All Paths Lead To One

Sri Ramana Maharshi

2-1-1946 afternoon

Question 3: I find surrender is easier. I want to adopt the path.

Answer: By whatever path you go, you will have to lose yourself in the One. Surrender is complete only when you reach the stage 'Thou art all' and 'Thy will be done'. The state is not different from jnana. In soham there is dvaita. In surrender there is advaita. In the Reality there is neither dvaita nor advaita, but That which is, is. Surrender appears easy because people imagine that once they say with their lips 'I surrender' and put their burdens on the Lord, they can be free and do what they like. But the fact is that you can have no likes or dislikes after your surrender and your will should become completely non-existent, the Lord's Will taking its place. Such death of the ego is nothing different from jnana. So by whatever path you may go, you must come to jnana or oneness.

Question 4: How am I to deal with my passions? Am I to check them or satisfy them? If I follow B's method and ask, 'To whom are these passions?' they do not seem to die but grow stronger.

Answer: That only shows you are not going about my method properly. The right way is to find out the root of all passions, the source whence they proceed, and get rid of that. If you check the passions, they may get suppressed for the moment, but will appear again. If you satisfy them, they will be satisfied only for the moment and will again crave satisfaction. Satisfying desires and thereby trying out root them out is like trying to quench fire by pouring kerosene oil over it. The only way is to find the root of desire and thus remove it.

Another visitor asked B, "If I try to make the 'Who am I?' enquiry, I fall into sleep. What should I do?"

B: Persist in the enquiry throughout your waking hours. That would be quite enough. If you keep on making the enquiry till you fall asleep, the enquiry will go on during sleep also. Take up the enquiry again as soon as you wake up.