SURRENDER TO THE WILL OF THE MASTER

 
Surrender to the will of the master is in itself very difficult but it becomes more so under the gaze of friendly onlookers. To them the actions of the spiritual aspirant often seem incomprehensible, as if he were sacrificing his most precious possession — his free will.

Often it seems to the onlooker that the master aims only to increase his own prestige by directing the actions of those who surround him. This falls far short of understanding the work of the master. Just as it is necessary for solder to be fluxed in a salt before it can join the two metal parts together, it is necessary for the soul of the seeker to be bathed through self-surrenderance in the light that the master affords. The master gains nothing; it is not his purpose to gain. Certainly his ego cannot be exalted, for if he is a Perfect Master he has already lost it.

When a man determines to find peace and fulfillment through the renunciation of the cravings of the ego-life, he finds that his new decision is challenged more by the deep-rooted compulsions of his own mind than by any obstructive factors in external environment. Although he now longs to love the master whole-heartedly as the divine beloved, and tries to surrender completely to him, he is far from being master of his own mind. He cannot even surrender the things he regards as his own, despite his sincere decision.

Like Janus, the aspirant has two faces, one looking longingly at truth, the other at ignorance. On the one hand the aspirant yearns for the saving grace of the master and to be completely lost in the unbounded truth that he senses in the master. On the other hand his false, separative ego tries to perpetuate its existence by all available means. But with the first surrender to the master the death knell of the ego-life is sounded, and though it continues to struggle for survival its days of dominance are numbered.