SIVANANDA DAILY READING FOR 16 JUNE

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SIVANANDA DAILY READING FOR 16 JUNE

I AM THINE O LORD

 

 

Do not bother about taking care of your body. God will save it if he

needs it for further service. Surrender it at his feet and rest in

peace. He will take care of it. A real devotee says, "Let me take

millions of births; it does not matter, but let me be attached to the

lotus-feet of Lord Hari. Let me have spontaneous devotion to the

Lord. Let me be endowed with purity, spiritual strength, the spirit

of selfless service and other divine virtues."

 

If you simply say, without real inner feeling, "I am thine, O Lord,"

this will not constitute real integral self-surrender. This should

come right from the core of your heart. You must be prepared for a

radical change. You should not stick to your old habits, ways and

motives. You should not expect that everything should happen in the

way you want. You should live to carry on the divine purpose. You

should not think of those ambitions which the mind likes to gratify.

You should not think of using divine grace or the divine force for

your own purposes - then the irrepressible ego will assert itself in

various ways and refuse to give up its old habits.

 

The ego tries to get everything from the divine but it totally

declines to give itself to the divine. That is the reason why

aspirants do not make any substantial progress on the spiritual path

even after doing sadhana (spiritual practice) for several years.

 

There is no loss in self-surrender. You get from the Lord everything.

You enjoy all the divine aisvarya (wealth of divine attributes) of

the Lord. The whole wealth of the Lord belongs to you. Siddhis and

riddhis (psychic powers) will roll under your feet. You become one

with the Lord. You are freed from all wants and desires and cravings.

The spiritually hungry and the really thirsty aspirant who yearns for

the vision of the Lord, turns towards the divine and is quite

willing, eager and happy to consecrate his body, life and mind and

soul at the feet of the Lord.

 

The first stage of self-surrender is only a firm resolve to surrender

oneself to God, or to his preceptor. A sadhaka (seeker) who has

dedicated his life for the service of his teacher or the service of

humanity or for attaining self-realisation, is not bound by the

actions he performs subsequent to his self-surrender.

 

Self-surrender becomes perfect only after God-realisation.