Surrender to a true saint itself becomes a true devotion and the saint naturally guides a disciple towards God realization and graces him with divine love consciousness.
No one can imagine how easy God realization is through surrender and service. In worldly matters, a person seeks his fortune as is destined, and in divine matters, the spiritual master takes over the responsibility. Then what else is left for the disciple to do on his own?
It is the most fortune day in a devotee’s life when he finds his spiritual master and surrenders himself at his lotus feet. His profound faith in his guru (a true saint) is the proof that he is halfway towards God realization. Some people, due to their vanity, do not want to surrender, but at the same time they wish to learn the process of devotion so that they can do it by themselves. They think that there is some specific process of devotion or a technique which can be learned without surrendering.
Such people are mostly materialistic, involved in multiplying their possessions and gratifying their senses. They want to try spiritual devotion just for a change, or to enlist themselves among the ranks of devotees. Actually people are so intoxicated with material achievements that they have forgotten the importance of human life and the value of God realization. When a person is hungry he naturally seeks food to eat, but if he has no appetite and someone offers him food, he may nibble politely but unwillingly.
This is the situation with the people of the world, they have lost their spiritual appetite and so they do not feel a need or an urge for God realization. They are only eager to satisfy their senses. They do not realize that their inner urge is not for sensual satisfaction, but that it is a spiritual urge which they have ignorantly misunderstood as sensual.
That sensual enslavement and material engagements affirm the bondage of a person, while a true saint frees a person from all the bondages and awards an independent state which he has been longing for from eternity.
So devotion is not separate from the surrender, but surrender itself is devotion. Faith is the foundation of surrender, and selfless service to God and guru is the evidence of surrender.
Thus, surrendering to a saint of higher status ensures the sweetest experience of divine love and at the same time gives him a chance in divine Vrindavan to serve his eternal beloved, Radha Krishna, more closely.
