For the Guru's grace to work on us, we have to surrender. We have to give up all the things of this world, and all other worlds, and direct all attention towards the Self. If we want anything in this world or the next, our energy will be dispersed in these desires, and to fulfil these desires we shall have to be born again and again.
I once told Bhagavan that I had a desire to go and live in a cave where I could do meditation by myself.
Bhagavan told me, "If you keep a desire like that in your mind, you will have to take one more birth. Why keep such a desire? If it is destined for you, it will happen by itself. Leave this idea alone."
----------------------------- - Annamalai Swami, Final Talks (p. 59)