Chapter 18The Guru · Surrender to the Guru

Because through it [surrender to the Guru]1 you surrender not only to the impersonal but to the personal, not only to the Divine in yourself but to the Divine outside you; you get a chance for the surpassing of ego not only by retreat into the Self where ego does not exist, but in the personal nature where it is the ruler. It is the sign of the will to complete surrender to the total Divine, samagra ˙m m¯a ˙m m¯anus.¯ı ˙m tanum ¯a´sritam. Of course it must be a genuine spiritual surrender for all this to be true.

* When one takes sincerely to surrender, nothing must be concealed that is of any importance for the life of the sadhana. Confession helps to purge the consciousness of hampering ele-ments and it clears the inner air and makes for a closer and more intimate and effective relation between the Guru and the disciple.

* No [surrender to the Divine and surrender to the Guru are not two different things]. In surrendering to the Guru, it is to the Divine in him that one surrenders — if it were only to a human 1 The correspondent asked, “What makes the surrender to the Guru so grand and glorious as to be called the surrender beyond all surrenders?” — Ed.

entity it would be ineffective. But it is the consciousness of the Divine Presence that makes the Guru a real Guru, so that even if the disciple surrenders to him thinking of the human being to whom he surrenders, that Presence would still make it effective.

* Yes [surrender to the formless Divine would leave parts of the being subject to the gunas and ego] — because only the static parts would be free in formlessness, the active nature would be still in the play of the gunas. Many think they are free from ego because they get the sense of the formless Existence, they do not see that the egoistic element remains in their action just as before.