Question: I would like to know how one can tell the difference between a complacent attitude and surrender.

Sri Chinmoy: When you have a complacent attitude, you have the feeling that everybody is massaging your feet. You feel that the world is at your feet and you are getting joy by becoming its Supreme. You will feel that your joy is the result of something you have done. You have run two miles so you lie down and say, "I am exhausted; I deserve a rest."

But when you have real surrender, you feel that you are in a position to touch and massage everybody's feet and this will give you the greatest joy. At this time you will never feel that you deserve something. You will only feel that you have not yet finished your task. Still you have not served enough, or you have not yet expanded your consciousness.

When we have a complacent attitude, we feel that we deserve recognition and many other things after we have done something for only two hours. But when we have surrender, there is a cheerful expansion of our consciousness and to this expansion there is no end.

From:Sri Chinmoy,My self-giving is my God-becoming, Agni Press, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/sgg