Question: How can we surrender to the Supreme?

Sri Chinmoy: Let us say that as a child, when you were about three years old, you used to always listen to your mother. Perhaps you don't always listen to her now; but when you were a child, there were many things your mother asked you to do or not to do. Did you do anything wrong at that time by listening to her? No. Your mother asked you not to touch fire and you believed her. If you had touched the fire, it would have burnt your hand. But just because you were obedient and you surrendered to your mother's will, you escaped being burnt. There were many things she asked you not to do and you didn't do them. As a result you were saved.

You have to have this same kind of faith in the spiritual life. You need to have a childlike simplicity and sincerity to tell you that your spiritual Master, like your mother, will not disappoint you or deceive you. You are now a child, a baby in the spiritual life. You have to feel that if you can have the kind of implicit faith which you had in your childhood, then you will again be fulfilled. When you were a child, the moment you saw that your mother was not near or around you, you felt helpless. A child needs his mother around him all the time. In the spiritual life also, we have to know that when we need the inner guidance, the guidance of the Master, we are safe. When we miss or lose that inner guidance, we are unsafe. Your spiritual Master will not deceive you; your Inner Pilot will not deceive you. No! Surrender comes only when one has faith in somebody else, when one has more faith in that particular person than he has in himself.

If you do not have a Master and you practise meditation, then you have to go deep within and feel that the inner voice knows far better than you do. Unfortunately, the seeker is very often misguided. Sometimes the voice of the vital resembles the inner voice of the soul. Then the seeker is mistaken and he suffers, thinking that he is listening to the soul's dictates.

You can also become a child just by unlearning. Ignorance and darkness have taught you many things which you have now to unlearn. A child knows practically nothing; he knows only how to love his mother and that is more than everything for a child. Everyone has to unlearn things that the mind has taught him.

So when we pray, when we meditate, the first thing we should do is to get rid of doubts, suspicions and other negative qualities. You have faith in your arms so that you can strike someone or you can fight with someone. That is your limited capacity. But if you can have faith in somebody else who is much stronger than you and if you can please him, then naturally he will be able to use his strength for you. In the spiritual life also, if you can please your inner being, your soul, your Inner Pilot, your spiritual Master, with your limited capacity, then you will see that the object of your adoration is bound to give you something far beyond your imagination. If you please your parents when they want you to do something, then if you ask them for money or for some other material help, immediately they will give it to you. They will give it to you because they have much more money than you have, much more capacity in various fields. But if you don't please them, then they will give you nothing.

When a child comes running to his father with a nickel he has just found in the street, he says, "Look, Father, I have found a nickel!" The father is so happy that his son has come to him. The child's sole possession, his only wealth is a nickel. With this nickel he could have gone to a shop and bought candy or used it in some other way, but he didn't do it. Instead he came home to his father with this little nickel. Naturally the father is pleased and gives the child a quarter or dollar instead of the nickel. The father sees that his child has the heart to give what he has: he gives his best possession without any hesitation.

In the spiritual life also, you give a little aspiration, which is your nickel, during your prayer or meditation for a few minutes early in the morning. Then immediately the spiritual Master will invoke so many things for you: Peace, Light, Bliss, Joy and Delight. But you have to give an iota of your aspiration, for five minutes or half an hour of meditation in the morning. When we feel that in order to learn something we have to give something of our own, then we will see the result.

God will never be indebted to us. We do have a little capacity; we meditate on God for a few minutes each day. But are we exercising this capacity or not? The moment He sees that we are regular in our meditation, that we are sincere and earnest and that we have accepted this approach to the spiritual life wholeheartedly, God showers His boundless Compassion on us in the form of Light, Delight and Peace.

So give to God what you have: your childlike faith and inner cry. If you can give Him your inner cry and have implicit faith in Him, then surrender will automatically loom large in your life of aspiration.