Self-Surrender, the Crown of Renunciation
Narada teaches that the highest renunciation is atma-nivedana — the offering of one's whole self to the Beloved, holding nothing back.
For Narada, renunciation reaches its summit not in the giving up of objects but in the giving up of the self. The devotee who has tasted supreme love comes to see that the only worthy offering is the offerer himself, and so lays the entire personality — body, mind, will, and destiny — at the feet of the Beloved. This atma-nivedana is no act of loss but of homecoming, for the small self is exchanged for the infinite. Narada places this surrender above all austerities, since it accomplishes inwardly what a lifetime of outward discipline only approaches. Modern seekers know an echo of this in the relief that comes when, after long struggle for control, the heart finally entrusts what it cannot manage to a love greater than itself.
The highest renunciation is the offering of one's very self to the Beloved.
The primacy of self-surrender over external austerity echoes the prophetic counsel that God desires 'mercy, not sacrifice' — the gift of the heart above the gift of mere things.
Narada Bhakti Sutras