Baba says, ‘become a trustee, not a householder‘.

When I come to Baba, I surrender my mind, body and wealth to Him. It doesn’t mean I leave my home and move to a center but it does mean that I use them per His Shrimat. Baba says, ‘I don’t take anything from the children, what will I do with it?’. What He does instead is provide guidance on how to best use whatever I have.

‘Simply use it as a trustee‘, He says.

In one word, a trustee is a conqueror of attachment. A trustee doesn’t have any attachment to anyone or anything, there isn’t a consciousness of ‘mine’. There is attachment to anything when I think of it as ‘mine’. That is what is called body consciousness.

You are a trustee of this body too. You are a trustee of your mind, that is, your thoughts. You are also a trustee of the lokik and the alokik household that you have been given. Are my thoughts pure and uplifting like Baba’s? Are my words sweet like Baba’s? Are my actions elevated like Baba’s? If not, then they are either ordinary or wasteful- either way, they are useless and harmful to the soul. They weigh me down, keep my effort mediocre and prevent me from flying. Then, I start to complain because I don’t experience Baba, my spiritual life becomes dry and tiring.

In other words, instead of a trustee, I become a householder. The common symptoms of coming down with a householder consciousness is a feeling of a burden on my shoulders or being pulled in different directions: ‘should I do it this way or that?’, ‘I should be like her or him..’, ‘I must also do that kind of work..’. The most common burden is: ‘this is my responsibility, I have to fulfill it’. Baba is Karankaravanhaar, He is the Protector, the Bestower. He says: give all your burdens to Me. This is His domain, He is getting everything done through me. Everything is Baba’s responsibility, not mine. This consciousness makes me light. 

You also have a huge household, Baba cautions, of wasting time by wanting to experience the sweetness of many things under the influence of the sense organs. Today I waste time because of something I heard, yesterday, it was under the influence of taste for the tongue. This is not the consciousness of being a trustee, He says. When you are a trustee, you only want to experience the sweetness of the One.

You have to use your physical and subtle organs according to Shrimat. Following Shrimat accurately is being a trustee.

Shrimat is beneficial to me, it is given for my protection as I progress on the spiritual path. When I understand this, I pay attention, I want to follow it. Else, I treat it like a mandate that I follow because I have to or because I want to be a good boy or girl. There is a liberation that comes from following Shrimat, from being a trustee. And accuracy is following Shrimat comes from an attitude of caring. I care about myself, I care about this world, I care about helping God bring about transformation of hell to heaven, of old to new. I care about bringing an end to sorrow for me and everyone else. Then, I want to re-learn the rules, the right rules of living. I want to follow the code of conduct. I don’t want the useless, wasteful things in my life anymore. There is a burden in being a householder and lightness in being a trustee.

For half a cycle, I did the thinking, I listened to other’s opinions, I took action based on self-interest. In other words, I invested my assets – thoughts, time, words, body, wealth etc. in the ways in which I saw fit. And it led me to bankruptcy. It’s not anyone’s fault- it is the Drama. This is a game of winning and losing, says Baba. I came under the influence of Ravan- the vices- and lost all I had. God is here now to remind me of the right way, the virtuous way of living. In other words, He is here to show me how to reclaim my lost assets, my inheritance. Let me learn by becoming His trustee and following His guidance.

It is the easiest way, Baba says to escape from the web of Maya. It is the easiest way to become soul conscious. In other words, it is the easiest way to be me again.