LOVE, DEVOTION, SURRENDER

http://BabasBoy.gaia.com — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 04:01:58 GMT

LOVE, DEVOTION, SURRENDER

Love is sweet, devotion is sweeter, surrender is
sweetest.

Love is sweet. I have felt this truth in my mother's
spontaneous love for me.
Devotion is sweeter. I have discovered this truth in
my mother's pure devotion towards the perfection of my
life.
Surrender is sweetest. I have realised this truth in
my mother's constant surrender towards the fulfilment
of my joy.

Again, love is mighty, devotion is mightier,
surrender is mightiest.

Love is mighty. This truth I feel when I look at my
father's face.
Devotion is mightier. This truth I discover when I
sit at my father's feet.
Surrender is mightiest. This truth I realise when I
live in the breath of my father's will.

Love, devotion and surrender. St. Augustine has
blessed us with a profound message: "Love and then do
what you like."
Our mind thinks that this is absolutely true. Our
heart feels that this is undeniably true. But
unfortunately in our day-to-day life we are not able
to practise it. That is to say, we do not know what
love is. We do not know why we love something or
someone. Finally, we do not know how to love.
What is love? From the spiritual and inner point of
view, love is self-expansion. Human love binds and is
bound. Divine Love expands and enlarges itself. Here
we are dealing with Divine Love.
Devotion is the intensity in love, and surrender is
the fulfilment of love. Why do we love? We love
because at every moment we are pinched with hunger to
realise the highest, to feel the inmost, to be
consciously one with the universe; with the universal
Truth, Light, Peace and Bliss, and to be completely
fulfilled.
How to love? If we love with a view to achieving
something from others, then our love is no love. Love
means constant self-offering on the strength of our
own inner aspiration.
This world of ours needs peace, joy, bliss, harmony
and understanding. We feel that here on earth there is
no light, no truth, no divinity - nothing of the sort.
All the divine qualities, all aspects of the Lord
Supreme, are in the skies, in the deep blue skies, not
here. This is what we feel. Hence we always look up
high for help. We feel that God is in heaven, not on
earth. To rescue us, God will come down into the
world. He is not to be found here on earth. Here we
are wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance. There can
be no light, no truth here.
But we must realise that God, being Omnipresent, is
here too. He is within us. He is also without. In the
inmost recesses of our heart, we feel His living
Presence.
As you all know, George Bernard Shaw has warned us,
"Beware of the man whose God is in the skies." But our
God is everywhere. He is not only in heaven, He is
also here on earth. He is with us, He is within us and
He is for us. We do not have to enter the highest
regions of consciousness to see God. Our inner cry
will bring to the fore our inner divinity, which is
nothing other than God.
Surrender. Surrender is protection and surrender is
illumination. Surrender is our perfection. We begin
our journey at the very commencement of our life. We
surrender our existence to our parents and get, in
return, protection. We listen to our parents. We
surrender to their will, to their advice and
suggestions, and we are protected, well protected. Joy
boundless we feel in our day-to-day life when we are
children. Why? Because we surrender our personal will,
our own inner thinking, to our parents, and
immediately we receive joy plus protection. In
protection is joy, and in joy is protection.
Now in the evening of our life, what happens? If we
follow the inner life and the spiritual life, in the
evening of our life we also surrender. To whom? To the
Inner Pilot, the Lord Supreme. At the end of our
journey we surrender our very breath to the Supreme.
Then we again get joy, perfect joy, unalloyed joy.
To quote Dante, "The happiest man is he who can
connect the evening of his life with the beginning."
Now, if we are all sincere seekers of the ultimate
Truth, then our journey begins with surrender to our
parents, who are our well-wishers, our dearest and
nearest ones. When we surrender our existence to them,
we get joy in abundant measure. Then, when we walk
along the path of spirituality, at every moment we try
to listen to the dictates of our inner being. The more
we listen to our inner being, the greater is our joy,
and the higher our fulfilment. And then, when our term
is over, when we have to enter into another world for
a short rest, if we consciously surrender to God's
Will, ours will be the supreme joy, the glory supreme.
It is difficult to love mankind. It is difficult to
devote ourselves to mankind. It is difficult to
surrender ourselves to mankind. This is true. In the
same way, it is difficult to love God, to serve God,
to devote ourselves to God and to surrender our living
breath to God.
Now, why? The simple reason is that we want to
possess and be possessed. We are constantly making
ourselves victims of ignorance. That is to say, our
desires can never be fulfilled. We have countless
desires. God will fulfil only those desires that will
be of some use, from which we will derive benefit. If
He were to fulfil our countless desires, then He would
be doing an injustice to our aspiring souls. That He
will not do. He knows what is best for us and He has
given us beyond our capacity, though unfortunately we
are unaware of this.
St. Francis, from his own experience, has offered a
unique truth to the world at large: "He who thinks
that God's Love is inadequate is very greedy." We are
all really greedy people. If we go deep within, we
see, we feel, we realise that God has given us
infinitely more than we need and, needless to say,
more than we deserve.
Love, devotion and surrender. These are the three
rungs in the spiritual ladder, or should we say, the
ladder of our evolving consciousness. The first rung
is love; the second, or penultimate, is devotion; and
the ultimate is surrender.
A tiny drop enters into the ocean and becomes the
mighty, the boundless ocean. Unfortunately, in the
West surrender is misunderstood. We feel that if we
surrender to someone, he will then lord it over us. We
will have no individuality or personality. From the
ordinary point of view, the human point of view, this
is true. But from the spiritual point of view, it is
absolutely wrong. When the finite enters into the
Infinite, it becomes the Infinite all at once. When a
tiny drop enters into the ocean, we cannot trace the
drop. It becomes the mighty ocean.
Each moment we are given ample opportunity to love
mankind. And if we really love mankind, then we have
the feeling of wanting to offer devoted service to
mankind. And when we really want to enlarge our
existence, expand our consciousness and be one,
inseparably one, with the Vast, then surrender is the
only answer.
Each moment we see right in front of us a barrier
between one human being and another - an adamantine
wall between two people. We cannot communicate
properly, wholeheartedly and soulfully. Why? Because
we are wanting in love. Love is our inseparable
oneness with the rest of the world, with God's entire
Creation. We can break asunder this adamantine wall on
the strength of our soulful love.
India's greatest poet, Rabindranath Tagore, said, "He
who loves finds the door open." So our heart's door is
already open for those who really, truly and soulfully
love.
God loves us out of His Infinite Bounty, and His
Heart's Door is always wide open. Just because He is
all Love, we approach Him. He is our dearest, not
because He is Omniscient and Omnipotent, but just
because He is all Love.

Love, devotion and surrender.

To serve and never be tired is love.
To learn and never be filled is devotion.
To offer and never to end is surrender.

Love is man's reality.
Devotion is man's divinity.
Surrender is man's immortality.

Reality is all-pervading.
Divinity is all-elevating.
Immortality is all-fulfilling.

Sri Chinmoy

American International School
Zurich, Switzerland
November 27, 1970
Copyright 1972 Sri Chinmoy Lighthouse

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LOVE, DEVOTION, SURRENDER