Atma Nivedana is the ultimate height of Bhakti or love of God, which is self-surrender to God of body, mind and soul. The devotee has no self identity. He surrenders all unto God. He has no desires, no urges, no ego; he has no pain, sorrow or grief; he seeks nothing but loving God for the sake of loving Him. In such state of surrender, the devotee understands that whatever happens to him is the doing of God and is only for his own good. He sees the events of pleasure, pain, highs and lows as blessings from God. He is balanced and peaceful at all times. His mind is eternally immersed in God. He considers the world as a stage and himself as a puppet in the hands of God who is the master puppeteer. He works and lives as instrument in hands of God. This is the last step in bhakti of Nava Vidha Bhakti as explained by Sri Rama to Shabari.
The soul is a spark of God. It is clothed with consciousness and the sense organs and gunas- qualities of goodness, passion and inertia. The soul dons the body and lives on earth in various forms to fulfil its desires as per it gunas or qualities. In the variety of forms that it lives on earth, the soul moves away from its original state and forgets its divine nature. It is now fully embroiled in the material world and sensual pleasures. It suffers terribly as the wants are not fulfilled, there are expectations and the ego asserts itself at all times. As karma accumulates and suffering increases, man turns to God and prays for freedom from the pain and suffering. That is the beginning of bhakti or love for God. Once he is pain-free, man seeks wealth, wife, family, home, land, etc. to live a good life. Then he develops inquisitiveness about God and seeks to know about Him. Finally he begins to love God for the sake of love.
The Nava Vidha bhakti is a very logical way of development of bhakti which culminates in surrender of body, mind and soul to God and attaining Him and His love in return.
We start our journey of bhakti with a desire to listen to the glory and grandeur of God and the various avatars and manifestations of Divinity – Shravana.
We then relish singing about the Lord and praising Him –Keertana.
As our love for God develops, we think about God , His Glories, Love, Compassion and Magnificence at all times – Smarana.
We start our worship of God by falling at the feet of the Lord – Padaseva
Performing systematic worship of lord as per rituals in which we get inner satisfaction - Archanam.
Our bhakti now is developing well and we see our favourite form of God in all beings and objects and we develop reverence or attitude of Vandana towards all life and nature – Vandana.
Where there is reverence to all life, we develop an attitude of service towards all mankind - Dasya.
The relationship with God now is very strong and He becomes our near and dear and our best friend – Sakhya.
This leads us to the final step of total surrender, yielding fully to the Will of the Lord –Atma Nivedan.
The lives of all saints and also the Bhagwad Gita teach us the importance of self surrender as the only way to attain the Supreme. Sri Krishna teaches Arjun that only and only self surrender will give him peace and relieve him from all sins. Self surrender leads to the overcoming of ego and individual consciousness and attaining Absolute Consciousness. The spark that is the soul merges with the Light of God. Man becomes one with God and the mortal becomes Immortal. He lives in the world as perfected soul. He has no karma and no duties. He lives life merged in bliss.
The gopis of Vrindavan loved Sri Krishna as the Supreme and surrendered unto Him in full. King Bali also surrendered unto the Lord, offering Him, his body, mind and soul. They all attained the Supreme.
