The practice of offering oneself completely; Mirabai's teaching that Agape begins with the surrender of the separate ego and its protective strategies.
Samarpana means complete self-offering or surrender—not passive resignation but active gift of oneself. Mirabai practiced samarpana radically: she abandoned her marriage, her status, her safety, and eventually her reputation, offering everything to her love of Krishna. This wasn't self-destruction but self-transcendence; by releasing her grip on ego and security, she became available to love beyond all conditions. Samarpana reveals that Agape requires vulnerability—the willingness to be changed, disappointed, and transformed by what we love. Without this surrender, unconditional love remains theoretical. We keep the ego's protective walls intact, loving only insofar as it's safe. Across traditions, samarpana appears in the mystics who risked everything: the Christian desert mothers, the Sufi saints, the Zen masters. This concept doesn't demand literal renunciation from all practitioners, but it does ask: What am I unwilling to release? Where do I defend myself against love's full claim? Mirabai teaches that Agape flows only through the cracks in our armor, the places where we've stopped protecting ourselves from transformation.
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