His is the burden, you no longer have any cares. Ramana’s opposition to this type of religious bribery was quite clear and it is best summed up in the following statement: In most cases, this surrender is only a statement of intent, or at best, there is a partial surrendering to this new authority figure in the hope of acquiring some material or spiritual reward. There is a long tradition in this country (India) of people accepting certain teachers as their gurus, and then proclaiming immediately that they have surrendered to them. The most convenient starting point for this enquiry is the relationship that exists between Ramana Maharshi, the Guru, and the thousands of people who call themselves his devotees. In order to eliminate these misconceptions, and to clarify Ramana’s attitude and approach to surrender, it will be helpful to examine some of these commonly held ideas in the light of Ramana’s statements on the subject, firstly to show how unfounded most of these ideas are, and secondly, by eliminating them, to illustrate the profundity of Ramana’s real teachings. This may seem very radical at first sight, but this is only because of the general misconceptions that many people have about Ramana’s teachings on the true nature, meaning and practice of surrender. However if Ramana Maharshi’s teachings are correctly interpreted, then it will be seen that the paths of surrender and Self-enquiry merge before Realisation, and that in the higher levels of practice, if one follows the path of surrender, then one’s sadhana will be the same as that of someone who has chosen the path of Self-enquiry. It is generally assumed that the two paths do not converge until the moment of realisation is reached. This second statement is usually interpreted to mean that whichever of the two paths one chooses to follow, the ultimate goal and the culminating experience will be the same. One of Ramana Maharshi’s most frequent comments was that there were only two reliable methods for attaining Self-Realization one could either pursue Self-enquiry or one could surrender.Īn almost equally common statement was that jnana and bhakti are ultimately the same.
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