Baba says, ‘See each one’s part as a detached observer and let your stage be constant and stable.‘

Along the course of my journey, there will be many situations and people that come. And a lot of times, I may not like or even understand why a situation or person is the way they are. It seems that I was going about my business, doing the right thing and suddenly, out of nowhere, here is this unfavorable situation or person. At that point, I have a couple choices: I could either get caught up in the maze of ‘Why did this happen?’, ‘how could this have happened?’, ‘why me!?’ etc. or I could rise above.

Always remain stable in your seat of being a detached observer, says Baba. For this to happen, I need to (a) remember that this is an unlimited drama we are all part of and (2) remain connected with the Director.

As an actor in the drama, my duty is to stay in tune with the Director. He is the only one who knows the whole story- all the scenes, who will do what/say what, where to be, what to do etc. As an actor, I need to be focused on my lines, on how I play my part, not on how or what others are doing. That is between them and the Director. It is when I decide to play ‘director’ and start ‘directing’ my co-actors that problems arise. I think they shouldn’t have said what they said, done what they did etc., but the problem is I don’t know the head nor tail of the plot, I just know my lines. So I am in no position to tell anyone what or how to do anything. And more importantly, it’s not my job!

And so the Director says, ‘remain connected with Me alone and detached from everyone and everything else’.

That doesn’t mean that I remain aloof from everyone with a don’t care attitude. No!, in fact, it means just the opposite. When I stop judging and interfering in other’s scenes, that is, when I can remain detached from their performance, I can actually remain loving to the actors, or souls. In other words, in this drama, I am both an actor and a member of the audience. I am an actor when I play my part but an audience member when others are playing their parts. Sure, I don’t understand why someone did what they did or said the things they said, but I don’t have to! As an audience member, all I need to do is observe the scene.

Maybe the soul playing the role of a close friend just betrayed me in this scene, maybe a co-worker left me out of that important project and now it’s set me back, maybe my finances suffered a loss. If I forget that this is a drama and that we are actors, I will be shaken, feel sorrow, hurt, bitter and resentful, self pity and all the other emotions. But if I am able to maintain the awareness that this is a drama, then I won’t suffer, I will watch the scenes unfold as a detached audience member and remain unshakable like Angad. I will know that none of this changes who I am and none of it changes my destiny– unless I allow it to.

I am still a child of God, I am still the actor that I was before the scene unfolded, none of that has changed. My destiny is still a full life of peace, happiness and contentment, that hasn’t changed either. But when I allow myself to get entangled in the scenes forgetting that they are just scenes, I give up my peace and happiness myself. Baba says, ‘for you to be able to remain in the constant awareness of being a detached observer of the drama, you need to remain constantly lost in the remembrance of the One‘. Let me remain connected with the Director, He has the full script, the full story and knows all that is going on. He knew that situation was coming before it came- it was part of the story. He knew that person would betray me before they did it- it was part of the story. When I stay connected with Him, I too see this as a story, a drama, nothing more. My destiny is attained not by what happens in the drama i.e. the storyline but rather by how well I play my part.

Was I a good actor? How did I behave on the set? Was I friendly with everyone, easy to get along, kept out of that which is not my business? or was I interfering, playing director, trying to fix the set, finding faults etc.? It’s what builds my reputation with my co-actors, it’s what makes the Director want to work with me again, give me bigger and better scenes that showcase my full range. Those scenes that look complicated, He is using those scenes to make me shine if I’ll let Him. Whether I do or not is what determines my destiny. The story doesn’t matter, the situations are what they are…but did I play my bits well? did I shine?

Practice staying in the awareness, says Baba, that I am a soul, an actor in this unlimited drama. Remain connected with the Director, tune in to what is going on. It is one thing to know, intellectually, that ‘God loves me and will get me through every storm’ and another thing to actually trust Him in my bones. That trust builds when I actually go through storms and allow Him to ‘get me through the storms’. He will do it His way and on His timing- He is the Director, not me. I just have to trust and follow His direction, and resist the temptation to take matters into my own hands. If I can do that, it is a treat to watch Him use every scene to grow me as an actor, as a person and make me shine. I am the Ocean of Knowledge, only I know the beginning, middle and the end, He reminds me. When you follow My Shrimat, you claim your full inheritance and become the king of kings.