Baba says, ‘don’t blame Maya‘. Pay full attention to your study, then no storms can come to you.

Maya is simply the weakness of my own mind. When I step away from the awareness of who I truly am, then, there is only waste. And one single waste thought is all it takes sometimes to paralyze me into being non-functional.

I make a mistake or realize a weakness within me and rather than move to change it, I dwell on it. I analyze it to death – why did this happen? how could this have happened? how could I have this? I never experienced this even before gyan? what will others think of me? maybe I am not cut out to be a Brahmin after all.. and on and on.

This is not effort, this is self-absorption or self-indulgence. This is a sanskar of bhakti where I spend time blaming myself or others for everything that’s wrong with the result being that I do nothing about the issue. There is just blame, rejection, shame, and disheartenment.

Maya says, ‘I was simply passing by. You invited me in, don’t blame me!‘

When we are kids and accidentally run into a chair or table and fall, our mothers come running and to pacify us, they often say: ‘bad chair!, it made you fall’. That made us feel better then to know we did nothing wrong, it was someone or something else. We grow up and inadvertently carry this forward into bhakti where we blame past karma, God, the world, everyone for my plight. There is a complete lack of accountability or a sense of responsibility for progress. That was then, now, Baba says, you are neither kids nor is this the time for bhakti.

‘You are a master creator‘, says Baba. You create your own thoughts, choose your words and actions. How can you feel helpless? The problem is, I forget. The antidote to weakness is power and power only and only comes from remembrance. You are a trikaldarshi (the knower of the three aspects of time) says Baba, constantly spin the discuss of self-realization.

When I see my whole story throughout the cycle, my elevated part, I develop courage and faith. When that thought about that weakness comes, I don’t let it brew, I don’t let it shake my faith because I know my whole story. That’s the key: I have to KNOW, I have to BELIEVE it in my bones. Yes, it is me! I have been this every cycle, I will be this again. Then, the thought comes: ‘really? are you sure? but you’ve made so many mistakes in your life’. Yes, I have. I had to pass through the false to appreciate and know the truth. I have become stronger, wiser and more experienced with each lesson. Then, the thought comes stronger to try to shame me: ‘but c’mon! you clearly have such a long way to go, look at yourself!’ but because I am a believer, I say, ‘yes, indeed I do but look at how far I’ve come already!’

Let me remember the knowledge and use the point to make me unshakable.

The Drama has already been shot and the discuss shows me my entire story. This story has already been shot!, It’s fixed and the drama repeats identically, so nothing can change! I am destined to be a sovereign, I have been that countless times, I am merely becoming that again, nothing new! I am anointed whether anyone believes it or not…

Let me also remember Whom I belong to, Who is responsible for me!

Let me remind myself constantly: God is responsible for me! He is my Boatman, He is taking me across. It is said that: it didn’t take long for God to change a human into a deity. He doesn’t come to change a silver aged deity to a golden aged deity, He doesn’t even come to change a copper aged human to a golden aged deity. He comes to transform the most degraded human, at the end of the iron age into a golden aged deity! That is what He does, it is His specialty in fact…so, yea! I’m good, thank you very much.

A faithful intellect is worry free or Maya free. I don’t waste time in ‘what?’ or ‘why?’ or ‘how?’. I have unshakable faith in myself, in the Drama and in the One who is teaching me. I pay attention to the study, to understanding and following Shrimat rather than spend precious time in self-doubt and waste.

Don’t blame Maya, says Baba, pay attention to the study and then, storms won’t come to you. Maya won’t come because when the intellect is powerful through knowledge and remembrance, there is no Maya, there is no weakness. There is only faith, courage and determination.

It’s never too many weaknesses that get in our way, it is usually 1 or 2 really deep ones, our Achilles heel. If I can identify what that is – lack of self-respect, insecurity, fear…and then concentrate my effort to transform that one sanskar, I will be home free. Where there is concentration, there will be determination because I really get after a clear goal, make my effort focused.

We do this well in education or at the workplace – we make a plan but we don’t do this in our spiritual effort. Here, we make the mistake of thinking that sanskars will change on their own. They won’t! I have to make the effort. The effort yields better reward when it is concentrated. When I start to chip away, little by little, at that deep sanskar, I gain confidence, faith and my self-respect back. The more faith and self-respect I gain, the more I want to study and move forward on my journey. There is zeal and enthusiasm.

So let me check myself today. Am I still blaming Maya or am I ready to take responsibility for my own destiny?