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I still say that whether the technique is one of will or one of surrender, the foundation is the same. Even with methods that are categorically opposite, the foundation is the same. The foundation is this: that only one being should exist -- either you or the divine. How you work out which one of the two remains is up to you, but only, one should remain in the end.
Either there is no God, only "aham brahmasmi: I am God; there is no other." The will has become universal, cosmic. Now there is no one else -- "I am all. I have become the universe." The other is completely denied.
And when you deny the other completely, you your self cannot remain. If there is absolutely no other, how can you be? So this is the last assertion of your being: aham brahmasmi. After that, you will not be who do you exist in opposition to, to whom will you declare that you are all? You have become the total. Now, only silence exists.
You cannot even say 'I' because 'I' is meaningful only in opposition to 'thou.' It is meaningless if there is no 'thou ' When the will has become absolute, the ego commits sUicide because it cannot remain without anyone to relate to. It is only in relationship to a thou, or in opposition to a thou, that it can exist.
It cannot exist alone. You have come to a point where only the death of the ego is possible. The 'I' will commit suicide because there is no 'thou.' Against whom can it go on saying 'I'? It is meaningless.
Through the other method -- the method of surrender, which is quite a contrary method -- the same phenomenon happens. You go on denying yourself until a moment comes when you are not. You say, "Only you are, only God is. I am not." This is going to be the last assertion -- that 'I am not' -- because if you are not, then you cannot even say that you are not. To say that 'I am not' is still to believe that 'I am. Otherwise who can assert that 'I am not?' Now you will no longer be able to say it. And when you cannot even say that 'I am not,' you are not.
I will tell you a story. There was a great Sufi, Mulla Nasrudin. He was very afraid of death, as everyone is. One day, he heard that someone had died. He
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