The Self is the Heart, self-luminous.
Illumination arises from the Heart and reaches the brain, which is
the seat of the mind. The world is seen with the mind; so you see the
world by the reflected light of the Self. The world is perceived by
an act of the mind. When the mind is illumined it is aware of the
world; when it is not so illumined, it is not aware of the world.
If the mind is turned in, towards the Source of Illumination,
objective knowledge ceases, and the Self alone shines as the Heart.
The moon shines by reflecting the light of the sun. When the sun has
set, the moon is useful for displaying objects. When the sun has
risen no one needs the moon, though its disc is visible in the sky.
So it is with the mind and the Heart. The mind is made useful by its
reflected light. It is used for seeing objects. When turned inwards,
it merges into the Source of illumination which shines by Itself and
the mind is then like the moon in the day-time. When it is dark, a
lamp is necessary to give light. But when the sun has risen, there is
no need for the lamp; the objects are visible. And to see the sun no
lamp is necessary, it is enough if you turn your eyes towards the
self-luminous sun. Similarly with the mind, to see the objects the
light reflected from the mind is necessary. To see the Heart it is
enough that the mind is turned towards it. Then the mind does not
count and the Heart is self-effulgent.
~Sri Ramana Maharshi
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 (knowledge) 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 (knowledge). 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 Lord’s will taking its place. The death of the ego in this way brings about a state, which is not different from Jnana (knowledge). 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 (self-enquiry) calls Jnana (knowledge). 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.
Question: What is the drift of the mind after surrender?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Is the surrendered mind raising the question?
Questioner: By constantly desiring to surrender I hope that increasing grace is experienced.
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Surrender once for all and be done with the desire. So long as the sense of doership is retained there is the desire. That is also personality. If this goes the Self is found to shine forth pure. The sense of doership is the bondage and not the actions themselves.
‘Be still and know that I am God’. Here stillness is total surrender without a vestige of individuality. Stillness will prevail and there will be no agitation of mind. Agitation of mind is the cause of desire, the sense of doership and personality. If that is stopped there is quiet. There ‘knowing’ means ‘being’. It is not the relative knowledge involving the triads, knowledge, knowing and known.
Question: Is the thought ‘I am God’ or ‘I am the Supreme Being’ helpful?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: ‘I am that I am’. ‘I am’ is God, not thinking ‘I am God’. Realize ‘I am’ and do not think ‘I am’. ‘Know I am God’, it is said, and not ‘Think I am God’.
All talk of surrender is like pinching brown sugar from a brown sugar image of Lord Ganesha and offering it as Naivedya (food offering) to the same Lord Ganesha. You say you offer your body, soul and all possessions to God. Were they yours that you could offer them? At best, you can only say, 'I falsely imagined till now that all these which are yours were mine. Now I realize they are yours. I shall no more act as if they are mine.’ This knowledge that there is nothing but God or Self, that I or mine don’t exist and that only the Self exists, is Jnana (knowledge). Thus there is no difference between Bhakti and Jnana. Bhakti is Jnana Mata (devotion is the mother of knowledge).
[Note: Bhagavan was often heard to say: ‘To know God is to
love God, therefore, the path of Jnana (knowledge) and Bhakti (devotion) come to
the same.]
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