Baba says, ‘I will not accept the sacrifice of you souls until you become pure‘. 

On the path of devotion, when an animal is being offered in sacrifice, if it makes a sound or cries out it is not accepted as “maha-prasad” (a holy offering); it is not considered to be a sacrifice. That is a memorial of the present time.

When something is not sacrificed out of love, then there is crying out.

Sometimes, it is a crying out for name and fame. I come to Baba and decide I want to give my life to service. Whether that sacrifice gets accepted depends on my intent. If, together with sacrifice or renunciation, I have the desire for name, regard and fame, then that is not renunciation. Because of the impure intent, I automatically deprive myself of any fortune – there is no happiness, lightness or liberation. Instead, I am constantly either complaining or feeling unhappy in my mind about the lack of recognition or glory. There is unfulfillment.

Sometimes, I sacrifice out of compulsion. When I understand the value of the sacrifice I’m making, I do it because I feel I have to…not because I want to. I help out with something while grumbling about it, I’d rather tell that person off but I suppress my anger, I don’t really like someone but I smile because they are a senior and I don’t want to be perceived as disrespectful. Sacrifice is a sign of love, Baba reminds me. Shrimat and the codes of conduct are for my own protection, for my own improvement. If I am following them out of compulsion or a sense of obligation or to be perceived as a ‘good girl or good boy’, then that is not a sacrifice that brings fortune. Only that which is done out of love from the heart is accepted.

Sometimes, I sacrifice because I am fed up with the world. So I think, why not give everything to God. I don’t do it because I want to or care but I do it out of limited disinterest. This isn’t accurate either.

Sometimes, I have come to Baba, I am serving in the yagya but I am not wholly present. I am still in the grips of Maya or body consciousness where I allow myself to be caught up in the false- usually mistakes I made. I remember all the things I’ve done wrong, all the poor decisions I made and define myself by them. Ravan and Maya work overtime to stick these labels on me – failure, compromised, divorced, didn’t raise the kids right etc. etc. and I allow them. In other words, I live in God’s house, take His sustenance but agree with Ravan. I listen to what God tells me about who I am, but I accept what Ravan tells me. When I am feeling unhappy, sad, bitter, guilty, shameful…or any other body conscious feeling, that is impurity.

Baba says, ‘constantly remember Me alone and you souls will become pure. By forgetting the Father you have become so impure and unhappy!’ When I remember Baba, I experience the fire of His love. In that fire, let me sacrifice all the weaknesses, the impurity, the false labels and masks, the burdens and all the rest that does not belong to the soul. It is your duty to cut away the strings of the karmic bondages. If even one string is yet to be cut away, the mind will be pulled. The only thing that belongs to me is ‘Baba’…I am His child. I have the rights to all His treasures, His fortune. If I don’t experience this, then I haven’t actually sacrificed, I haven’t actually died alive. I may have left the old world but it still lives within me.

This great sacrificial fire will be completed only when the entire old world has been sacrificed into it. The form of this final sacrifice is the finishing of the consciousness of “I” in all it’s forms – name, status, fame, weaknesses, guilt, shame….everything. There shouldn’t be the slightest trace of it in your thoughts or dreams. Instead, there should only just be the awareness of your eternal form of soul consciousness. Only the words “Baba, Baba” should emerge from your lips and in your mind, indicating that there is nothing else in my world. I am merged in His love. I become the same. This is called the final sacrifice, says Baba.

I get to the final sacrifice faster when I put great sacrificial offerings, and not ordinary offerings, into the great yagya, teaches Baba. That means that I sacrifice with determination and completely. I don’t hold on because of doubt, or fear. If the person who is sacrificing something is weak, then, because of the heat, half of what is being sacrificed would fall into the fire and half would spill outside the fire. Here, too, I think: “Baba has asked me to give up anger but will it be possible or not? will I be able to do this or not?”. Or I come forward to give my mind, body and wealth to service but then I think: “What if destruction doesn’t take place? What if heaven doesn’t come? Will I reach there or not? What will people say if I fail? Maybe it’s better if I stay back” You put your hand forward very easily, but when you feel the heat, you pull it back, He says. You have courage but when the slightest obstacle comes, you step backwards. If someone wills something after thinking about everything, he doesn’t receive as much fruit. When there isn’t the total sacrifice, there isn’t total success.

All Baba asks for as sacrifice is the rubbish, the weaknesses in a practical way. Not just in words, but in action. There should be concern for each and every sanskar, says Baba, you say you will do something, but you don’t actually do it. The sanskar of rest and comfort of pulls you more than the sanskars of confluence-aged Brahmins which are of embodiments of renunciation, He says. Without renunciation, you cannot create your fortune. To think, “I will do it later. I will tend to it later” are the sanskars of someone who loves rest and comfort. Someone who says, “I will definitely do it now,” has the sanskars of a true Brahmin.

This sacrificial fire has been established by the Father, for me – to change me from unhappy to happy, from burdened to light, from weak to powerful. In other words, I change from one with no rights to a self-sovereign, from an old world human being to a new world deity. When I understand this, I sacrifice out of love for the Father who is making me into this, in a second with determination and happiness. It becomes a true sacrifice. Only the truth is accepted by the true Father, says Baba, all the rest is accumulated in the account of sin, not in the Father’s account. Now finish the account of sin and accumulate in the Father’s account.