THE PATH TO SURRENDER

(From Teachings of Bhagavan

Sri Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words.)

There are only two ways to conquer destiny or to be
independent of it. One is to enquire whose this destiny is and
discover that only the ego is bound by it and not the Self, and
that the ego is non-existent. The other way is to kill the ego
by completely surrendering to the Lord, realizing one's
helplessness and saying all the time, `Not I, but Thou, oh
Lord', giving up all sense of `I' and `mine' and leaving it to
the Lord to do what he likes with you. Surrender can never be
regarded as complete so long as the devotee wants this or
that from the Lord. True surrender is the love of God for the
sake of love and nothing else, not even for the sake of
salvation. In other words, complete effacement of the ego is
necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this
effacement through Self-enquiry or through bhakti ^[?] marga.

The spark of spiritual knowledge (jnana ^[?]) will consume all
creation. Since all the countless worlds are built upon the
weak or non-existent foundation of the ego, they all
disintegrate when the atom-bomb of knowledge falls on them.
All talk of surrender is like stealing sugar from a sugar image
of Ganesha and then offering it to the same Ganesha. You say
that you offer up your body and soul and all your possessions
to God, but were they yours to offer? At best you can say, `I
wrongly imagined till now that all these, which are Yours,
were mine. Now I realise that they are Yours and shall no
longer act as though they were mine'. And this knowledge
that there is nothing but God or Self, that `I' and `mine' do
not exist and that only the Self exists is jnana ^[?].

It is enough that one surrenders oneself. Surrender is giving
oneself up to the original cause of one's being. Do not delude
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yourself by imagining this source to be some God outside
you. One's source is within oneself. Give yourself up to it.
That means that you should seek the source and merge in it.
Because you imagine yourself to be out of it, you raise the
question, `Where is the source'? Some contend that just as
sugar cannot taste its own sweetness and that there must be
someone to taste and enjoy it, so an individual cannot both be
the Supreme and also enjoy the bliss of that state; therefore
the individuality must be maintained separate from the
Godhead in order to make enjoyment possible. But is God
insentient like sugar? How can one surrender oneself and yet
retain one's individuality for supreme enjoyment?
Furthermore they also say that the soul, on reaching the divine
region and remaining there, serves the Supreme Being. Can
the sound of the word `service' deceive the Lord? Does He
not know? Is He waiting for these people's services? Would
He not ? the Pure Consciousness ? ask in turn, `Who are you
apart from Me that presume to serve Me'?

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