Baba says, ‘He is called the Ocean of Love‘. You also have to become like Him. 

We think if we live good enough, then God will bless me. If we can clean ourselves up, don’t make mistakes, then God will love us. The problem is we can’t live that way. We will make mistakes till the very end. Condemning voices come up and say: God will never bless you! you are too far gone, you can’t get anything right. But that is not how God is. When I can’t come up to His level, He comes down to mine. He’s not so high that He can’t reach down low. Yes, He is the Creator, the Highest-on-High, the Ever Pure but He is also the Purifier, the Lord of the Poor, the Innocent Lord. If I always view Him as the Highest and that’s it, then I will feel distant from Him, overwhelmed, intimidated, like I will never measure up.

I have to see Him as the One who comes down to the impure world, in an old, impure body for His children. He isn’t someone who turns up His nose at all the impurity, He doesn’t decide to stay up in His world and work through ‘divine inspirations’, He comes down to where the children are, He comes to the messy places, He gets His hands dirty. He comes at the end of the cycle when I am tamopradhan, have committed sins, have forgotten the right way to live.

When I am fallen, broken, when I knew better but did it anyway, that’s when I think God will not want to have anything to do with me. I think this because that’s how people are. But God is not like people. Only that one Father loves you, whereas all the rest beat you. All over the whole world people continue to reject one another, He says. When I am down is exactly the time when He comes after me. He doesn’t go after the rich or the clever ones of the world, He doesn’t go after the ones who are ‘perfect’, His vision falls on the so-called ordinary ones, the ones whom the world has dismissed. He comes looking for His children.

He looks for them in the most remote corners of the world, He finds them in their darkest moments- in the depression, in the loneliness, in the trouble, in the failures; He finds them as they seek Him in all the wrong places on the path of bhakti. But no matter where I am or what I have done, I can never get too far off-course for God to give up on me, to leave me alone. He’ll come to where I am. He comes not to condemn me, judge me, lecture me or label me as people do, but He comes to lift me up, to restore me, to liberate me and set me on a new path…the path that leads me to my destiny. He could have just come and shown me a little mercy, pitied me and simply lifted me from the gutter, so to speak. But that’s not what He does because He is not just God, He is my Father. A Father does not show mercy, He loves. And God, my eternal Father, does not show love or express love, He is the Ocean of Love.

And what a love God has for me! He takes me straight from the gutter and seats me on His heart-throne. He takes me when I am a beggar begging for a little respect, a little love, for some approval and and makes me into His heir, a prince. He takes me from an impure worshiper and makes me worship-worthy. Only the Innocent Lord can rectify that which is completely spoiled and this, is His love. He doesn’t just bring me out of the dump, He honors me. It took me many births to lose course and get to where I am but He sets me back on the right course in just one small birth. He doesn’t just show me mercy, He stands me back on my feet.

When I understand that this is what He is here to do, I will understand His love. Often, I want much less than what He wants to give me. I ask for mercy – ‘Baba, help me get rid of this sanskar’, ‘Baba, please remove this person from here’ etc. while He wants me to have liberation-in-life. I ask for help with making it in Ravan’s world, the world that brought me nothing but sorrow, that rejected me. God says, ‘You don’t belong in this world. I am here to establish the new world, heaven, and make you into the master of heaven‘.

To claim what Baba wants for me requires me to unlearn everything I’ve learnt in the old world- right from who I am, whom I belong to, what success and power means and, what will bring me happiness; the world even has the virtues and vices mixed up! Baba says, ‘I fill your apron with the jewels of knowledge’. Every jewel that I imbibe takes me one more step closer to claiming my destiny – to liberation-in-life, to self-sovereignty. And so, Baba says, each jewel is worth multi-millions, you have to claim them. He says, ‘Yes, I am great but I also reach down to take you into your destiny’. I could have been dishonest, manipulative and He will still show up at my door. I can never fall too low or make too many mistakes for Him to stop loving me. In fact, it’s just the opposite. The more I’m broken, the more He loves, the closer He holds me to Himself. I only receive such altruistic, unconditional love from the One Father and it’s purity inspires me to do my part- which is to never write myself off; He doesn’t and neither should I. And let me never write anyone else off either.

People in the world routinely judge others – ‘wow, look at her lifestyle, she parties too much!’, ‘he’s too dishonest!’, ‘she’s not smart enough…pretty enough…traditional enough…obedient enough…’,’they use bad language..’, ‘he comes from the wrong religion..’etc etc. And often I bring those sanskars into Brahmin life: ‘she doesn’t follow Shrimat correctly…’, ‘he doesn’t even wake up for Amritvela…’,’there is no unity in this gathering…’. Baba says, ‘your Brahmin clan is the most elevated‘. It has to be! we are the direct children of God! and therefore, my sanskars should be like Him too. He comes to uplift souls, I must uplift as well; He comes to heal, I must heal as well; He comes to restore, I must be a restorer as well; He comes to unite, I must unite as well. Where would I be today if He hadn’t uplifted me? How many times has He reached down for me, pulled me out of messes when I least deserved it, protected me even when I went against His direction? It would be one thing if He did all this while condemning, judging, lecturing but He doesn’t say a word, He doesn’t find fault. Let me not judge others either. I don’t know the journey they’ve been on. If I had their same experiences, same circumstances, if I had to walk in their shoes, I might have made those same choices. God reached down for me, now, let me reach for my brothers and sisters.

I am never more like God than when I am helping the hurting. Helping doesn’t always mean social service – there are many in the world that do this; but helping in spiritual terms is to bless. And Baba teaches me that blessing someone does not mean that I place my hand on their head! Rather it means that I don’t allow their weaknesses or defects to sit in my heart. It means I live compassionately, it means I operate from a place of love, of forgiveness. But I can only do this when I first bless myself. Let me receive God’s love and stop defining myself by my mistakes, rejecting myself for things I got wrong, let me overcome self-doubt and accept God’s vision for me. Only when I accept myself can I accept others. The Father is the sweetest of all. The more I remember Him, the more I experience His sweetness, His love. That love is the alchemy that heals and transforms.

There’s enough judgement, criticism, fault-finding in the world today…let me be one that uplifts, let me be one that gives my brothers and sisters the experience of the Father who reaches down. Let me bring hope where there is hopelessness, go in with a fresh vision instead of judgment.

You children know that only the Father comes and gives you your inheritance of heaven. No one in the world can love you as much as the Father does. He is called the Ocean of Love. You also have to become like Him.