Baba says, ‘it is remembrance that brings you love‘. Very few children are able to stay in remembrance to experience the Father’s love.

Picture this scenario: You are away in college, living on your own and studying. You call your parents without fail once every week. You follow all the other rules too – you don’t have any bad habits etc. When the topic comes up with your friends, you do talk about how great your father is, what he does etc. But otherwise, you have a life you are busy with – your classes, your friends, your hobbies, your….etc. Once a year, you visit your parents at your family home- you are there for breakfast every morning but the rest of the time, you are catching up with friends and taking in the town you’ve missed that whole year.

Yea, I do a good job of checking all the boxes- visit, check. call every week, check. follow rules, check. But do I have a relationship with my parents?

Every soul needs a support system, no matter who you are. And there isn’t a substitute for the support system that a parent offers. I might have the best friends, mentors…doesn’t matter. I need a parent. A parent nourishes and cares. They instill values in me. They offer a unique companionship that no one else can.

Maybe I want to try something new but I don’t feel ready. When I call my parent, they listen and give me 10 reasons why I can and should. Or they reason with me about perhaps waiting for something else to fall in place first before I take that leap. Sometimes, I just want to go to sleep in my mother’s lap, I am just tired. I can do that and the next morning, I’ll find a hot breakfast waiting for me. Sometimes, I am away and a surprise package arrives with the exact thing I needed at that moment to make me smile, or to help me. They just knew somehow..

A parent and a child have a right, a sense of implicit belonging, a built-in trust mechanism and knowledge of one another. There is also the vast amount of experience and wisdom they impart. There is a difference in calling a parent and a friend at 3 AM.

Baba is not just a parent, He is my eternal Parent. He isn’t raising me for this one limited birth, He is raising me for the whole cycle. He loves me even when I forget about Him. He doesn’t have limited wisdom or advice that might be tainted by karmic accounts, He has the truth. In fact, He is the only One who knows the truth about anything. He is also the only One who knows me, really, as I am, throughout the cycle.

How strong is my relationship with my eternal Father?

Sure, I follow the daily itinerary- wake up at Amritvela, check. Murli, check. Follow Shrimat, check. But do I relate to Him? Do I remember Him with a lot of love? Or am I busy with ‘life’?

Remembrance begets remembrance, love begets love. If I don’t work on building a bond with my Father, I lose the only pure, true relationship in the entire cycle. I might have the knowledge, but merely understanding knowledge does not nourish the soul. I need power and confidence that comes from having a support system, from knowing that He has my back, that I belong, that I am going to be okay no matter what. That sense of belonging and faith is what makes me brave enough to change course, to take those leaps, so to speak, away from the body conscious world. Each leap I take, I build self-respect and regain my sovereignty.

Baba says, ‘don’t just take my hand, also take my company‘. Shrimat is His hand, but I need His company, a relationship with Him to be able to weather the storms which WILL come. I cannot and should not have to take this spiritual journey alone.

Baba comes at the end of the cycle to meet His long lost children. He does not come out of a sense of obligation, He comes out of love. He wants to have a relationship with me- the confluence age is the only time we can! He wants to help me, He really does care. Yes, He really does enjoy listening to me, He does want to eat with me, walk with me. But He does not impose on the soul. He doesn’t just show up at my dorm room, so to speak, and demand. He waits…

I waited for Him for half a cycle, He is here now. I can’t think of a good reason to not run into His arms….can you?