Q: Gurudev, in many of the knowledge books, I have read that everything is just One consciousness and we are part of that One. In that case, what do you mean by surrender? What is it that we are surrendering and to whom do we surrender when it is just One consciousness?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, correct.
Actually there is nothing to surrender, but when the mind feels, ‘I am separate, I am different, I am alone’, to let that go, you surrender and just relax.
It is like the mother at home feeling. To generate the mother at home feeling, the process of letting go is called surrender. That is all. There is nothing that you have that you need to surrender. Got it?

That is why there are three different paths (Karma Yoga or the Path of Action, Bhakti Yoga or the Path of Devotion, Jnana Yoga or the Path of Knowledge).
The Path of Knowledge is when you wake up and see, everything is made up of just One thing. There is no two, and this is knowledge.
But when you forget this and feel there is two and when there is something that you are holding on to and it is too much on your head and you can’t bear it, then you say, ‘I Let go’, that is surrender.

One very good example for this would be: You are sitting on the train and you are holding the luggage on your shoulders. Though the seat is comfortable you are putting the weight of the luggage on your head and shoulders and feeling so uncomfortable. Then someone comes and says, ‘Hey, come on! Keep the luggage down. The train is anyway carrying you and the luggage. Relax.’
Giving you that sense of total ease, is said to be Sharanagati (surrender).

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