Surrendering to the master means surrendering your ego. The more you surrender to the master, the more your trust grows. It is difficult to surrender one’s ego. It takes a long time to completely trust and surrender. But once that happens, the relationship becomes very sweet. Your life becomes simple as you take it as it comes. You leave everything to God or your Guru and the stress and tension of your life starts reducing.

Anandmurti Gurumaa says that surrendering is not a conscious effort. It is hard for the ego to dissolve itself. In fact, why would the ego like to dissolve itself in the first place?

So, how can one surrender to the master? Gurumaa says that this can be done by being in the company of those who have dissolved their ego. Watch them, be with them and you will realize what a great opportunity you have been given – the opportunity to surrender to a Realized Master. See the changes which have happened in their lives. Slowly, the ego melts and it becomes easy to surrender to God and the master.

Regarding how to be a non-doer, Gurumaa says being a non-doer entails watching each action of your body and developing awareness in each action of your daily life. As you sit, walk, eat, sleep… be watchful of your body actions, sensations and movement. Slowly this awareness grows and one begins to know that the world is nothing more that a dream. So, the art of witnessing begins to develop.

Once you master the awareness of body movements, start watching your breath amidst all your daily actions. You slowly start becoming proactive instead of reactive. You will find yourself not getting affected by outward influences. Thus, you will learn the art of being a Non-Doer in all your activities and no action shall bind you.

One can reach to the pinnacle in everything one do just by knowing and practicing the Swar yoga. Swar yoga deals greatly with the knowledge of breathing from a particular nostril while performing a specific work.

For instance while performing all motor activities viz. eating, running, dancing etc., breathing from right nostril (Surya swar) should be active. On the other hand, breathing from left nostril (Chandra swar) accelerates our cognitive abilities and creativity. So while painting, composing literature or music, meditating etc. one should ensure that his Chandra swar is active.

So, one should handle these precious breaths with dexterity and great skill. When there is parity between the breathing from both nostrils, it is called Sam swar or Shoonya swar. It is the stage when both Surya swar and Chandra swar become equally active and bring stillness to the mind. This acts as a crucial stage for touching heights in spirituality. Shoonya swar is the apt time for meditation.

This knowledge of maneuvering the breaths enhances the level of one’s consciousness and awareness. Continuous adherence to Swar Yoga brings astonishing results and gives the ability to receive higher intuitive knowledge. All the queries of mind vanish, when one delves deep inside and become watchful and wakeful of mind.

Lord Buddha never answered to any seeker’s question straight away. He suggested them to stay with him for at least one year. In the company with such a great master, disciples used to learn the lessons of humbleness, tolerance and perform every task with great awareness. Lord Buddha, at his death bed, gave a golden rule- “App Deepo Bhav”, which means, “Be a light unto yourself”. He said that a master can guide you at every step but you have to go within yourself to ablaze your ignorance.

A special point that Gurumaa mentions is that concentration is like the seed that grows and blossoms towards its pinnacle of awareness. So, concentration is like the starting point, while awareness is like the fruit which is achieved when concentration matures. None of them can be ignored by the spiritual aspirant!