Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
03. Basic Requisites of the Path
A complete surrender is not possible in so short a time,– for a complete surrender means to cut the knot of the ego in each part of the being and offer it, free and whole, to the Divine. The mind, 
the vital, the physical consciousness (and even each part of these in all its movements) have one after the other to surrender separately, to give up their own way and to accept the way of the Divine. But what one can do is to make from the beginning a central resolve and self-dedication and to implement it in whatever way one finds open, at each step, taking advantage of each occasion that offers itself to make the self-giving complete. A surrender in one direction makes others easier, more inevitable; but it does not of itself cut or loosen the other knots, and especially those which are very intimately bound up with the present personality and its most cherished formations may often present great difficulties, even after the central will has been fixed and the first seals put on its resolve in practice.