increasingly subtle instruction, Krishna’s last word is the simplest: let go of everything and surrender to the divine ground itself.
This is the Christian mystical moment of abandonment to divine providence. It is the Sufi tawakkul, complete trust in God, releasing the ego’s insistence on control. It is the Taoist Wu Wei taken to its ultimate expression.
The Sikh Japji Sahib: How shall the Truth be known?, through Hukam, divine grace, not through technique or achievement. All traditions arrive at this same radical letting go as the final movement of the spiritual path.
Themes
Connections 18
Arose apart
No known transmission between Christianity and Hinduism while these teachings took shape. Christians lived in Kerala from early centuries, but exchange of ideas begins only with the Jesuits: Akbar’s court debates (from 1580), Roberto de Nobili writing on Hindu doctrine in Tamil (from 1606), then Wilkins’s English Gita (1785), the Upanishads in Latin (1801–02) and Vivekananda (1893). All long after either’s formative teachings.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Taoism while these teachings took shape.
Unsure
al-Hallaj travelled to India (c. 900). Indian influence on ‘I am the Truth’ is argued and disputed.
Travelled
Hinduism reached Sikhism by 1469 CE. Sikhism arose in Punjab among Hindus and Muslims. The Guru Granth includes the bhakti poets Kabir and Namdev.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Christianity while these teachings took shape. Christians lived in Kerala from early centuries, but exchange of ideas begins only with the Jesuits: Akbar’s court debates (from 1580), Roberto de Nobili writing on Hindu doctrine in Tamil (from 1606), then Wilkins’s English Gita (1785), the Upanishads in Latin (1801–02) and Vivekananda (1893). All long after either’s formative teachings.
Unsure
Hippolytus (c. 225) reports Brahmin doctrine alongside the Gnostic schools he attacks. Indian influence on Gnosticism is argued.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Christianity while these teachings took shape. Christians lived in Kerala from early centuries, but exchange of ideas begins only with the Jesuits: Akbar’s court debates (from 1580), Roberto de Nobili writing on Hindu doctrine in Tamil (from 1606), then Wilkins’s English Gita (1785), the Upanishads in Latin (1801–02) and Vivekananda (1893). All long after either’s formative teachings.
Travelled
Alan Watts read and drew on Hinduism.
Travelled
Alan Watts read and drew on Hinduism.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Christianity while these teachings took shape. Christians lived in Kerala from early centuries, but exchange of ideas begins only with the Jesuits: Akbar’s court debates (from 1580), Roberto de Nobili writing on Hindu doctrine in Tamil (from 1606), then Wilkins’s English Gita (1785), the Upanishads in Latin (1801–02) and Vivekananda (1893). All long after either’s formative teachings.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Christianity while these teachings took shape. Christians lived in Kerala from early centuries, but exchange of ideas begins only with the Jesuits: Akbar’s court debates (from 1580), Roberto de Nobili writing on Hindu doctrine in Tamil (from 1606), then Wilkins’s English Gita (1785), the Upanishads in Latin (1801–02) and Vivekananda (1893). All long after either’s formative teachings.
Travelled
Alan Watts read and drew on Hinduism.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Taoism while these teachings took shape.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Judaism while these teachings took shape.