सब राज़ी खुशी हैं? (“Is everyone happy?”) यह भी कोई पूछने की बात है? (“Is this even something to ask?”) Have you seen मेरे बाबा (My Baba) anywhere? The little ones said, वह मेरे दिल में, मेरे मन में रहते हैं! (“He lives in my heart, in my mind!”) Accha?!

मन में हैं? अरे वाह! (“In your mind? Wah!”). One who has seated Baba in his mind has truly become मनमनाभव (ManMana Bhav) – belong to the One in the mind! We have over our many births seated various people, accomplishments and sorrow in our mind and what that’s given us in return has been background noise that’s a bit much to handle. These ingredients have created a storm of waste, negative and ordinary thoughts leaving literally just enough clearance to get through the day staying sane. Just as we wouldn’t put anything valuable in the waste basket, how can we possibly invite a soul as pure as God Himself to be seated in our mind that contains all that waste?

Without purity there is no connection with God and without a connection with God, there is no purity. Isn’t it wonderful? So what does that mean? Well, I can connect with God through His knowledge that we receive in the form of the elevated versions and also through meditation. One cannot, I believe, meditate without a mind that is capable of focus or concentration. And therefore, it might seem like a lot of effort to try to meditate with a mind that is racing furiously towards nowhere. To slow the mind down therefore is the first step in our recovery process. Here’s where we use the knowledge to our rescue!

Step 1: Read the daily elevated versions. It helped me to read the day’s elevated versions first thing in the morning. The early morning hours are best to do this because not only is this a time when the rest of the household is quiet but also a time when not just the conscious but the sub-conscious is awake as well. It is the sub-conscious that stores information that we then knowingly or unknowingly retrieve through the day. The trick is to store the most elevated information we have – thoughts from God’s own mind! – in it at the start of the day when it is most sensitive to absorb.

Step 2: Re-read the versions at different times during the day. I read it just before lunch, just before my evening snack and then again before dinner, if possible. This stops the pointless chugging that the mind may be engaged in and reminds it again of what it is supposed to remember. This is I, the soul, making a statement to the mind and intellect that I decide what kind of information I like and I do so by repeatedly reading the versions.

Step 3: Churn the knowledge. This might be hard and seem like an uphill climb towards the beginning but try to remember one or two points of the versions that touched me when I read it in the morning. This could be the Essence, Question and answer, the Blessing, Slogan or simply something that was mentioned in the detail. Being able to remember will start to build confidence and will be the first signs that the intellect is coming along.

Step 4: Give a class. So this does not have to be a big deal or a glamorous event by any means. All this means is that I pick a topic in the day’s or the week’s versions that interested me and simply write out a short lecture – it’s taking the churning a level deeper. And then maybe I discuss this with someone in the center. Not only am I building the muscle of my intellect but am also doing service in two ways- (1) through the mind since the vibrations that are created when I churn God’s knowledge provide strength to other souls even without us knowing it and (2) when you discuss this with someone, you’ve related God’s knowledge and forced them to think about it too

Step 5: Meditate. At this point, the mind is strong enough to be able to focus. I sit down in a calm location with the firm awareness that I am a soul located in the center of the forehead. It is also important to be able to do this in the early morning hours for the same reasons as mentioned before. Baba recommends that we always sit down to meditate with an aim in mind. So I pick a point that interested me in the day’s versions and meditate on it or in other words think deeply about it while sitting in this state of soul consciousness. Your intellect will the automatically be pulled to the Supreme- also a beautiful point of light. God helps those who help themselves and so once I get to the point where I willingly work on and want to connect my mind with the One, I find that the doors to His mind are wide open. I find immense love, belonging; become decorated with jewels of knowledge and armed with powers that enable me to live my life being happy and peaceful.

God hopes we can be His salvation army- the ones that can salvage souls, making them pure from impure by imparting God’s introduction to them.  I figure what a great way to salvage ourselves too in the process. He wishes for us to be beaded in the rosary of knowledge and holds His knowledgeable children especially close. Being close to God is having direct, unrestricted access to His mind and for that I need to make my mind ready for this journey, this beautiful meeting.

ManManaBhav – belong to me in your mind!