Surrendering ego for liberation from the bondage of suffering, is the predominant desire of many spiritual seekers.

Ego is nothing but the illusion, when the manifested whole identifies itself with a limited fragment. Thinking itself to be separate from the rest of the manifestation, the ego is afraid. It creates an elaborate sequence of thoughts and beliefs rooted in ignorance, for its survival and support. This inevitably results in more suffering.

Then, this illusory ego tries to find ways to escape from the suffering and becomes a seeker of liberation! The ego in the guise of a seeker, tries to reduce suffering by improving and embellishing itself. But, it still continues to propagate ignorance and suffering.

So, to be really free from suffering, the ego needs to be erased completely. There is no freedom unless ego is surrendered, but the ego cannot surrender itself!

The real power of surrender does not lie with the ego- the limited, isolated, separate, sense of ‘me’. This projected ‘me’ has no power of any kind, it cannot even control a single thought or feeling coming its way or a reaction that overcomes it. How can it surrender anything?

This illusion, this projected ‘me’ always remains behind as a residue, no matter how much it tries to surrender itself. Surrendering ego for liberation is impossible, it can happen, but cannot be done.

The ‘me’ who wants to surrender, is an illusion and does not really exist, except as a fake projection and as an identification with this fake projection. This isolated, separate illusion of ‘me’ has no power. The only power lies with the truth, the whole, the essence, the totality, the flow of life that every ‘me’ in reality is. This oneness is the only one, with any power.

When grace flows from the whole, surrender of ego happens!

This surrender dissolves the illusion of ‘me’. When there is no ‘me’ left, then I am that, only that is, only one whole truth remains with no illusion of separation, all the apparent isolation (me-identification) merges into the oneness of the universal flow. This is the end point of surrender.

Surrender is nothing but consciously, with full awareness, aligning oneself with the universal flow of life. This happens effortlessly, when there is a readiness. When there is an awareness, a clarity, an admiration, a wonder and trust for the flow!

Suddenly the flow of the whole seems to be the only possibility of any movement, the only power, the only direction and the only possible way of being! Such moments of insight offer glimpses into living in alignment with the flow.

These glimpses offer evidence of the always available grace, that touches us in the moments of receptivity and openness. The more responsive we are towards these glimpses, the more we become attuned to the flow of reality.

There remains nothing outside of these moments to do anything, to go anywhere, to try or desire something. All that ‘me’ can do is to wait for this awareness to grow and expand.

Until this understanding- that the flow of oneness is all that there is– percolates to the deepest core. When this understanding goes deep into the whole being, then in a flash of insight, complete surrender happens.

This is the moment of grace- the surrender itself is grace. Only the whole flow can surrender to itself. There is no one else to offer or accept the surrender! This is a paradox.

The ego seeking liberation is like a donkey, with the carrot of liberation hanging on a stick in front of him. The problem is, he can never eat this carrot. The paradox is, that his seeking can end and there is liberation, but it happens only after the carrot eats him, only when there is no donkey left, there is only the carrot!

The donkey is liberated when there is a realization that there never was a separate donkey, there was only ever the carrot!

Liberation or awakening is the recognition that I am whole and not that separate isolated helpless fragment, which was the illusion that I was identifying myself with.

Ego was a concept, that was itself an illusion, created to defend all the fears and insecurities created by the ignorance of identifying with a separate isolated fragment. When I realize myself to be the isness of the whole, when the illusion ends, the ego ends with it, and that is liberation.

This whole understanding at the level of thought is only the first step. This by itself does not relieve suffering. It only clears the concept of reality for the mind, so it can consciously try to reduce engaging in habitual patterns of ignorance. This is just the beginning on the path towards the end of suffering.

There is another aspect of this understanding which is not intellectual, it bypasses the thinking mind and goes deep into the whole being of the body-mind-ego entity, like a flash of insight.

This insight, then acts to transform and reorient the body-mind to align with this understanding, resulting in dissolution of all illusions. When outer and inner lives are aligned with it, surrendering ego becomes possible and there is freedom from suffering.

Until the last step, making efforts to live and act from more awareness may be helpful.

But the last leap cannot be invited by any efforts on our part. If the mental understanding is clear, we can try to consciously align our attitudes and responses with awareness, to prepare the ground.

Then we just wait, remaining open and interested.

Then, a moment comes when the last step is taken by itself. The donkey suddenly realizes that there was always only the carrot of liberation, there never was a donkey, an ego in bondage!

This moment of grace brings forth that all-illuminating flash of recognition, spontaneously surrendering ego for liberation from all the illusions of bondage.