Baba says, ‘you are a sample of this Godly study in front of the world‘. A sample is important. A sample gives many souls inspiration to become like them.

Baba comes and teaches me the right way to live, He gives me Shrimat or elevated directions for everything – how to think, speak, act, for my attitude, vision, awareness…everything. If I simply listen to these directions, recite them to others, then that’s neither helpful to me nor to them. I have to apply them in my practical life and become an embodiment of each point of knowledge. Then, I actually start living the right way rather than simply talk about it. Then, I actually give others the practical proof of being a student of God, I inspire.

Becoming an example or a sample doesn’t require pomp and show. It doesn’t involve announcing myself to the world and demanding that everyone pay attention to me, to what I have to say. In fact, it’s the opposite. A sample is grounded in simplicity. Simple means ordinary. But because there is greatness filled in the ordinary, I become a sample. I might be going about performing ordinary chores but my stage is elevated, I have a smile on my face, I radiate a contentment and peace. I don’t speak a lot, but when I do, my words are filled with meaning, they support, they uplift. My attitude is pure and transforms the atmosphere around me to spiritual.

In other words, it is not the size or nature of the task that makes me a sample, it is my own elevatedness, my purity of heart and greatness of character. Baba says, ‘move from the limited to the unlimited. Remember that you are an instrument, a Godly helper, that is responsible for world transformation. Just as the world and the Father are unlimited, so too whatever act you perform has to be performed while in the unlimited stage’.

If I am not simple, then it becomes a problem, says Baba. Then, I have preferences, expectations, judgment etc. Because my way of living is not simple, it becomes one problem or the other for the self and for others. If I am buried in my own problems, then my intellect is not free to serve others, instead I become the one that takes service. Then, Baba says, my activity is not according to my name. Godly helpers never take service, they serve, because, they are the children of the Bestower. The Father doesn’t take anything, He bestows. If because of being a problem, I take service, then, Baba says, I will not experience the intoxication of being the child of the Bestower of Blessings.

I also become deprived of love and co-operation from others. When someone is simple, even without wanting to, everyone has good wishes to give love and co-operation to them. So, in order to be loved by all, in order to receive co-operation from all and in order to be co-operative with everyone, it is essential to be simple.

Check yourself, says Baba, if you are simple or if you are a problem. The key is awareness.

Even while going about your worldly responsibilities, constantly remember your name, form, virtue and task, says Baba. Then, every activity no matter how mundane or grand will be transformed. By constantly considering myself to be a server, there will no longer be bossiness. Instead, there will be humility and the consciousness that my home or the office is not just a home or an office, it is a service place. I am a trustee, everything I have has been given to me in trust by God to serve. I don’t mix the dictates of my own mind into Shrimat nor do I misuse whatever has been given to me. I am automatically and constantly engaged in service. Then, the renunciation of name and fame, of preferences, of the need for approvals, of judgment based on outcomes will also come.

In the Gita, the very first lesson gives me the awareness I need to have- I am a soul, His child and the last lesson is – let go of attachments and become an embodiment of awareness. That’s the journey we are on to become a sample. I know the awareness I need to have when I start, the rest is about letting go of everything else. When I do that, I become simple and a sample.