Atma Nivedan is the culmination of the journey of bhakti, the soul takes on its way to God. Love for God is not an overnight episode. It comes gradually and blossoms slowly and sweetly and raises the understanding and knowledge of the devotee. Suffering comes to the devotee due to his own karma and lack of understanding of the rules of Universe. The devotee gets experiences of love of God and begins understanding the laws of Universe and God. As his bhakti deepens, he reaches a stage where nothing exists for him but God and his love. This is atma nivedan or surrender in complete to God. This stage leads to merger of self with God and self realization.
Atma nivedan is letting go of one’s ego and bowing in surrender to God. It is accepting the demands of God for complete love from the bhakta regardless of the consequences. The devotee is brought to a crucial point where he takes a leap of faith and surrenders his body, mind and soul to God. The rewards of such a leap are very great indeed as we can see from the story of King Bali who is a great example of Atma Nivedan: .
Bali was a great king endowed with the qualities of courage, generosity, patience and will power. He performed a hundred ashwamedha yagna – fire worship of specific type which endows the doer of the yagna with great powers. The yagna was going on successfully and the Gods feared the final result of the yagna, as Bali was a demon or asura. They appealed to Lord Vishnu to save them from the disaster.
Lord Vishnu took avatar as Vaman or the dwarf. He was born to Aditi who had performed tapas for saving her children who were the Devatas or Gods. He was short in stature. When he grew up to the right age, his thread ceremony was performed. At that time Bali was performing the last and hundredth yagna. Lord Vaman went to the site of the yagna to seek donations which were given in plenty to Brahmins.
When Lord Vaman reached the place of yagna, his divine appearance and radiance enthralled everyone present. All were spell bound looking at the small and splendid form of Lord Vaman. Bali was so impressed with the personality of Lord Vaman that he offered him his throne and asked what else he could do for him. Lord Vaman praised Bali and his lineage for generosity and benevolence and sought a donation of earth measured by his three steps. Bali was taken aback and laughed looking at the short stature of Lord Vaman. He asked him to demand more land and other gifts. But Lord Vaman told him that he would be satisfied with just three measures of land and if a man was not satisfied with what he got, he would never be satisfied as demands are unlimited.
Bali agreed to fulfil the demands of Lord Vaman. His teacher, Shukracharya recognised Lord Vishnu and warned Bali that there was treachery and he would be cheated and vanquished. Bali refused to listen to his teacher as he felt that when the Lord of the Universe Himself had come and sought biksha or donation from him, he was very fortunate and blessed and he must give Lord Vaman what he sought. Lord Vaman transformed his body into a giant form. With his first step, he covered the entire earth. The second step covered the heavens. There was no place to keep for the third step. Bali bent his head in surrender and offered his head to Lord Vaman to step on for measuring the third step. Bali was satisfied that he saved his name and reputation for benevolence. Lord Vaman stepped on Bali’s head and blessed him. Bali was pushed into the ‘Sutala’ world which is even more splendorous than heaven. Lord Vishnu was very pleased with the atma nivedan of Bali and made him the king of Sutala and also remained there as his security or door man protecting Bali.
The Bhagwad Gita speaks of karmarpan – offering of karma to the Lord, samarpan – surrender to God and atma nivedan which is complete self surrender to God. This is the highest pinnacle of bhakti that we can reach.
