Baba says, ‘Let your speed of flying become so fast that you go across any clouds of situations in a second’.

A soul with faith is like an eagle. A crow is the eagle’s biggest pest. When an eagle is flying a crow will come right behind it and pester it. It will do things to annoy it. Instead of fighting the crow and getting upset trying to defend itself, an eagle will simply spread its eight foot wings to catch the winds and rise higher and higher. An eagle can fly at heights that no other bird can fly. In the same way there may be people or situations in my life that are like the crows trying to bait me into conflict or simply divert me from my path. It’s easy to get upset and try to straighten every crow out but let me remember that I am an eagle! I am equipped with the power to go up higher and fly where the crows cannot fly. If I stay at their level and straighten out every crow and get into conflicts that don’t matter, then I will get stuck. Let me recognize that these are simply distractions.

When an eagle faces a storm due to bad weather, it doesn’t bury its head and try to force its way through the storm. It doesn’t fight the storm, fight the rain, fight the thunder; once again, it simply uses the thermal winds and rises up until it’s above all the turmoil. I too have storms, those heavy clouds of difficulties that come my way. The key is to rise above all the turmoil. Baba hasn’t asked me to fight it, instead He has asked me to cross them as quickly as I can. To rise above, to not fight the storms is to remain at peace; it is to have the faith that the storm is here not to defeat me but to strengthen me. It is to know that God will get me through the storm.

But often I am battling, trying to force things to happen my way when this is the time to experience the Bestower of Blessings and the blessing, Baba reminds me. A blessing is a gift, it is free, I don’t have to work for it, I already have it.

Am I partnering with God and the drama, or am I trying to do things on my own? Just as the eagle works with the winds to rise higher, let me work with God. If I live worried, it’s like I am fighting the crow rather than simply catching the winds. Then, God simply sits down. But when I take His hand, He lifts me up above the turmoil. This isn’t to say that I get careless and don’t take responsibility but it does mean I do so from a place of rest, not from a place of frustration– ‘why is this taking so long?, why can’t I change this sanskar?, ‘why is this happening to me?’. Inner rest is even more important than outer rest. If my mind doesn’t rest, if I am always worried, fighting everything I don’t like, it will wear me out. Yes, I should be trying to curb that temper, I need to resolve that situation, but not in fight mode, feeling pressured, constantly working: ‘If I work hard enough, if I make myself change, if I make this problem go away…’. My heart is right but my approach is wrong. It will steal my joy, drain my energy and in fact make me perform worse.

Baba says, ‘You make very good effort. However, to experience pressure in your effort is not accurate effort. To pay attention is the method of Brahmin life. However, if attention changes into tension, it is not called accurate attention‘.

When I face challenges, things I don’t understand, one of the first things I need to do is not worry about the challenge but simply catch the wind and rise above the challenge. Then I can see things clearly. This is what intense effort is! Often we think intensity means to work harder, to do more, but actually, ‘doing’ requires no intensity. Intensity is about being able to protect my peace, my attitude despite the situation. It is to be able to rise above it. That’s harder to do because for half a cycle, I’ve been used to Ravan’s culture of ‘doing, doing, doing’; Ravan specializes in keeping me buried in problems, in keeping me pressured. This, Baba reminds me, is the Brahmin culture and here, I don’t have to work hard, I have the Father’s hand of blessing over my head. Yes, I have to pay attention, I have to be disciplined, stay determined…but if there is a war going on inside where I am upset with myself, frustrated because I’m not as further along as I’d like, trying to force it to happen in my own strength, I am not tapping into the blessing available to me today. Let me remember, I am not working to get the victory, I am working from a place of victory. When I know I have already won, there is rest!

An angelic life or a Brahmin life means to be ignorant of the knowledge of the word “difficult” and of any burden, says Baba. You are not even aware of what that is! A soul who has received the blessings from the Father is one who experiences ignorance of the knowledge of the word “difficult” in his life. Such a soul is called a blessed soul. So, to become equal to the Father means to be constantly sustained with the blessings you receive from the Bestower of Fortune and to remain constantly carefree and to experience guaranteed victory.

This is a partnership. I have to live from a place of rest, of trust in Baba and the drama. This is what faith is all about. I just keep doing what God has asked me to do- He has given me Shrimat for every step. I keep following and yes, there will be mistakes but that is part of the purification process, the storms are part of the curriculum. Let mm keep my heart turned toward God. I don’t have to figure everything out, play out all the ‘what-ifs’ over and over in my mind, lean on my own understanding. When I partner with God, I will not just enjoy life a lot more but God will make things happen that I couldn’t make happen on my own. No storm that has come to me is a surprise to Him, He is using those storms to teach me of my own strength, about my own wings, about how to catch His hand, the winds, so to speak and soar.

He is my Father and at this auspicious confluence age, He is blessing me everyday with all the powers, the virtues, the skills I need. All I have to do is receive, that is, use the blessing. Then, they will not just increase but they will go with me throughout the cycle.