Question: What is unconditional surrender? Sri Ramana Maharshi: If one surrenders oneself there will be no one to ask questions or to be thought of. Either the thoughts are eliminated by holding on to the root-thought `I, or one surrenders oneself unconditionally to the highest power. These are the only two ways for realization. Question: Does not total or complete surrender require that one should not have left even the desire for liberation or God? Sri Ramana Maharshi: Complete surrender does require that you have no desire of your own. You must be satisfied with whatever God gives you and that means having no desires of your own. Questioner: Now that I am satisfied on that point, I want to know what the steps are by which I could achieve surrender. Sri Ramana Maharshi: There are two ways. One is looking into the source of `I and merging into that source. The other is feeling `I am helpless by myself, God alone is all-powerful and except by throwing myself completely on him, there is no other means of safety for me. By this method one gradually develops the conviction that God alone exists and that the ego does not count. Both methods lead to the same goal. Complete surrender is another name for jnana or liberation. Questioner: I find surrender is easier. I want to adopt that path. Sri Ramana Maharshi: By whatever path you go, you will have to lose yourself in the one. Surrender is complete only when you reach the stage `Thou art all and `Thy will be done. The state is not different from jnana. In soham (the affirmation of `I am he) there is dvaita (dualism). In surrender there is advaita (non-dualism). In the reality there is neither dvaita nor advaita, but that which is. Surrender appears easy because people imagine that, once they say with their lips `surrender and put their burdens on their Lord, they can be free and do what they like. But the fact is that you can have no likes or dislikes after your surrender; your will should become completely non-existent, the Lords will taking its place. The death of the ego in this way brings about a state, which is not different from jnana. So by whatever path you may go, you must come to jnana or oneness. Question: What is the best way of killing the ego? Sri Ramana Maharshi: To each person that way is the best which appears easiest or appeals most. All the ways are equally good as they lead to the same goal, which is the merging of the ego in the Self. What the bhakta [devotee] calls surrender, the man who does vichara calls jnana. Both are trying only to take the ego back to the source from which it sprang and make it merge there. Question: Cannot grace hasten such competence in a seeker? Sri Ramana Maharshi: Leave it to God. Surrender unreservedly. One of two things must be done. Either surrender because you admit your inability and require a higher power to help you, or investigate the cause of misery by going to the source and merging into the Self. Either way you will be free from misery. God never forsakes one who has surrendered. From BE AS YOU ARE AND TALKS __._,_.___
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 09:27:50 +0000