What makes you reject the God standing right in front of you?

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

Questioner (Q): I have a surrendered mind. But if I have to choose one thing of two, then my mind interrupts, and you are saying that a surrendered mind doesn’t interpret.

Acharya Prashant (AP): So, it is not then a surrendered mind.

Surrender is not the imagination of surrender. Surrender is Surrender.

Don’t ever fall into this trap — We try to imagine what it would be like when we are free. Now being bonded, fully imagining yourself to be in bondage, how can you even imagine freedom? And then you will imagine freedom in terms of bondage because you are the bonded one. And seeing this, then that freedom will appear very scary to you. So the net result will be that you will want to avoid freedom.

We all have an image of Truth; there is nobody who has no image of God. There is nobody who has no image of Freedom.

And the image of freedom prevents you from being free right now.

Do you see this?

Two or three days back I asked — What makes us reject the God standing right in front of us? — The fact that we believe in God.

Because you believe in God you will have an image of God. So, you will reject the God standing in front of you. And, you will say, “I am searching, searching”.

Never use ifs and buts in these matters. And you say, “If I am surrendered”, it means that you already know what surrender is. And do you know, speaking as the Ego, do you already know what surrender is? No, you don’t know surrender but you have an idea of surrender. And that idea of surrender comes from the one who is not surrendered.

So, that idea will be an idea so that will perpetuate and continue the lack of surrender.

Don’t you ask, “What if everyone becomes a Buddha?” What do you mean by that? Now you can ask this question only because you have an image of the Buddha. And the Ego is so arrogant that it tries to have an image of everything. He leaves nothing, spares nothing — it has an image of Truth, God, love, everything.