Baba says, ‘there is just one way to become pure – have remembrance of the Father‘. Only the effort of having remembrance will be useful at the end.

Remembrance is the most natural thing I do, it’s as natural as breathing. But just as the quality of the air I breathe matters for my physical health, the quality of my remembrance matters for my spiritual health. Baba says, ‘Manmanabhav!, remember Me alone’. This time in the cycle is the time to become pure and return home. This is why the Father is here -to take me back home with Him and only His remembrance can make me pure. There is no other method.

But that aside, why wouldn’t I want to remember the Father, the eternal Beloved for Whom I waited for half a cycle? He is the Ocean of Love– of pure, unselfish, unconditional, unadulterated love. It is the true love that the soul was thirsting for. That Beloved is here now, for me, why wouldn’t I remember Him…not because I have to but because I want to, with a lot of love? The more time I spend with Him, the better I get to know Him. I experience His innocence, His acceptance, His compassion, His benevolence. These experiences in turn emerge those same qualities that are within me. He reminds me- you are My child, you are just like Me. Remember Me and you will remember yourself.

His remembrance reminds me of not just that I am a soul but of what kind of a soul I am. I am no ordinary soul, I am a direct child of God. Every one of the Father’s praise is my self-respect! He is the Almighty Authority, I am a master almighty authority. He is the Ocean of Love, I am the master ocean of love. The more I remember Him, the more I wake up, the more aware I become of who I am. I am the child of God! I am the child of the Ocean! I am the master of all His treasures. The more I remain in this awareness, the more self-respect I develop.

And so the foundation of remembrance and therefore of my very self-respect is love. And not just any love but love from the heart.

The knowledge- we all have this, as soon as we become Brahmins. I know the soul, I also know the Father with His full introduction, I am also aware of the relationships- Father, Teacher, Satguru, I have the knowledge of the cycle, the Creator and the creation and yet many ask: why isn’t there easy remembrance, why is it so difficult? Why do I not have the constant experience of bliss, power and peace? Why do the remembrance repeatedly slip away? The reason for this, Baba points out, is that the knowledge is only in the head. There is knowledge, but there is little love in the heart.

If a seed doesn’t receive water, it won’t bear fruit. In the same way, if you have knowledge, but there is no love in your heart, you don’t receive the fruit of attainment i.e. you won’t experience the peace, love, bliss etc., explains Baba. This is why remembrance which should be so natural feels like effort. Love means to be merged in the ocean of all attainments and experiences. When that happens, it takes effort to forget.

So, ask yourself, says Baba: Together with knowledge, do you also have love in the heart? or is there a leakage in this love? If there is the slightest love for someone other than the Father, even in your thoughts, whether for people or for things, if there is love for a person’s body or love for someone’s specialty…whatever, then that’s a leak. And sometimes, it’s not love, I feel dislike or jealousy for someone…that too is subservience because either way, my intellect is pulled against my wish to that soul and their sanskars, not to Baba.

Unless you are detached from the old world, you cannot love the Father, He explains, for there will always be a leakage. Otherwise, God’s love is infinite; it is unshakeable. There is so much love that everyone can attain it. However, the method to attain God’s love is to be detached. Without this, there cannot be success, that is, there cannot be an experience.

This is why sometimes we remember with the pure desire to celebrate a meeting with Baba, but we don’t have an experience; we want to have a heart-to-heart conversation, but we don’t receive a response. First of all, Baba says, check if you have become detached so that you can receive His love. If this foundation to attain love is firm, then it is not possible for you to not attain that love because the Father has guaranteed this! It is a guarantee: You do one thing and I will do the rest. That one thing – remember Me with your heart, not for your own purpose. If there is an obstacle, you are able to sit in yoga for four hours, Baba points out. However, as soon as the obstacle is removed, the remembrance also finishes. This is remembrance for your own purpose, isn’t it?, He asks. Don’t have remembrance just to fulfil your own desire, but have remembrance to become good. Let it not be: I will remember Baba so that this work is accomplished. Instead, become worthy and experience God’s love, He says.

Sometimes, I am firm in the awareness of the soul and that I am a child of God but there is a third awareness that is just as important to have in order to have a constant remembrance, Baba teaches. That is the awareness of the drama. Without this, I will be lost in questions of ‘why’, ‘what’, and ‘how’ – this is Ravan’s jail. But when I realize that I, God and the other souls are all actors in this unlimited drama, then I don’t shake when a situation comes, or when someone says or does something I don’t understand. I learn to put a full-stop to the expansion, to the leakage. I trust the drama as benevolent just as the Father. They are both on my side. So if something has happened, it is beneficial even though I may not see the benefit yet. Full-stop! This is how I stay out of Ravan’s jail but it takes practice.

Ravan is very deceitful, he is your enemy for half the cycle, Baba cautions. Throughout the day, while walking and moving around, stay in the awareness that I am a soul, separate from this body. I am an actor playing a part in this unlimited drama with my co-actors. But my intellect only listens to the Director and His instructions (Shrimat). He is the one Father, the one Beloved, my Teacher, my Satguru, my Friend…He is all my relationships. In the midst of your activity, practice being able to stop and become bodiless. Fill yourself with power, He says. The Father is here to give me my lost inheritance. He is here to make me Narayan from an ordinary human. It is up to me to claim the inheritance fully. Everything, He explains, depends on remembrance.