Baba says, ‘create ways to become pure‘. This short window of time in the cycle, the confluence age, is the time for purification. God is The Purifier and He comes to purify us souls, His children.

We are just coming off half a cycle worth of bhakti – a period of ignorance, submission, guilt and shame. We are the same souls that for half a cycle staggered to the temples, the churches, mosques and synagogues to tell the deities how big a sinner we are and that we would be satisfied to find a little space at their feet. Then, we promptly went back home, to our jobs, to our society and continued our ‘sinful’ acts again.

We didn’t do them because we wanted to, we did it because it is what we knew. And while we felt a sense of peace for the few minutes at the temple, we didn’t transform. In fact the burden of thinking of myself as a sinner, as a low-life not only kept me down or almost justified the ways of the old world…how else would we be?

But the soul has it’s original qualities inherent within it and each time we thought, spoke and acted in a way that was misaligned with those qualities, it died a little. So as we can imagine, after half a cycle worth of dying little by little, the flame is down to a tiny flicker when God finds us at the end of the cycle.

The soul is lit brightly only when it can respect itself.

Baba comes at this time to help me regain that lost self-respect. He helps by simply re-introducing me to myself. He reminds me of who I am – it is nothing new you need to learn, He says. You know how to think, feel and be- you just need to remember, He says.

We try but we keep slipping back into our body conscious ways. Until you let go of this incorrect identity that you are the body, you will keep making mistakes, He cautions. I will say and do things that are hurtful to me and to others. I will continue to chase after meaningless, hollow aspirations that will take me further away from myself.

Find ways to become pure, He says.

Sometimes we can fall into the trap of thinking, ‘I am Baba’s child anyway’ and leave the rest to ‘the Drama’. ‘change will happen when the time comes’, ‘there is nothing more I can do…I have already given myself to God’. Baba says, ‘that doesn’t mean much. You have to make the effort to change’.

I have to wake up in the early morning and sit in remembrance – speak to me, He suggests. Relate to me sweetly in that time. It is my time with my Father, with my Friend, my Beloved. I have to listen to the Murli and imbibe the teachings – it is my toolkit for the day, it has everything I am going to need to navigate anything that comes my way….when I can remember the tools or the points. Let me take a couple of minutes throughout the day to revise the key points in my mind, to remember and connect with myself and with my Father.

But let me be careful also to not make it a routine. One of the invisible traps on this path is that of falling into a routine- then I find that I am no longer enthusiastic, everything becomes a ritual and it’s like I have returned to the days of bhakti.

Baba says, ‘talk with yourself throughout the day‘. Have I learnt this? Throughout the day- who am I? Whom do I belong to? what are my powers? what are my qualities? what was that experience I had with Baba yesterday, last week, last month? Do I go for a walk with my Friend? Do I cook and eat with my Beloved? Do I consult my Father for advice?

There is only one trick in this book – to remember. Let me be creative in my remembrance, find new ways to do it throughout the day. It is my only way to purification and to regaining my self-respect.