Baba says, ‘drink nectar and also inspire others to drink it‘. Only those who drink nectar become elevated.

As common wisdom goes, if I drink something, I will be able to describe it’s taste, if it felt good afterward, did it give me energy etc. to others trying to decide whether they should drink it. I can still be a salesperson without having ever tried the drink myself but my effectiveness will be limited. I will lack a key ingredient while talking about the drink – confidence. Confidence comes from having tried it myself, from experience.

I might be well-read and well-spoken, I might even understand a lot of concepts but if I’ve never experienced them, then my ability to benefit others is limited. Just as a person who has been through grief is better able to speak courage to someone else going through it, similarly my ability to serve in any situation is magnified when I have experience.

Same with spiritual knowledge.

The souls of the world are in pain, they are calling out for peace, for true love, for courage, for strength. It is you children that are world benefactors, are you able to give your brothers what they want?, asks Baba. I might be able to explain peace, love and all the other virtues, I might be able to teach the seven-day course in my sleep but was I able to give souls the experience or was it just words? If I simply spoke the points, then that’s what the other soul received – points. It went from my head to theirs. But if I have experienced peace, true love and power, it shows in my face, comes through in my every word and the other soul receives the experience. This time, it was from my heart to theirs. This heart-to-heart transaction is service, says Baba.

Even a five year old child can speak the knowledge, that’s easy!, says Baba, but one wouldn’t call the child a yogi! A yogi lives the knowledge, doesn’t just speak it. There are many souls in the world who speak so much better but what they can’t do is give souls an experience of their Father, of their inheritance. The peace, the true love, the happiness, courage, strength…all of these things that my brothers are searching for is in fact their inheritance, it is their birthright. They have a right to the Father and His inheritance just as much as me. Am I playing my role in giving them access to their birthright?

If all I am doing is speaking empty words, then I am no different from others. This is when souls who listen say: ‘yes, the knowledge is very good. You too are doing good service’. If I am taking pride in hearing these words, I am missing the point. If I claim to be God’s child, if I claim to be learning directly from God, if I claim that I am living with God, then how come I am no different from the rest of the world? Yes, I may have explained the cycle well, I may have answered all the questions asked and yet, I missed the one and really, the only thing that mattered to that soul- an experience of the Father and their inheritance.

Drink the nectar and then inspire others to drink it, says Baba. Only those who drink the nectar are elevated.

Drinking doesn’t mean that I understand, it means I experience. Simply understanding a point doesn’t transform me because it doesn’t serve me as much. And until I serve myself, I cannot be of service to others. I might understand peace, but have I gone deep into the experience? Often I go deep the wrong way- I over-analyze. I take a concept, I understand and then go deeper, and deeper and deeper…but at some point, my understanding has to lead to experience. The scaffolding, so to speak, has to fall off. In silence, in my cave of introversion, let me go deep into the experience of peace and become an embodiment. Let me soak in it. Then, when I say ‘Om shanti’, there is more than just words, there is an experience of peace. Then, when I speak to my brother soul, I don’t even have to be explaining ‘peace’, they will experience it anyway…just from my presence, from my face, from my eyes. They will feel it in the atmosphere. They will recognize it…I would have given them something to put a finger on and say: ‘ah yes!, this is what I was looking for…how can I feel this more’. That, is elevated service and it happens automatically.

Mere appearance doesn’t cut it, says Baba. Just putting on my whitest clothes and badge does nothing. I might have the external appearance of an angel but if my face looks unhappy, if I lack the intoxication of being God’s child, if a little word can upset me, if I get into arguments, then I am not what I am projecting. And while I mislead myself into believing that souls are paying attention to my words, they are in fact influenced by how I make them feel.

Intoxication comes from experience. It’s when the intoxication finished in the copper age, that the quarrelling began, teaches Baba.

Often, we have faith but faith alone cannot sustain me, that would be like bhakti. This, Baba reminds me daily, is a study. Here I earn an income when I imbibe, when I experience, when I make the knowledge mine. Simply to have faith that this God and that this knowledge will lead me to liberation-in-life is a good starting point but not sufficient for the long run. I have to actually put the knowledge into practice and experience liberation-in-life. Only when I am liberated will I be able to serve as an instrument to liberate others. Simply speaking about liberation is what priests in temples do.

The Father says: Unless you become elevated, you cannot go to heaven. Those who were elevated have now become corrupt. You now have to drink nectar and become elevated again.