stillness is total surrender

Surrender once and for all and be done with the desire. So long as the sense of doership is retained there is the desire; that is also personality. If this goes the Self is found to shine forth pure. The sense of doership is the bondage and not the actions themselves.

"Be still and know that I am God." Here stillness is total surrender without a vestige of individuality. Stillness will prevail and there will be no agitation of mind. Agitation of mind is the cause of desire, the sense of doership and personality. If that is stopped there is quiet. There `Knowing' means `Being'. It is not the relative knowledge involving the triads, knowledge, subject and object.

~ Bhagavan Ramana, Talk 354, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

Give up the notion that ‘I am so and so’. All that is required to realise the Self is to be still.

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Be As You Are

Why this distress?

Through his gentle smile, radiant Padam joyfully declares, 'Why this distress? Be happy by just remaining still.'

Bhagavan: Your duty is to be, and not to be this or that. 'I am that I am' sums up the whole truth, the method is summarized in 'Be still'.

And what does this stillness mean? It means 'Destroy yourself'; because, every name and form is the cause of trouble. 'I-I' is the Self. 'I am this' is the ego. When the 'I' is kept up as the 'I' only, it is the Self. When it flies off at a tangent and says 'I am this or that, I am such and such', it is an ego.

Question: Who then is God?

Bhagavan: The Self is God. 'I am' is God. If God be apart from the Self, He must be a selfless God, which is absurd. All that is required to realise the Self is to be still. What can be easier than that? Hence Atma-vidya [Self-knowledge] is the easiest to attain.

~ Padamalai

Be still

O happy one,
whichever way I went
I heard your praise
And surrendered to your feet
my body, wealth and life.
I cried out, 'Ocean of virtue, mountain-high,
Show me the way to happiness!'
Ramana the just, the majestic, said,
'Stand still. Stay where you are.'

By neither digging nor soaring
Could Vishnu or Brahma find you,
whereas I, trudging toward diverse goals, was worn thin.
I cried out, "Tell me how to merge in the feet
which are beyond the knowledge of life!'
Ramana, pure and secure, said,
'Be still. Rest as you are.'

~ Sri Muruganar, Irai Pani Nitral (Steadfastness in Service), found in The Power of the Presence by David Godman