Baba says, ‘the Father gives you an inheritance and Ravan curses you‘. The more you remember the Father, the more inheritance you will receive.

Heaven is a land of peace and happiness. It is liberation-in-life, it is a life of pure contentment- there are no needs or desires, no fears or anxieties. It is bliss. This is my inheritance. This is how my life was, this is how the world was. Then Ravan came and put a curse on me- my life changed and do did the world. Heaven became hell.

While contentment is the inheritance I received from the Father, Ravan cursed me with fear and anxiety. While purity and therefore peace and happiness is the inheritance, impurity and therefore peacelessness and sorrow is the curse. God comes at this auspicious confluence age to once again give me my inheritance, to once again change hell back into heaven.

Contentment is defined as a resting or satisfaction of mind without disquiet. It is a feeling that I am enough, that I have enough, it is a sense of sufficiency. It is a feeling of satisfaction. It is a feeling that I can cope with anything. It is a feeling of inner peace, inner rest, irrespective of external situations, people or circumstances. That sure sounds like heaven!

It’s opposite is anxiety. It is a feeling of restlessness, of dissatisfaction. It is a feeling of uneasiness, of uncertainty about the future, a sense that I am not in control of my circumstances, of being unsure of what’s going to happen. It’s rooted in fear. And anxiety is a thief in the life of God’s child- it steals my well-being, my joy. It paralyzes me – I feel incapable of making decisions, I don’t know what to do and my energy is drained. This is not how God intended me to live…a life of hell!

Anxiety is how Ravan imprisons me. It’s how he prevents me from enjoying my treasures whether physical or spiritual and most importantly, it’s through anxiety that he prevents me from believing or seeing the brightness of the future. I CANNOT enjoy the blessings of God and be anxious at the same time, they are mutually exclusive.

The specific mechanism Ravan adopts to get me to be anxious, to block me from seeing the brightness of the future is by convincing me that I need to have answers to two questions – when and how.

Baba tells me who I am- I listen with intoxication but within a few minutes I think about all the mistakes I’ve made, of my circumstances and think: but how can this happen? how can I get from my current state to a deity? Sometimes, my external situation does not appear to be changing- I want to do things, but I feel blocked, hidden. When I pay attention I find that actually while not much may be changing outside, there is a lot changing inside me. I am learning detachment, I am learning patience, I am learning trusteeship…most importantly, I am learning to partner with God, to rely on Him. But often I get restless because I want to know when my situation will change. When I get into the ‘how’ and ‘when’, I don’t appreciate the value of what I have now and neither do I believe that I can achieve anything great for the future. I feel stuck like I am falling behind, that I am being defeated, losing.

And so I try to address my anxiety by doing more, working harder, constantly striving…and Ravan convinces me that indeed, this is what I should be doing. I think: ‘let me talk to her, she can help me…’, ‘when I get that promotion…’, ‘if I can make this person happy…’

Baba says, ‘only the Father can give the inheritance‘ because only He has it to give. No one and nothing can fill that void, that emptiness, that discontentment inside of me. Only God can. At this time, only He is content, only He is peaceful, only He understands love…and He is the Ocean and so has more than anyone can use up. Only He is Ever Pure, in constant realization and therefore knows the truth.

Remember Me alone throughout the day, He says. Even when your hands are busy, your intellect should be connected to the Beloved.

When I remember Him, I am relating to Him as my Father, my Companion, my Teacher, My Friend, my Beloved. I am inviting Him into my life, I partner. I am not meant to take this journey alone or carry burdens. Give them to Me, He says. Let me not demand to know ‘how’ and ‘when’ from God. When I partner with God, part of that is to let Him do His job. My part is to follow His instructions, it is to be sincere. My job is to sit in the boat and let Him worry about the route i.e. the ‘how’ and trust His timing i.e. the ‘when’.

Throughout the day, rather than worry or be anxious, when I trust God as my partner, I thank Him because I know He is right there with me in my situation, in my circumstance. He has not abandoned me, He is working with me. ‘Thank you Baba that you are right here with me, that you are guiding my steps, you are teaching me’. Let me remember all the times that He got me out of a potential mess, when He miraculously ensured I wasn’t hurt in that accident, when He had someone tell me exactly what I needed to hear and when I needed to hear it, the time when I got that opportunity that I didn’t think I deserved….Let me remember Who He is, how He operates. Let me experience that He is faithful, that He is true.

Let me not hesitate to tell Him about my situation, my need, my feelings. Yes, He already knows but doing this helps me experience His presence in my life, it helps me remind myself that I am not alone, it builds my humility – I cannot control everything, I need my Father’s help. Sometimes I think I’m troubling God if I tell Him about what I’m dealing with. I’m not! He is not a lofty God who thinks I’m a waste of time. I have given Him my life, He is responsible for me and inviting Him allows me to experience His help. Once I give my burden to Him, it is now His. Let me rest in this knowing.

When I can do this – 1) know God as He is and relate to Him 2) trust Him with my burden and rest, He is happy. It shows my faith, my trust in Him and my willingness to partner with Him.

This is what Arjuna did. In the Mahabharata, Arjuna took an oath that he would kill Jayadrath before sunset, the enemy who had killed His son deceptively. However, it was near impossible to kill Jayadrath given the vast Kaurava army protecting him. When Krishna questioned Arjuna asking why he had taken such an oath, Arjuna calmly responded: ‘You are my Friend, You are God, I know You will take care of it’ and then promptly left to rest. As he rested, God stayed awake. Can I be Arjuna? Can I trust God this way with my life? When I do this, when I rest, God goes to work. If I can do this, I’ll be surprised at what I can face, what I can bear, what I can walk through and what I can overcome! Knowing God gives me peace, contentment and confidence. God did not say storms won’t come, that difficulties won’t come but He promised to be my Companion in those storms. He isn’t waiting for me on the other side of the storm to see if I’ll make it, no! He is in the storm with me.

On the other hand, to be anxious as a child of God is a sin because I inadvertently separate myself from the Father, I show distrust, I show impatience with His method and timing, I try to take control. Just because I don’t see a way, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a way. I think in the natural, in the logical but God is supernatural, He is not bound by logic. ‘I change you from beggar to prince’, He says. Not from beggar to someone who can pay the bills, not even from beggar to rich…but from beggar to prince! He is not an ordinary human-being, He is not even a deity…He is the Creator of deities! the Creator of heaven. His mere remembrance burns away sins and transforms. I am the Purifier, He reminds me. I made you pure from impure in the last cycle, I will do it again. Now, remember Me alone.

Contentment, peace, power are my inheritance from my Father. I don’t have to strive for them. They are mine simply for being the child.