Way to Happiness: Surrender

Sri Ramana Maharshi

How can the silence of the Guru, who gives no initiation nor dies any other tangible act, be more powerful than His word etc.? How is such silence better than the study of scriptures?

Silence is the most potent form of work. However vast and emphatic the scriptures may be, they fail in their effect. The Guru is quiet and Grace prevails in all. This silence is more vast and more emphatic than all the scriptures put together.

But how can the devotee obtain happiness?

The devotee surrenders himself to the Master and it means that there is no vestige of individuality retained by him. If the surrender is complete, all sense of self is lost, and then there can be no misery or sorrow. The eternal Being is nothing but happiness. That comes as a revelation.

How can I obtain Grace?

Grace is the Self. That also is not to be acquired; you only need to know that it exists. The sun is brightness only. It does not see darkness. Yet you speak of darkness fleeing on the sun's approach. So also the devotee's ignorance, like the phantom of darkness, vanishes at the look of the Guru. You are surrounded by sunlight; yet if you want to see the sun, you must turn in its direction and look at it. So also Grace is found by the proper approach you make, though it is here and now.

Cannot Grace hasten ripeness in the seeker?

Leave it all to the Master. Surrender to Him without reserve. One of two things must be done: either surrender yourself because you realize your inability and need a higher power to help you; or investigate into the cause of misery, go into the Source and so merge in the Self. Either way, you will be free from misery. God or Guru never forsakes the devotee who has surrendered himself.