Baba says, ‘you should have regard for all‘. To give regard is to receive regard.

Giving regard, Baba teaches, is the special way to take this Brahmin birth into the stage of ascent. Those who give regard now will receive regard not just here but in birth after birth. How so? because I am creating the sanskar of giving regard which goes with me through the cycle. And it is an eternal law that whenever I give regard, I automatically receive it.

So what does it mean to give regard? Baba teaches that firstly, it is about regard for the Father, second, for the knowledge, third, for the self and fourthly, for other souls. This is in sequential order. Unless I have regard for the Father, I won’t have regard for His knowledge. Unless I have regard for the knowledge, I won’t be able to realize and respect the self. Unless I accept and respect myself, I won’t be able to accept and respect others.

Firstly, to have regard for the Father means to know and recognize Him accurately as He is and to fulfil the code of conduct in all my relationships. To have regard for the relationship of the Father is to follow the Father. For the Teacher, regard is about being punctual in my study and pay full attention to all subjects. If during the Murli, my intellect wanders here and there, thinks about service, that is not giving regard to the Teacher. To have regard for the Satguru means to follow His instruction to forget the body and all bodily relations, it means to be soul conscious and stabilize myself in the incorporeal stage, the same as the Satguru. It means to be constantly ready to return home.

You are the brides, Baba tells us, and I am the Bridegroom. Your engagement has occurred and so now, you must only remember the Bridegroom. It means I am lost in love for the One in every thought, at every second, to eat with Him, do everything with Him. To have regard for the Friend means to constantly experience His companionship in whatever I do.

To have regard is to follow the saying: ‘Mine is the one Father and none other’. The Father says something and I put it into practice; I step constantly in the Father’s steps. The dictates of my own mind and of others don’t even touch my intellect, I only follow the shrimat of the One. I Only listen to the one Father, only speak of the things that the one Father has told me, only see the one Father, only walk with the Father, only think of the things that the Father has told me and only perform the elevated deeds that the Father has told me to perform. This, Baba explains, is what is called having regard for the Father.

Secondly, to have regard for this knowledge means to have unshakeable faith in all the elevated versions that have been spoken. To have questions such as: ‘how would that be possible? When will it happen? It should happen, but… It is the truth, but…’ means to have subtle doubts in my thoughts which also means to have disregard for this knowledge, explains Baba.

Thirdly, to have regard for the self, Baba says, is to experience the self according to the titles that the Father has given me and stabilize myself in that stage. I conduct myself knowing who I am. ‘I am an elevated soul. I am a direct child of the Father. I have a right to His unlimited property. I am a master almighty authority’. This is the awareness I have during my interaction with others, not just during meditation. This is called having regard for the self. If I instead have weak thoughts such as: ‘I don’t think I can do this, this is too hard, The Father says this, but I cannot become this. I don’t think my part in the drama is from the beginning, I think I will come later. I’ll be happy with whatever I receive’. This, Baba says, is to feel hopeless and is to have disregard for the self.

Fourthly, to have regard for all souls, Baba says, means to have elevated feelings for them, whether they are Brahmin souls or those without knowledge. My feeling should be of wanting to uplift them, to make them move forward and to benefit everyone in the world. To interact with all souls by adopting this awareness means to have regard for everyone. Constantly look at the virtues and specialties of all souls, says Baba, don’t see their defects. Even better is to transform any defects there might be with my own positive attitude. To co-operate with all souls with the power of your awareness is to have regard, explains Baba.

Giving regard to others also reflects the regard I have for service. To sacrifice your bones for service is to have regard for service, explains Baba. This is not about physical bones, He says, rather it is about sacrificing the old, brittle bones of ‘I and mine’. It is to sacrifice the attitude of: ‘I should be given regard. Why was respect for me not maintained? Why was he/she the one given respect?’ This is begging, says Baba and only leads to disservice. This is disregarding both the task and other souls.

Constantly to have the attitude of ‘you first’ in your thoughts and deeds and to consider the weaknesses of others to be your own and, instead of telling others about them and spreading them around, to accommodate them and transform them is to have regard, says Baba. To make hopeless souls powerful – to not be colored by their company but constantly to give them zeal and enthusiasm is known as having regard.

All of this of course requires that I remain stable in my own self-respect. Unless I am full inside, I cannot give to others.

Respect from everyone is not received by asking for it, but by giving respect to others, teaches Baba. By renouncing the desire for regard, you receive the fortune of being respected by everyone. Those who maintain their self-respect do not receive respect for just this one birth, but for the whole cycle, He says.

For half the cycle, you receive respect from deity souls with you, and for the other half, you receive it from devotees. The basis of that respect for the whole cycle is renunciation of short-lived respect, Baba explains. You have to stabilize in your stage of self-respect, be humble and give regard to everyone. This giving becomes a form of receiving. Short-lived charity is performed by giving some short-lived thing, or by co-operating for a short time. However, this permanent zeal and enthusiasm, that is, the treasure of happiness, the treasure of your co-operation uplifts souls for all time and this is why it becomes the greatest charity of all, says Baba. And the fruit of the charity you perform in this one birth is received throughout the whole cycle – you become both worthy of worship and worthy of respect.

This is why it is said, Baba explains, that to give regard is not to give regard, but to receive it. You give one and you receive multi-millionfold.