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Real Freedom Lies in Surrendering
This idea of total surrender to the Master seems to pose certain difficulties,
the most insistent fear in the minds of abhyasis being the idea that
surrender implies total loss of freedom, loss of personal identity etc.
Our sisters and brothers of the West seem to face this problem in greater
measure. One preceptor of the West actually asked this question. He
asked, “Master! You are always talking of freedom, yet you ask abhyasis
to surrender. Does surrender not imply loss of freedom? How to reconcile
these two things?” Master answered, “The only freedom is the freedom
to do the right.” I would add that since surrender is right and necessary
for spiritual growth, it is an act of freedom to surrender oneself to
the Master. In fact I consider surrender to be the highest expression
of one’s freedom. It is the perfect expression of freedom itself.
So what are we really surrendering to the Master? All that we surrender
is this very stupid, very limited freedom that we have, reflected in
nothing but our ability to do wrong things, to suffer, so that we can
enjoy a real freedom, because now we are, in a sense, looked after by
the Master! So that was one of the highest levels of His teaching, “Be
free from these ideas of freedom and surrender because in that lies
your highest benefit.”
In examining this idea of freedom we have been led to the conclusion
that what we have thought of as loss of freedom is really nothing but
a state of surrender to the Master’s will. We have not lost freedom
in the sense that we have been deprived of it. We have voluntarily,
wholeheartedly and devotedly surrendered it to the Master of our Soul.
We now see why the need for such surrender is paramount. Choice implies
knowledge of how to choose, and will to enforce that choice. Our choice
was exercised when we chose the Master and his way. It is like a bachelor
who has virtually unlimited choice of a bride, but having chosen one
and married her, the question of further choice no longer arises! The
time for choice is over.
At higher and higher levels of evolution the very idea of choice ceases
to exist. A stage has now been reached where even knowledge is no longer
necessary. Many great saints have testified from their personal spiritual
experience that a stage is reached when we have to bid knowledge and
the intellect good-bye. It is not that we abandon knowledge as being
unworthy or incapable of helping us. It served its role, its part has
been played out, and the time for it to leave the stage has come, that
is all! All that we need now is will, will to act and will to obey the
Master in every single instruction. To those who are fortunate enough
to arrive at this exalted stage, the Master is no longer a guide for
spirituality alone. He has now become the Master of one’s life in all
its aspects of existence. He becomes the father, the mother, the son,
the teacher, the doctor, in fact there is no role that He does not play
in the abhyasi’s life! He has taken total charge of the abhyasi. So
we see that only our surrendering to him can bring about a state where
he can take total charge of us!
So He gave us the greatest freedom to allow us to achieve the greatest
possible freedom. And what was that? The ability to surrender which
alone would give us what He promised as the highest “freedom from freedom.”
It took me a very long time to understand this “freedom from freedom.’
I could finally understand it only when I understood the idea of surrender,
that what it really is, is the freedom from the stupid freedom that
we think we are now having, because if all of you would examine the
degree of freedom that you enjoy, you will understand it’s not worth
having.
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