Making Sense of It All...Sri Ramana

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Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi ...

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.]

___________

Bhakti - Surrender

PreambleBy David Godman

Many of the world’s religious traditions advocate surrender to God as

means of transcending the individual self. Sri Ramana Mahrshi

accepted the validity of such an approach and often said that this

method was effective as self-enquiry. Traditionally the path of

surrender is associated with dualistic devotional practices, but such

activities were of only secondary importance to Sri Ramana. Instead he

stressed that true surrender transcended worshipping God in a

subject–object relationship since it could only be successfully

accomplished when the one who imagined that he was separate from God

had ceased to exist. To achieve this goal he recommended two distinct

practices:

Holding on to the ‘I’-thought until the one who imagines that he is separate from God disappears.

Completely surrendering all responsibility for one’s life to God or

the Self. For such self-surrender to be effective one must have no

will or desire of one’s own and one must be completely free of the

idea that there is an individual person who is capable of acting

independently of God.

The first method is clearly self-enquiry masquerading under a

different name. Sri Ramana Maharshi often equated the practices of

surrender and enquiry either by saying that they were different names

for the same process or that they were the only two effective means by

which Self-realization could be achieved. This is quite consistent

with his view that any practice which involved awareness of the

‘I’-thought was a valid and direct route to the Self, whereas all

practices, which didn’t, were not.

This insistence on the subjective awareness of ‘I’ as the only means

of reaching the Self coloured his attitude towards practices of

devotion (Bhakti) and worship which are usually associated with

surrender to God. He never discouraged his devotees from following

such practices, but he pointed out that any relationship with God

(devotee, worshipper, servant, etc.) was an illusory one since God

alone exists. True devotion, he said, is to remain as one really is,

in the state of being in which all ideas about relationships with God

have ceased to exist.

The second method, of surrendering responsibility for one’s life to

God, is also related to self-enquiry since it aims to eliminate the

‘I’-thought by separating it from the objects and actions that it

constantly identifies with. In following this practice there should

be a constant awareness that there is no individual ‘I’ who acts or

desires, that only the Self exists and that there is nothing apart

from the Self that is capable of acting independently of it. When

following this practice, whenever one becomes aware that one is

assuming responsibility for thoughts and actions- for example, ‘I

want’ or ‘I am doing this’ – one should try to withdraw the mind from

its external contacts and fix it in the Self. This is analogous to the

transfer of attention which takes place in self-enquiry when one

realises that self-attention has been lost. In both cases the aim is

to isolate the ‘I’-thought and make it disappear in its source...

....Once this has been achieved complete surrender becomes much easier.

The constant awareness of God prevents the mind from identifying with

other objects and enhances the conviction that God alone exists. It

also produces a reciprocal flow of power or grace from the Self,

which weakens the hold of the ‘I’-thought and destroys the Vasanas

(mental tendencies) which perpetuate and reinforce its existence.

Eventually the ‘I’-thought is reduced to manageable proportions and

with a little self-attention it can be made to sink temporarily into

the Heart.

As with self-enquiry, final realization is brought about automatically

by the power of the Self. When all the outgoing tendencies of the mind

have been dissolved in the repeated experiences of being, the Self

destroys the vestigial ‘I’-thought so completely that it never rises

again. This final destruction of the ‘I’ takes place only if the

self-surrender has been completely motiveless. If it is done with a

desire for grace or Self-realization it can never be more than

partial surrender, a business transaction in which the ‘I’-thought

makes an effort in the expectation of receiving a reward.

Teachings of 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.]___________

http://www.hinduism.co.za/bhakti.htm

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