My Lord Supreme

Into my bosom, on my eyes, over my head
He gently planted His loving Feet
Ramana, my Lord Supreme;
He laid me the Path,
He showed me the Truth,
He settled the course of my Destiny
Truly, truly, all that I can not describe.

From Tripura Rahasya

"If the Lord of the world be pleased, will anything be withheld from the devotee? Tell me. He is the only Solace of the devotees whereas the chiefs are many in the world and not necessarily kind may be they are cruel and ungrateful also. Their patronage is also wavering and short-lived.

The Supreme Lord has infinite mercy for His devotees, is most grateful and has unlimited powers. Otherwise, would people continue to worship Him from untold ages? Kingdoms not well ordered are known to disintegrate. (But this universe continues as ever). Therefore this Lord of mercy is well established and also rightly famed.

"Surrender yourself directly and unhesitatingly to him. He will ordain the best for you and you need not ask for it."

All your thoughts

Let all your thoughts be thoughts of Siva,
And the Lord by His Grace shall reveal all;
If your thoughts be Siva-saturated
In you shall He then close abide.

--Tirumantiram

Complete Surrender

My life with Bhagavan taught me the value of faith, obedience and surrender. When i obeyed Bhagavan's words, or had complete faith that he would look after all my spiritual and physical needs, everything went well. When I tried to mould my own destiny, things went badly. Life's lessons have thus taught me the value and the necessity of complete surrender.

If one surrenders completely to Bhagavan; if one lives completely by His words, ignoring all others; if one has enough faith in Bhagavan to stop making plans about the future; if one can banish all doubts and worries by having faith in Bhagavan's omnipotence -- then and only then, Bhagavan will bend and mould one's circumstances, transforming them in such a way that one's spiritual and physical needs are always satisfied.

-- Sri Annamalai Swamy

Thy Will Be Done

Talk 594 (15 December 1938)

The Spanish lady, Madam Mercedes De Acorta, has written a letter to Mr. Hague, the American mining engineer who is here as a temporary resident for the last two months. She has raised a few questions there: "If the individual Self merges into the universal Self, how can one pray to God for the uplift of humanity?" The question seems to be common among the thinkers of the West. Sri Bhagavan said: They pray to God and finish with "Thy Will be done!" If His Will be done why do they pray at all? It is true that the Divine Will prevails at all times and under all circumstances. The individuals cannot act of their own accord. Recognise the force of the Divine Will and keep quiet. Each one is looked after by God. He has created all. You are one among 2,000 millions. When He looks after so many will He omit you? Even common sense dictates that one should abide by His Will.

Again there is no need to let Him know your needs. He knows them Himself and will look after them. Still more, why do you pray? Because you are helpless yourself and you want the Higher Power to help you. Well, does not your Creator and Protector know your weakness? Should you parade your weakness in order to make Him know it?

Devotee: But God helps those who help themselves.
Maharshi: Certainly. Help yourself and that is itself according to God's Will.

Every action is prompted by Him only. As for prayer for the sake of others, it looks so unselfish on the surface of it. But analyse the feeling and you will detect selfishness there also. You desire others' happiness so that you may be happy. Or you want the credit for having interceded on others' behalf. God does not require an intermediary. Mind your business and all will be well.

D.: Does not God work His Will through some chosen person?
M.: God is in all and works through all. But His presence is better recognised in purified minds. The pure ones reflect God's actions more clearly than the impure minds. Therefore people say that they are the chosen ones. But the `chosen' man does not himself say so. If he thinks that he is the intermediary then it is clear that he retains his individuality and that there is no complete surrender.

D.: Are not the Brahmins considered to be the priests or intermediaries between God and others?

M.: Yes. But who is a Brahmin? A Brahmin is one who has realised Brahman. Such a one has no sense of individuality in him. He cannot think that he acts as an intermediary. Again, as for prayer, a realised man does not see others as different from oneself. How can he pray at all, and to whom and for what? His very presence is the consummation of happiness for all. So long as you think that there are others different from you, you pray for them. But the sense of separateness is ignorance. This ignorance is again the cause of feeling helplessness. You know that you are weak and helpless. How then can you help others? If you say, "By prayer to God", God knows His business and does not require your intercession for others.

