In Bhagavad Gita the statement by Krishna “surrender unto me” simply means to reach God in our lifetime total surrender to God is necessitated. And what does total surrender to God mean? Can it be practiced in present times?
Total surrender to God in present Kali Yuga (Dark Age) was just not possible. Then what does a seeker do as Krishna demands total surrender.
Total surrender to God in present times means indulging in spirituality via nishkama karma yoga, offering fruits of karma performed to God Almighty all the time. Nishkama karma yoga demands a seeker working like a trustee, a caretaker for whom everything all the time belongs to god.
Total surrender also means demolishing our ego in totality. Unless we annihilated our ego, we could never establish total control over five senses and mind, a requisite for reaching state of enlightenment, self realization god realization.
Total surrender to God also means maintaining 100% faith in God all the time (Shraddha in Hinduism). In absence of total faith nothing much on path of spirituality could be realized.
Faith in Krishna, surrender to Krishna also means surrendering to God.
Allegorically Lord Krishna represents soul atman existing in human body. As all souls atmans were miniscule part of God Almighty, surrendering to Krishna is surrendering to God.
Allegorically surrendering to Krishna means having total faith in existence of soul atman within our heart! At any given moment of life either one of the two prevailed, ego or voice of soul atman within! When we were 100% truthful, we received promptings of Krishna from our heart. It is our sole prerogative whether or not to listen to these promptings of soul atman coming from within.
If we desire liberation from cycle of birth and death forever, then we have to follow promptings of soul atman from within. We have to abide by sayings of Krishna from within. As the spiritual journey progressed, the voice of soul atman coming from within became louder and louder.
The moment human beings realized self, realized god… we come to the conclusion that we had finally become one with God.
Throughout spiritual travel Krishna must be viewed in context of inner journey. The ultimate goal of indulging in pranayama (breathing exercise) was reaching Krishna existing in heart.
By surrendering to Krishna, we were surrendering to the divinity existing within us in our heart. By surrendering we are giving more credence to our true inner self than our ego.
But in present times, the present Kali Yuga total surrender to God is just not possible. To cut darkness of ignorance, light of jnana wisdom is necessitated.
Instead of bhakti yoga one needs indulging in jnana yoga to unveil cosmic truths of life contained in Bhagavad Gita. Path of jnana yoga demands indulgence in contemplation (chintan) most of time. Any human being who feels one can successfully contemplate on hidden underlying cosmic issues of life contained in sacred texts of different religions of world, can also successfully indulge in jnana yoga (absolute wisdom) to reach state of absolute purity as a soul atman.