Sharaṇa

Refuge, protection. In Bhagavad Gītā 18.66, Kṛṣṇa exhorts: “śaraṇaṃ mām ekaṃ” — take refuge in Me alone, abandon all dharmas. Śaraṇāgati, the total surrender to divine refuge, is both an act of devotion and a dissolution of the ego. The Upaniṣads express this as brahma-śaraṇa: taking refuge in Brahman as the sole security.