Help yourself so that you may become strong. That is done by complete surrender. That means you offer yourself to Him. So you cannot retain your individuality after surrender. You then abide by His Will. Thus Silence is the Highest of all achievements. Silence is the ocean in which all the rivers of all the religions discharge themselves. So says Thayumanavar. He also adds that the Vedic religion is the only one which combines both philosophy and religion.

From: Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

Bhagavan on Surrender

GOD WILL BEAR WHATEVER BURDENS WE PUT
on Him. All things are being carried on by the omnipotent
power of a Supreme God. Instead of submitting ourselves
to It, why should we always be planning, `We should do this
or that'. Knowing that the train carries all the load, why
should we, travelling therein, suffer by carrying our small
bundle on our heads, instead of leaving it on the train and
being happy.

The story of Ashtavakra teaches that in order to experience
Brahma Jnana all that is necessary is to surrender yourself
completely to the Guru, to give up your notion of `I' and
`mine'. If these are surrendered, what remains is the Reality.

There are two ways of achieving surrender.
One is looking into the source of the `I' and merging into that source.
The other is feeling, `I am helpless myself, God alone is all
powerful, and except by throwing myself completely on Him,
there is no other means of safety for me '; and thus gradually
developing the conviction that God alone exists and the ego
does not count. Both methods lead to the same goal. Complete
surrender is another name for jnana ^[?] or liberation.

Bhakti is not different from mukti ^[?]. Bhakti is being as the Self.
One is always That. He realizes It by the means he adopts.
What is bhakti ^[?]? To think of God. That means only one thought
prevails to the exclusion of all other thoughts. That thought is
of God, which is the Self, or it is the self surrendered unto
God. When He has taken you up, nothing else will assail you.
The absence of thought is bhakti ^[?]. It is also mukti ^[?].
Source: http://benegal.org/ramana_maharshi/books/gems/gem005.html

Everlasting prostration at His Feet

Sri GV Subbaramayya's words in praise of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi beautifully epitomise the devotion of followers for Bhagavan. Some excerpts (p163):

O my Divine Love! People run to the forests and mountain caves for solitude to practice meditation, but You drew me to meditate on You, without effort, everywhere.
People renounce their possessions, mortify their flesh, and do hard penance to achieve self-control. But without the least deprivation, denial or suffering, You control me.
People seek a Master and serve him, longing for initiation into spiritual mystery. But You, my master, seek and serve me in order to reveal Yourself fully to me.
People after strenuously striving for many lives, attain Self-realization. But You made me, here and now, without the least effort, realize myself in You.
What a wonder! What seems so difficult to all people is easiest for You.

I know not what other people call love. My love is only to serve and suffer and die for You.
I know not what other people term devotion. My devotion is only to bind my eyes to Your blessed feet and follow them always .

I know not what other people name heaven and hell. My heaven is only in Your smile, amd my hell is only in Your tear.
I know not what other people call life and death. My life is only in Your presence, and my death is only in Your disappearance.

I know not what other people mean by war and peace. My war is only to fight against the obstacles in my way to You, and my peace is only to reach You, and fall at Your feet in one everlasting prostration.

Indeed i know nothing. I only know that You are everything to me.

See also: Sri Ramana reminiscences and Power of Presence.

Leave it to the Guru

Once a visitor wept to Bhagavan that he felt no improvement in himself despite coming to Bhagavan. Bhagavan replied:

On this road there are no milestones. How can you know in which direction you are going? Why dont you do what the first-class railway passenger does? He tells the guard his destination, locks the doors and goes to sleep. The rest is done by the guard. If you trust your Guru as much as you trust the railway guard, it would be enough to make you reach your destination. Your business is to shut the door and windows and sleep. The guard will wake you up at your destination.

