It is not important to whom you surrender; it is the thought of total surrender that has the power to change your life into a blissful one. When you surrender, you become a possessor of the inexhaustible energy that is Existence, and you can carry on with anything that comes your way. You become strong and unshakeable, come what may. People around you will find you to be a pillar of strength. They will be able to feel the invisible hand of Existence through you. If you have not surrendered, it means that your ego is still holding you back from merging into the infinite and you automatically become finite in your resources and energy. A Master is a device to help you surrender. Surrender does not mean that you are dependent on someone.

It simply means that you are taking their help in dissolving your own ego. Question: Swamiji, can you please tell us more about meditation and how it can help in losing our ego. Yes, but let me first tell you how and why meditation techniques came into being. Man, ever since his creation, has wondered about and researched what it is that has created this beautiful universe; what it is that has created this beautiful Earth and rolled it into space and what it is that makes the rivers flow and the mountains grow. He concluded that there is a force or energy that is conducting all this. He concluded that there was some tremendous existential energy that is running the whole show. He then started wondering about how to establish a connection with that energy.

The first people to make this conclusion, do research and establish a connection with this energy, were the Rishis or realised souls or enlightened Masters. Once they attained enlightenment, they created many ways for future generations also to realize this energy. The ways that each of them gave are the various meditation techniques and religions. Each of them realized God through a different way, through a different technique, and recorded their way independently. This is just like how scientists create research reports on their discoveries and inventions. Each Rishi gave a report on his enlightenment and this became a religion or a meditation technique. These early realized souls formed different religions to establish these ideas on the life force that is conducting this world. We call this life force Jesus, Allah, Shiva and so on.

You dont even have to believe in any God. Atheists dont believe in any God but they have to believe in their own existence. If we believe in our own existence and search for an answer to the question Who am I? that becomes a meditation technique, and we can realize God. Anyhow, these different ways or meditation techniques became different religions over time. But what happened later? People have left this basic idea behind all the religions and have started fighting in the name of religion. A small story: A Tamilian, an Englishman, a North Indian and a Bengali were traveling together. They saw a lake from a distance. The Tamilian saw it from the south and called it thanneer, which is the Tamil word for water.

The Englishman saw it from the west and called it water. The North Indian saw it from the north and called it paani. The Bengali saw it from the east and called it jal. All four of them were referring to the same thing, water. But they started fighting over it saying that what each of them was saying was the correct thing. None of the four people attempted to get into the lake and see for themselves what water exactly is. The Tamilian was holding on to what his grandfather told him; the Englishman claimed that his grandfather told him it was water; the North Indian and the Bengali were also clinging onto what their respective grandfathers had told them. This is exactly what we are doing also.

People who fight over religion are doing the same thing. They have to understand that the angle from which the early-realized souls saw, from that angle they named it; but everything is one Existence or God. Krishna and Christ mean the same. People have seen them from different angles; that's all. These four people, without getting into the lake, are arguing about what their forefathers told them! What will happen? They will only fight because each of them thinks that what their forefathers said was right. If they decided to put aside what their grandfathers said and get into the lake and see for themselves, they would understand that all their grandfathers meant the same thing! Then there would be no fight. Today, only those who have not got into the lake and had a mouthful of water are fighting.

Those who are spreading terrorism in the name of religion and caste are those who have not got into the lake called spirituality and had a taste of the truth. The four people who are fighting are simply standing on the shore and fighting! So understand that the truth is expressed in various forms, that's all. Coming back to meditation, simply put, meditation is allowing your mind to relax, that's all. Meditation is not concentration as people make it out to be. When you concentrate, you actually try to exclude everything from your mind, which is an impossible task.