Baba says, ‘you are true Raj Rishis‘. Your duty is to do tapasya.

A Raj Rishi appears to be a term of contradictions but it truly defines the goal of this elevated life – to attain liberation-in-life, to learn to live life to the fullest which I can only do when I learn to be both detached and loving, like the Lotus flower. I am not dependent on or attached to people or things for my identity, I am a self-sovereign.

To be a Raj Rishi means to have a kingdom and on the other side, to be a Rishi. The qualifications needed for each are distinct from one another. One is fortune and the other is renunciation. One is to have all rights and the other is to have unlimited disinterest. One is to be loved by all and the other is to be totally detached. A Raj Rishi is someone in whom both qualifications are constantly and simultaneously visible in the words and deeds.

While I have the intoxication of the kingdom, there should also be unlimited disinterest from the old world. Baba says: ‘consider yourself a soul and remember Me alone‘. Does the old world still pull me to itself? Do I still find the need to hustle my way to the ‘top’, strategize my way to name and fame, define myself by my accomplishments and possessions? Do I still get entangled in relationships such that they rule over me?

A Raj Rishi is someone who renounces the old world of dependencies and entanglements and sets his vision on the new world, the world of angels. I will be able to see the new world clearly to the extent that I have renounced the old world. If I still turn around from time to time, still take a vacation there from time to time, my attention is divided. This is also the reason why I have a hard time accepting that there is a new world because I never allow myself to get close enough to see it clearly.

This doesn’t mean that I leave my family and friends, it just means I don’t define myself by those relationships. I realize and stay stable in my only true identity – I am a soul and a child of God. ‘I’ am nothing else and nothing else is ‘mine’. This is my tapasya or my penance – to achieve this state of being detached and loving, to be beyond the pull of old sanskars and nature, to experience myself to be a carefree emperor.

The Rishis in the world do tapasya for liberation, they want to escape life. I am a Raj Rishi, Baba reminds me, I don’t want to escape life, I want to learn to live it. I don’t want liberation, I want liberation-in-life. I teach you Rajayoga, says Baba. This is the study that makes me a Raja or a sovereign over my physical and subtle organs. I learn to take charge of my thoughts, feelings, words, actions, attitude, vision and awareness.

You don’t have to learn these separately, He says. It’s not that I have to learn to do one thing and then another thing…all I do is remember who I am, Whom I belong to and my goal. Remember your identity and aim, remain in that awareness and the qualifications will follow.