Surrender
All religions stress on surrender as the key component to making spiritual progress. Surrender is not simply a theoretical concept, nor is it achieved through elaborate rituals or loud proclamations. Surrender is very real and very practical. It means to surrender to the instructions of the Lord and His representatives. One cannot claim to be surrendered and then act whimsically, the two actions are in complete contradiction. When one surrenders to the Lord or the spiritual master, one is promising that ‘from now on I will try my best to understand and follow your instructions.’ This is real honest surrender, which will draw the mercy of the Lord.