True surrender is love of God for the sake of love

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This is my favourite quote about this subject, it's from Rabi'a a sufi saint of the 9th century or so:"O my Lord," she prayed, "if I worship Thee from fear of

Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship Thee in hope of Paradise, exclude

me thence, but if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, then withhold not

from me Thine Eternal Beauty."best thoughtsSimonGrant <g-ssummerville Sent: Thu, 29 April, 2010 2:31:43 True surrender is love of God for the sake of love

 

 

The Teachings of BhagavanSri Ramana Maharshiin His Own WordsCHAPTER TWOFROM

THEORY

TO

PRACTICEDevotee: Is there predestination? And if what is destined tohappen will happen, is there any use in prayer or effort or shouldwe just remain idle?This is a concise form of the question which Bhagavan was sooften asked, and the reply is typical in that it does not expoundtheory but prescribes what to do.Bhagavan: There are only two ways in which to conquer destinyor be independent of it. One is to enquire who undergoes thisdestiny and discover that only the ego is bound by it and notthe Self, and that the ego is non-existent. The other way is tokill the ego by completely surrendering to the Lord, by realisingone's helplessness and saying all the time: `Not I, but Thou, Oh,my Lord', and giving up all sense of `I' and `mine' and leavingit to the Lord to do what he likes with you. Surrender cannever be regarded as complete so long as the devotee wants

thisor that from the Lord. True surrender is love of God for thesake of love and for nothing else, not even for the sake ofsalvation. In other words, complete effacement of the ego isnecessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve thiseffacement through Self enquiry or through bhakti-marga. 22 Day by with Bhagavan by A. Devaraja Mudaliar (5th Edition, 2002), p. 266.