Offer yourself to God

Echammal once wished to perform a puja which required a very large number of tulsi (similar to basil) leaves.
One day (circa 1942) Bhagavan told her:

People will not allow the leaves to remain where they are, beautiful and alive. They pick them, pierce them, thread them. The poor leaves and flowers and mercilessly maimed and killed. Does God need such worship? Don't they belong to him when they are on their trees? We do these horrible things to flowers, but we would not offer our own selves to God

(Letters, letter 42. Also p88)

Sri Shardamma to Lakshmana Swamy

A letter to Swamy (source):

Sri Lakshmana Bhagavan. You are God who gives me bliss. I cannot leave you even for a minute. You are my mother, father, Guru, God. Whatever you say I will do. I wish to stay always with you, and i am only happy when I am with You. I have no other direction to go. I cannot forget your name, and i shall always be thinking about your name and form. You are the foundation for me, and my burden is yours forever. If i realize the Self i shall have no business with you. Till then i have to stay with you. You attracted my mind, and now you have stolen it.

A poem at the end of the letter:

In my difficulties you will hear my words and you will help me. In leaving me you cannot go anywhere for you are the Self. Please don't cast me aside. I am surrendering my life to you. What use is this life without looking at your form?

Give your whole Self to Him

I open the book Self-Realization by BV Narasimha Rao, and this quotation from Shankara greets me (p233).

If the mind is not reverently absorbed at the feet of the Master (Guru) what good is there, what good indeed in possessing or achieving anything else?

- Shankara, Guru Ashtakam

I open another page (117) where I find (FW Humphreys):

How can you best worship God? Why, by not trying to worship Him (but) by giving up your whole Self to Him and showing that every thought, every action, is only a working of that one Life (God) -- more or less perfect according as it is unconscious and conscious.

Surrender

Surrender

This page will be updated with Teachings by various sources on the topic of Surrender.

Why i have chosen this topic is that Surrender is a very important path for self-realization as recommended by Ramana Maharshi, Sri Nisargadatta and others. To all those who find meditation, self-enquiry and other such practices difficult or tough, Ramana recommended complete surrender.

Bhagavan explains surrender

Surrender to Him and abide by His will whether he appears or vanishes; await His pleasure. If you ask Him to do as you please, it is not surrender but command to Him. You cannot have Him obey you and yet think that you have surrendered. He knows what is best and when and how to do it. Leave everything entirely to Him.
His is the burden: you have no longer any cares. All your cares are His. Such is surrender. This is bhaktii.
(Talks, p440)

Sri Krishna: Surrender is the surest path to Godi

The following lines from the Gita (spoken by Sri Krishna to the distraught Arjuna) highlight that complete surrender and trust in one's Guru, is the surest path to God.
(to see devanagri text please switch text-encoding on your browser to UTF-8)

सर्व धर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकम् शरणं व्रज ।
अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥ ६६ ॥

Cast aside all ways/paths (dharma), and take refuge (sharanam, surrender) in me, i.e., surrender completely to me. I will liberate you from all sins, do not grieve. (18-66)

Please refer the link God for more on this topic, posts on Bhakti as well as articles on the lives of Mirabai, Tukaram, Namdev on wikipedia, as well as on dishq

The Bhagavad Gita is an excellent resource for people on the path of bhakti and surrender to the Guru or Lord.

From the Tirumantiram

Guru is none but Siva-thus spoke Nandi;
Guru is Siva Himself-this they realize not;
Guru will to you Siva be,
And your Guide too;
Guru in truth is Lord,
That surpasses speech and thought, all.

He is beyond worlds all
Yet, here below, He bestows His grace abundant
On the good and the devout,
And in love works for salvation of all;
Thus is the Holy Guru
Whose praise is beyond speech
Like unto Siva, the Being Pure.

1577: Compassionate Acts of Holy Guru

The Holy Guru is truly a Deva;
By his divine art he makes me perceive
All things in categories three;
By his sacred precepts sunders the bonds of Pasu-Pasa
And makes me drink of the milk of Mukti
All in benign compassion the Gurupara does.

1578: Discerning Holy Guru

The Guru comes, purifies and grants Godhood,
They see this not,
The witless ones of vision faulty;
But the holy ones take to him
In endearment as unto kith and kin,
And worship him as Lord Himself.

See this: Surrender

Source

Teachings – guru – bhakti – surrender

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