On Raman Maharshi and Sri Ramkrishna: Path of realization vs Path of devotion

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

“What is samadhi?”

“It is the complete merging of the mind in God-Consciousness. The jnani experiences jada samadhi, in which no trace of ‘I’ is left. The samadhi attained through the path of bhakti is called ‘Chaitanya samadhi’.”

“In this samadhi, there remains a consciousness of ‘I’ — the ‘I’ of the servant-and-Master relationship, of the lover-and-Beloved relationship, of the enjoyer-and-Food relationship.”

“God is the Master; the devotee is the servant. God is the Beloved; the devotee is the lover. God is the Food, and the devotee is the enjoyer. ‘I don’t want to be sugar. I want to eat it.”

~ Sri Ramkrishna Paramhans

“It is enough that one surrenders oneself. Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one’s being. Do not delude yourself by imagining such source to be some God outside you.”

“One’s source is within yourself. Give yourself up to it. That means that you should seek the source and merge in it. Because you imagine yourself to be out of it, you raise the question “Where is the source?” Some contend that the sugar cannot taste its own sweetness and that a taster must taste and enjoy it.”

“Is God insentient like sugar? How can one surrender oneself and yet retain one’s individuality for supreme enjoyment?”