Baba says, ‘No one in the world knows the Father or the inheritance‘. Now, you children know the Father and your fortune and you have to remember the Father.

When Baba found me, He reminded me of who I am and made me belong to Him. I recognized Him to be the same Father Who had come for me in the last cycle. I accept Him and say ‘Baba!’ from my heart. At that moment, I have died alive. I did not leave my physical body but I died alive from the old world and was born into this new world of my eternal Father.

He is always my Father, it’s just that I forgot. I thought of my physical parents as my only parents and during the second half of the cycle, adopted sanskars of Ravan. It’s as if I became a child of Ravan. The Father came again after a cycle and reminded me of my truth- of who I am and Whom I belong to.

You have now taken a new birth and so there should be remembrance of the Father, He says.

When I belonged to Baba, my fortune was already awakened. Just as a prince when born automatically inherits all the fortune of the king, similarly, when I died alive, I brought with me my fortune of the sovereignty of heaven. I was born to God, the Creator of heaven! I was given a new name – the child of God. It is when I learnt that I am not a role or a label, that my worth comes not from what I do, it comes from who I am and that is a pure, peaceful, loving soul, the child of the Highest-on-High! I may have weaknesses but that does not change my name. I may have had failures but those are events, not who I am. the The more I remain in the awareness of who I am, the higher the fortune will be – my thoughts, words, deeds will change, my attitude will change, my very being will reflect the qualities of that which I am aware of. Baba says, ‘fortune is connected with remembrance‘.

But more often than not, I forget what He has reminded me and remember that which I am supposed to forget. I go through the day thinking of myself as my bodily relationships, as the roles, the titles, the many labels. I make the mistake of thinking that when I perform perfectly in all my roles and relationships, when I do well, God will approve of me. I look at my weaknesses and think when I overcome them, then, I will be eligible, then I will feel good about myself. This is what body consciousness looks like.

Baba says, I am not looking for a performance, I am pleased with an honest heart.

It means that I might make mistakes, I might get things wrong but when my heart is honest, when I am doing my best to be my best, when I am walking His path, He is pleased. He prefers those who make mistakes once in a while but have an honest heart turned toward Him rather than the clever ones of the world who perform perfectly but have a dishonest heart. He loves the imperfect, flawed children who recognize Him as their Father- this is the praise of the procession of Shiva.

He says, ‘O lovers, O children, know Me and remember Me as I am and your sins will be absolved‘.

Body conscious human beings judge me based on my background, resume, accomplishments because the world is focused on the outside. But God cares about the inside. Yes, I am not perfect, my attitude needs work, my character needs to be built but He knows that already. He knew that before even I knew that about me! Yes, I’ve made mistakes, let me tell Him about them. He has already forgiven me but telling Him allows me to experience it and to forgive myself. In fact, not only has He forgiven, He has also forgotten! Let me not go through my days remembering that which God has forgotten. Let me remember that which He remembers.

Sanyasis and saints worship God, they leave their families, renounce the world and move away. They perform rituals, undertake dangerous journeys, cause themselves physical pain all in the name of repenting for past sins so that they please God, make themselves acceptable to Him. Even a physical father does not wish that his children cause themselves harm to please him, why would God, the Ocean of Love? But the problem is sanyasis don’t look at God as their Father, they look to Him as God, as some unattainable Being that they need to somehow please.

And so Baba says, ‘those on the path of isolation cannot enable anyone to receive the inheritance of the family path‘. The Father comes to meet His sweetest, beloved, long-lost and now-found children. He comes to liberate them from sorrow, not cause them sorrow. He gives them liberation and liberation-in-life as an inheritance. People on the path of bhakti teach others bhakti, they teach the rituals, the penance, and other ways of showing subservience because they believe this is what pleases God. They keep themselves and others in bondage and therefore, souls continue to descend the ladder.

The Father says, I come to make my children sovereigns. I have reminded you of who you are, now remember. It is this pilgrimage- the one of remembrance, that He wants me to stay on.

Instead if I go around feeling less than, like I don’t measure up, burdened by guilt, it does no one any good. When I feel lousy, it is also what I project onto other people. Baba says, ‘the more you cremate your old sanskars, the body conscious thinking, the more respect you will receive. All souls will salute you with their minds‘. Being soul conscious is the greatest service I can perform- when I get the ‘who I am’ part right, the rest falls in place automatically. Those negative voices, the self-doubt- that is Ravan and Maya trying to keep me turned away from God but I know my Father, I know His approval is not based on what I did, but based on who I am – His child. He may not approve of all my actions, but He approves me. And when I follow along on His path, my actions will also catch up.

Let me learn to walk in humility with God, let me partner with Him. There will always be mistakes and flaws till the end. If I am waiting to be ‘perfect’ to accept God, to relate to Him, I will deprive myself of the fortune of the land of happiness. I will instead feel and say: What can I do? This habit of mine does not finish. Therefore, it would be better to go and live at home’. Let me not move away from my destiny. God is not judging me based on past mistakes, failures, He is looking at my heart. Does my heart belong to Him? If God were also to judge us like human beings based on our performance, what would be the point? He comes to cure us of the illness of body consciousness. His mere remembrance fills the soul with power – I experience His love, His innocence, His unconditional acceptance. Instead of running away from Him, let me run to Him. When I take a step toward Him, He take a thousand toward me. Remembrance begets remembrance.