ALL THREE CAN BE SUMMED UP IN ONE PHRASE — LOVE-DIVINE

 
To garland me, to bow down to me and to sing my praises are comparatively the three most unimportant things. The three most important things on the path of God-realization are love, obedience and surrender. There is no possibility of compromise about these three.

Love is a gift from God to man, obedience is a gift from master to man, and surrender is a gift from man to master. The one who loves, desires to do the will of the beloved, and seeks union with the beloved. Obedience performs the will of the beloved and seeks the pleasure of the beloved. Surrender resigns to the will of the beloved and seeks nothing.

One who loves is the lover of the beloved. One who obeys is the beloved of the beloved. One who surrenders all — body, mind and all else — has no existence other than that of the beloved, who alone exists in him. Therefore greater than love is obedience, and greater than obedience is surrender. And yet, as words, all three can be summed up in one phrase — love-divine.