Baba says, ‘Pure souls have so much strength‘. They have that attraction of purity.

Deities are pure and therefore, attractive, Baba explains. When I go in front of a picture or an idol of a deity, I cannot take my eyes of it. There is purity in their eyes, in their face that cannot be missed. It draws one to it.

Purity is where I have no doubts, no worries, no fears, no anxieties. There are no fears or anxieties because there are no limited desires or attainments that I am holding on to. I am not worried about what will happen tomorrow because I already know what will happen. I have no fear because I know I am an eternal being, a soul, not the body. The body is perishable, can be harmed but I, the soul am imperishable. While physical things can be taken away from me, nothing that is truly mine i.e. the soul’s can be taken from me. It goes with me throughout the cycle. I have no doubts because I have faith in the Father, in what He has told me about myself, about Him and the cycle. Not just faith but I have experienced His truth for myself.

When I am pure in this way, there is lightness, a sense of being carefree, and therefore, there is peace, happiness, and cheerfulness. These virtues that come as a result of being pure, have so much strength, they have so much attraction, they continue to attract everyone even today.

You have to have as much attraction as they have, now, says Baba. Only when you have that attraction here will you have it there. It is your attraction of this time that becomes imperishable.

This purity comes from remembrance- of who I am and Whom I belong to.

God comes at this auspicious confluence age to take me to the new world, the land of purity and happiness. He comes as the Boatman to take me across in His steamer. Am I seated in it? It takes faith to get in. It takes faith in my own destiny and faith in the Boatman.

When devotees go on difficult pilgrimages atop the mountains, in the cold weather, they hire a guide to take them. They have to trust the guide with their lives, they have to trust that he knows the way and is equipped with the knowledge of how to overcome any obstacles that might arise along the way. They therefore seek out the most experienced guides to take them.

My guide is God Himself, He is my Boatman. I also have an added advantage – my Boatman is also my Father and Teacher. If there was ever a doubt about trusting my guide, that should be put to rest when it is my own Father. He takes me on the pilgrimage from the old world to the new world. And because He is my Father, He also cares for me, protects me and tends to me at every step. Because He is also my Teacher, He knows all about and teaches me about the history and geography of the world we are going across. He reveals new secrets every day making the journey entertaining.

This is not a guide who will hand me a map and say follow the signs to get to the next milestone and I’ll see you there. He goes with me, I am never alone. He is also not someone who will go with me part of the way and then hand me off to someone else for the remainder. He remains my Guide throughout the journey, He finishes what He starts.

But often when I don’t know my Guide well enough, I hesitate to step into His steamer because I’m afraid of the journey. I think of the destination, it is daunting. I look at the map, I google the path to get there and come to the conclusion that the journey simply cannot be made. I just don’t see how. The thoughts come: ‘it’s too hard!’, ‘I have these really hard sanskars, they don’t go, this might not be for me after all…’, ‘Lakshmi and Narayan…and me? that’s the seniors, I have way too many issues…’, ‘I’m just an ordinary person, I have way too many bondages, way too many struggles, made way too many mistakes…’

Here’s the thing though: God has not asked me to figure out the way…that’s His job. He is the Guide, not me. He is the Purifier. I may not see the ‘how’, but then I don’t have to. I simply have to trust .

When I know Who my Boatman is, I realize that He is no ordinary guide. He is the Almighty Authority, His mere remembrance burns away sins and makes the most impure ones, pure. He is the One who changes humans into deities – that is His specialty, doesn’t take Him long at all to do it. He is the Magician who transforms thorns into flowers. We make the mistake of thinking logically, like a human-being and conclude that something simply cannot be done, it is impossible. I forget my Boatman is God, He is the Creator. There is nothing impossible for Him and as His child, for me. Do I have the faith that He is God? Do I have the faith that I am His child? Do I have this intoxication? If I do, chains of bondages – the doubts, fears, worries instantly fall away and I become free. I become a trustee, a child. That’s attractive!

This does not mean that there won’t be storms along the way, there will be. But the Boatman is well-equipped to take me across, this is His occupation. The boat will shake but it will not sink, this is His guarantee. All I have to do is stay in the boat. In this steamer, there are other passengers too- some may jump off when there is a storm. Sometimes, there is so much thunder and lightning, it’s loud and scary. Sometimes, it gets so dark, it’s hard to see or even know where I am. Sometimes, I will hear voices of ‘friends’ calling out to me from the shore that I left behind. If I can stay in the steamer despite all these tests, despite the temptations, it shows trust in the Boatman. It shows stability. It shows that I am invested in attaining my destiny just as much as God is.

Where there is faith, there is victory, Baba reminds me. You have come here having made this faith firm that this is the same study that the deities studied to attain their elevated status. I know that it is this study of this time that will take me to the land of immortality. And so I have come just as I had in the last cycle to once again reclaim my high status. I know what my destiny is and I have faith in the Teacher and the study. I have faith in my Boatman. This, is remembrance. This, is how I reclaim my lost kingdom for it is only with this power of remembrance that the kingdom of the world can be attained. It is not a matter of physical power.