Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 3. 1936-37

Fragment ID: 17833

1936-37

If complete surrender means a total extinction of the ego, then not a single human creature can claim it till he reaches the final stage of Yoga.

It is correct on the whole, but one can overcome this difficulty if the psychic leads.

The absolute surrender must be not only an experience in meditation, but a fact governing all the life, all the thoughts, feelings, actions. Till then the use of one’s own will and effort is necessary, but an effort in which also there is the spirit of surrender, calling in the Force to support the will and effort and undisturbed by success or failure. When the Force takes up the sadhana, then indeed effort may cease, but still there will be the necessity of the constant assent of the being and a vigilance so that one may not admit a false Force at any point.

It depends on what is meant by absolute surrender – the experience of it in some part of the being or the fact of it in all parts of the being. The former may easily come at any time; it is the latter that takes time to complete.

If you are surrendered only in the higher consciousness, with no peace or purity in the lower, certainly that is not enough and you have to aspire for the peace and purity everywhere.

If the surrender is complete, then that certainly is the best -what has to be avoided is a tamasic state devoid of will or vigilance justifying itself under the name of surrender.