REAL SURRENDER AND ADORATION

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

94. REAL SURRENDER AND ADORATION
The essence of the life spiritual, the essence of the sadhana that ultimately grants you
sakshatkara (direct realisation of the Absolute), is to set up an inner spiritual contact and a link, a
relationship, with the Eternal and the Infinite. Having set up this inner spiritual link in a conscious
knowing manner, having wished for it, then diligently cultivate it and keep on developing it, so that
it grows and grows and begins to fill your entire consciousness, transforming your sense of personal
identity connected with this world and its things and beings into a higher identity, a supramundane,

divine identity, having its meaning and relevance in its connection with a transcendental, cosmic
Reality.
“I am part of It. I am not other than It. Within me is shining Its light. Within me, vibrantly
alive, is that great Spirit. That is what I am. That is my reality. That is the truth of my being. I am a
divine principle, a God-principle.” Thus there comes about a transformation in the inwardness of
your hidden subjective awareness.
When this transformation has taken place by carrying on the unceasing cultivation and
development of this new awareness and making it the most important part of your life,
Godwardness becomes the inner content of all parts of your entire nature—thought, word and deed.
Your entire being becomes God-oriented. It becomes a centre of Godwardness.
The great ones have declared that such a life is a real life. Such a life, thus oriented towards
God, rooted in God, moving towards God, filled with God is the one sure unfailing means of
attaining Him. They call it sadhana, abhyasa, yoga. They call it dedication, surrender, worship,
service, devotion, adoration.
In worship, in adoration, we offer things to God. We feel that by offering these things, the
Supreme is pleased. There was a time when we did not want to offend the Supreme. We wanted to
propitiate the Supreme by offering a lamb or a goat as a sacrifice, so that He may not be wrathful or
He may be pleased and grant us favours. But there has been a great deal of spiritual evolution in the
human race, in human consciousness. The concept of propitiating or pleasing God still lingers, but
more has been added on to it.
To reflect Him is the real worship. To glorify Him, to stand witness to His perfection is the
real worship and adoration. The best offering that can be placed at the feet of the Supreme is
oneself: “I surrender myself to Thee. I myself constitute the offering with which I adore You.”
In which case, one then has to strive earnestly and sincerely to make oneself worthy of being
offered to the Lord. That then becomes the discipline, the earnest endeavour, the continuous
abhyasa—to make oneself ever worthier, ever holier, ever more spiritual, ever more divine, that one
may indeed become a most worthy offering to be placed at His feet as an adoration.
Therefore, the greatest thing with which you can adore God is yourself, your life. Thus, the
holier you become and the holier your life becomes, the more worthy it becomes to be offered to the
Lord. The more spiritual and divine that you make yourself, filling yourself with light in all parts of
your being, the worthier becomes the offering you place before Him and the more glorious becomes
your adoration of the Divine.
What greater thing! Not something extraneous to you other than you, but you yourself. By
offering yourself is the Lord adored. Therefore, you begin to see a new dimension of sadhana—not
engaging in doing some process but working upon yourself. Working upon yourself to make
yourself perfect, ever holier, more truthful, more loving, more selfless, more devoid of the “I”, ever
more devoid of all those things that are likely to put a distance between you and the Supreme
becomes your abhyasa.

Your sadhana turns inward. It becomes an occult, inward process which does not require
any special time, space or circumstances. But, at all times, all the waking hours of the day, this
inner, subjective process can go on, so that day by day, moment by moment you try to work upon
yourself, make yourself more and more worthy.
This is another way of looking at spiritual life and understanding sadhana. It is a dimension
that is not from inward to outward, but from outward to inward, ever moving to the very depth and
the centre of your very being, where you make yourself a perfect and worthy factor to be offered to
the Supreme.
And this becomes possible only if there is an awakened awareness within. May God grant
you that awakened awareness. May you know that the great task is to pay attention to the
spiritualising and divinising of your entire being, so that you shine as a worthy votive offering at the
altar of the cosmic Spirit Divine—that is everywhere present at all times in all Its fullness.
Such a worship can be ceaseless. It is upon a different dimension altogether. Such a worship
constantly keeps us in an awareness of the presence of God, an awareness of God. No part of our life
is left out of it. No moment is without this adoration and worship. By the totality of your being you
seek to adore the source, origin, support and fulfilment of your very being.