Ramana Maharishi on Unconditional Surrender

Question - What is unconditional surrender?
Ramana Maharishi : If one surrenders completely, there will be no one left to ask questions or to be considered. Either the thoughts are eliminated by holding on to the root thought, `I', or one surrenders unconditionally to the Higher Power. These are the only two ways to Realisation.Self-enquiry dissolves the ego by looking for it and finding it to be non-existent, whereas devotion surrenders it; therefore both come to the same ego-free goal, which is all that is required.

Ramana Maharshi : Agitation of mind is the cause of desire

Question : By constantly desiring to surrender I hope that increasing grace is experienced.
Ramana Maharshi : Surrender once for all and be done with the desire. So long as the sense of doership is retained there is the desire. That is also personality. If this goes the Self is found to shine forth pure. The sense of doership is the bondage and not the actions themselves.

`Be still and know that I am God.' Here stillness is total surrender without a vestige of individuality. Stillness will prevail and there will be no agitation of mind. Agitation of mind is the cause of desire, the sense of doership and personality. If that is stopped there is quiet. There `knowing' means `being'. It is not the relative knowledge involving the triads, knowledge, knowing and known.

Ramana Maharshi on path of Surrender, Surrender appears easy

Question : I find surrender is easier. I want to adopt that path.
Ramana Maharshi : By whatever path you go, you will have to lose yourself in the one. Surrender is complete only when you reach the stage `Thou art all' and `Thy will be done'.

The state is not different from jnana. In soham [the affirmation of `I am he'] there is dvaita [dualism]. In surrender there is advaita [non-dualism]. In the reality there is neither dvaita nor advaita, but that which is.

Surrender appears easy because people imagine that, once they say with their lips `I surrender' and put their burdens on their Lord, they can be free and do what they like. But the fact is that you can have no likes or dislikes after your surrender; your will should become completely non-existent, the Lord's will taking its place. The death of the ego in this way brings about a state which is not different from jnana. So by whatever path you may go, you must come to jnana or oneness.

Ramana Maharshi Path of Devotion Worshipping God

Ramana Maharshi Path of Devotion Worshipping God

Question : That is why I am asking you whether God could be worshipped through the path of love.
Ramana Maharshi : That is exactly what I have been saying. Love itself is the actual form of God. If by saying, `I do not love this, I do not love that', you reject all things, that which remains is swarupa, that is the real form of the Self. That is pure bliss. Call it pure bliss, God, atma, or what you will. That is devotion, that is realization and that is everything.

If you thus reject everything, what remains is the Self alone. That is real love. One who knows the secret of that love finds the world itself full of universal love. The experience of not forgetting consciousness alone is the state of devotion [bhakti] which is the relationship of unfading real love, because the real knowledge of Self, which shines as the undivided supreme bliss itself, surges up as the nature of love.

Only if one knows the truth of love, which is the real nature of Self, will the strong entangled knot of life be untied. Only if one attains the height of love will liberation be attained. Such is the heart of all religions. The experience of Self is only love, which is seeing only love, hearing only love, feeling only love, tasting only love and smelling only love, which is bliss.

Question : I long for bhakti. I want more of this longing. Even realization does not matter for me. Let me be strong in my longing.
Ramana Maharshi : If the longing is there, realization will be forced on you even if you do not want it. Long for it intensely so that the mind melts in devotion. After camphor burns away no residue is left. The mind is the camphor. When it has resolved itself into the Self without leaving even the slightest trace behind, it is realization of the Self.

Source : from book "Be As You Are" David Godman