________________
130
to preserve and to please it, that breeds all the selfishness in the world. If you know positively that you are other than your body, you have then none to fight with or struggle against; you are dead to all ideas of selfishness. So the bhakta declares that we shall have to hold ourselves as if we are altogether dead to all the things of the world -and that is indeed self-surrender. Let things come as they may-this is the meaning of "Thy will be done," and not going about fighting and struggling, and thinking all the while that God wills all our own weaknesses and worldly ambitions. It may be that good comes even out of our selfish struggles; that is, however through God's look out and no merit of ours. The perfected bhakta's idea must be never to will and work for himself. "Lord, they build high temples in Thy name, they make large gifts! I am poor-I am nothing, so I take this body of mine and place it at Thy feet. Do not give
BHAKTI-YOGA.