Baba says, ‘you have to become refreshed for all time and also be rested for all time‘. Simply remember the Father and the inheritance.

Om shanti is both a greeting and an introduction. It means ‘I am a peaceful soul’. When I am truly peaceful, I am at rest. At this time in the cycle, there is no peace in the world, says Baba. It is of no use to look for it here. To begin with, there is just a huge number of souls and everyone is body conscious. That means, every one is caught up in the web of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. Due to this, every soul carries a huge amount of burden that weighs it down- the many roles I identify with, the many relationships I am in and hold myself responsible for, the jobs I perform whose outcome I hold myself responsible for, the social status I work hard to achieve and protect, etc. the list is practically endless.

My thoughts are fast and furious – constantly planning, working things out, strategizing, comparing, competing…they are therefore also often negative and wasteful. I am often short on patience, irritable and angry and say and do things I then regret. I then shame and reject myself as a bad person and convince myself I have to get better at the hustle. These thoughts are like poison to the soul, they drain it of all its joy and power but most importantly of its self-respect. I constantly look at myself with a critical and judgmental vision and I never measure up.

I, the soul, am not wired to carry this kind of burden, Baba explains. This is not normal and yet, I’ve been carrying it for so long that I’ve accepted it to be normal. I don’t enjoy life as much as tackle it. I treat it as a check-list of things I have to do and be. And when it gets hard, when the pressure gets too much, which is often, I feel peaceless and restless.

Then, I call out to God for help. Baba says, you become like the bird that holds on the branch and forgets you can fly. You call out to Me and say, ‘Baba, make me fly, free me’ but all you have to do is let go and become free.

Baba is here at this auspicious confluence age. He is my Father and He has come to liberate me, to take me back home as a Father would. He is asking me to come to Him but for that, I have to let go of the branches of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ I am clutching on to. Often, I am clutching so tightly, I feel as if I will be in a free-fall if I let go. I’ve become the role, the relationship, the title, the project, the status…I’ve forgotten that I am a soul, a child of God. I forgotten that I am free. Even as I flap my wings, I don’t even realize that they are there, that they enable me to fly.

This does not mean denying the responsibilities or the relationships. Baba does not ask me to leave the world and move to the mountains. But it does mean changing my consciousness to be an instrument.

It is my responsibility to show up and do my task with sincerity but I am not responsible for the outcome. It is my responsibility to facilitate the inculcation of good values and the building of a strong character for my kids but I cannot control them. I cannot see every mistake they make as my fault. They and everyone else for that matter are all independent souls, they are not an extension of me. They create their own fortune, I am only an instrument.

When I remember I am a soul, I also realize that the manufactured status and titles of this world don’t apply to me. They are not me, they don’t determine my worth. What I am is a pure, peaceful, loveful soul and a child of God. When that is my foundation, I am unshakable and fearless because I am free.

‘Give me all your burdens‘, He says. When I remember I am a soul, I automatically remember the eternal Father, the home and His inheritance.

The Father becomes my backbone, my One Strength and One Support. I no longer knock on many doors or run from pillar to post for advice or help. When situations come, I don’t panic. I do what Brahma Baba did, I remember: I have given my life to Baba, He is now responsible for me. He is my Protector and Benefactor. When things don’t quite work out as expected, I don’t feel disappointed. I trust in the benevolence of the drama. These thoughts are starkly different from those that race through my mind when I am in the grip of body consciousness. They are benevolent and work like scissors to cut away at the bondages that tie me down.

‘You must have the land of peace in one eye and the land of happiness in the other‘, He tells me.

Those are the two destinations I am headed to. I first go to the sweet silence home with the Father and then come into the land of happiness. When I remember the home, I experience immense peace and accumulate the power of silence. My thoughts slow down and become elevated as I become merged in the remembrance of the One. I remember my experiences with Baba and all my attainments. When I remember the land of happiness, I experience my life there- sorrow-free, care-free, pressure-free, effort-free, worry-free, fear-free. There is no lack. No 12 hour jobs, only hobbies and interests. I don’t struggle, I sing and dance, paint and draw. There is no hustle, no trying to ‘read between the lines’…just honesty and respect. I enjoy nature’s abundance and it’s beauty. It’s heaven, it’s prefect, it’s blissful! I feel refreshed and rested.

This land of refreshment, of happiness and rest is my inheritance. I have to claim it now. I have the knowledge of the cycle and know that it keeps on turning. I am at the end of this cycle and am at the confluence with the next one. It is as if this confluence time is my rest-stop before the next ride, the next turn of the cycle. I need all my energy, all my power for that ride. Let me not sabotage myself and deplete my resources. Let me rest up and be refreshed.

As a bird, I do come to the branch and tend to the nest but I never forget I am a bird, I never forget to fly. I never hand over my power. That, is soul consciousness. That is also self-respect. And that moment when I realize that all I have to do is let go of that branch I am clutching on to and flap my wings, I attain liberation-in-life. I feel at once peaceful, refreshed and rested. Then, I want to share it with others, I can’t rest without showing others the way to their liberation, to claiming their inheritance. Thus, service becomes rest.