Baba says, ‘be compassionate toward yourself and others’. When you have compassion for yourself, you are able to have compassion for others.

Compassion is caring, it is empathy and it is the ability to tune in. When thereisn’t compassion, there is much sorrow caused. At the end of the cycle, souls are calling out for mercy and compassion, they want to be rescued from the unbearable sorrow and pain. Baba comes to liberate souls and take us back home. His name is Shiva- the Benevolent One and one of the ways in which benevolence is expressed is through compassion.

He understands the suffering of the souls, He understands the journey the soul has been on, the influence of the vices that has bankrupted the soul. So when I don’t understand what He is telling me the first time, second time, the 100th time, He still loves me. He continues to teach me, a different way, again and again. He doesn’t judge or criticize, He understands my current capability and works with it. He doesn’t impose, He gives me time to realize. He is generous..that is compassion. When I go to Him in the middle of the night to cry about something silly, He has time to listen, He doesn’t say: ‘it’s late, come back tomorrow…’. He is available…that is compassion.

He teaches me to also be compassionate toward myself.

For half a cycle, I have been looking to external supports – people or things- for fulfillment. I expect others to give me respect, appreciation, love. The more I chased after them, the less I got, the more I needed. This looking externally for my own fulfillment is a kind of selfishness and leads to selfish thinking and selfish feelings – worry, fear, hopelessness, insecurity, dependencies. There is just a lot of thinking at a very fast pace but very little result..not to mention peacelessness. This is self-sabotage, He says, have compassion for yourself. When you operate based on your original, true sanskars, you will feel fulfilled. What you need is within you, don’t look outside for it.

In silence, let me move inward and touch base with my originality and experience it….not once in a while but every day. It is not enough to understand that I am a soul, I have to experience it daily. When I do, I start respecting myself again. I see myself clearly again, I see my destiny. That is compassion…I respect myself.

When I see myself as a soul, I see others as souls too. Then, I see sameness. I see my brothers, I see that we are united in working on the same task. I respect them too. When I slip into body consciousness, I see differences, inequality and that becomes the basis of conflict and sorrow. ‘Be compassionate to yourself and others’, He says.

Does that mean that I am in denial about all that is going on? No. It means that I respect myself enough to not keep useless things in my heart and be influenced by them. Like my Father, I am innocent, that is, I develop an easy nature where I appreciate that each of us in on a different journey, we all realize different aspects of our identity at different times in our journeys. I don’t judge and criticize others, I maintain pure feelings and good wishes for all. It takes spiritual power, a lot of self-respect to be able to do that. Developing that is compassion.

When I follow His Shrimat and His example, I protect me from myself. I show compassion to myself.

Sometimes, it isn’t what others do that bothers me, it is the mistakes I make or have made in the past that haunt me. Don’t be careless and succumb to shame, guilt and regret, He says. Show yourself compassion by letting go of the past completely and focusing on next steps- make a determined thought to change and pay constant attention. That is the real repentance.

The more I continue to be obedient to Baba, the more I pay attention to the study, the closer I get to claiming my inheritance and becoming my original self. The closer I get to my original self, the closer I get to revealing the Father to the world, to becoming an instrument to liberate my brothers and sisters from their sorrow and getting them the chance to claim their inheritance too. Becoming my true self is therefore the greatest compassion I show myself and the world.