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Active Versus Passive Forms of Surrender to the Divine · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  In his book The Mother, Sri Aurobindo distinguishes between
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  the needed attitude of surrender to the Divine and what he terms
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  a temasek surrender. Quote.
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  Note that a temasek surrender, refusing to fulfill the
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  conditions and calling on God to do everything and save one all
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  the trouble and struggle is a deception and does not lead to
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  freedom and perfection. End Quote.
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  Many people confuse surrender with a total absence of effort,
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  relying instead on the divine force to act in the face of what
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  amounts to a Temasek reaction. There are, of course, the
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  stories of the two types of aspirants, the baby monkey type
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  and the baby cat type. The distinguishing
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  characteristic between the two is that the baby monkey has to
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  actively participate and hold on to its mother in order to be
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  carried, while the baby cat gets picked up and carried along
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  without effort. This is frequently used as a
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  justification of a lack of effort.
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  While there is a deeper spiritual truth about the two
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  modes of devotion, the integral yoga does not have the same
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  objective as the historical paths of yoga or spiritual
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  development, as it is not looking for an end result of the
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  liberation of the individual and merge into the spiritual
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  consciousness. Rather, it seeks to actively
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  transform the entire life to receive and embody the higher
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  spiritual consciousness. The difference means that there
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  is a need for the active participation of the individual
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  seeker, even while he relies on the Divine force to enter, embed
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  and permeate his being as the basis for that action.
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  When Thomas predominates, there is darkness, fatigue, lethargy,
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  all of which leads to the expression of the habitual
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  actions of the body, life and mind since they have established
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  pathways built into the being, An active awareness, keen
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  discrimination of the sources and actions of the forces and a
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  process of receptivity to the higher forces and denial of the
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  habitual forces that have ruled the earth nature for millions of
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  years as they resist, object to and deny the advent of the
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  higher forces that will transform their action.
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  Srior Bindo writes quote Faith, reliance upon God, surrender and
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  self giving to the divine power are necessary and indispensable.
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  But reliance upon God must not be made an excuse for indolence,
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  weakness and surrender to the impulses of the lower nature.
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  It must go along with untiring aspiration and a persistent
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  rejection of all that comes in the way of the Divine truth.
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  The surrender to the Divine must not be turned into an excuse, a
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  cloak, or an occasion for surrender to 1's own desires and
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  lower movements, or to 1's ego, or to some force of the
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  ignorance and darkness that puts on a false appearance of the
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  Divine. End Quote Reference Sri
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  Aurobindo, Basis of Yoga, Chapter 2.
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  Faith, Aspiration, Surrender, page 24.