Baba says, ‘don’t make excuses, pay special attention to your thoughts, words and actions and become an embodiment of solutions.’

After wandering and stumbling around in darkness for half a cycle, I called out to the Father: ‘O Purifier, Baba, come! Come and liberate me from sorrow and the kingdom of Ravan.‘ The Father is here now at this auspicious confluence age to do just that- to liberate everyone. He comes and gives me the mirror of knowledge- of who I am, and how I ought to live. You have become unrighteous in the company of Ravan, He explains. Now, I come to make you righteous again.

In the past, before receiving the knowledge, I didn’t notice things in me that I do now. Now, those same reactions, those same attitudes and behaviors bother me because now, I know better, having looked in the mirror. I want nothing more than to change, to become what God wants me to be but I keep coming up short. And then I try to justify it to myself and to Baba:

I say: ‘Baba, this happened and that’s why I did this. She did this and that’s why I had to say that. In fact, I’m okay Baba, but, this soul hit me and so I fell. If I hadn’t been hit, I wouldn’t have fallen, but because this one hit me, I fell.’ Baba simply asks, ‘why? aren’t you able to protect yourself that you had to fall?’ It is the job of those who create obstacles to hit you but it is your job to protect yourself from injury, He says. Stop making excuses! Sometimes, I go the other extreme and stop progressing because I distance myself from people: ‘when this person leaves, then I will be okay’ or I wait for the ‘right time’: ‘from tomorrow, when this happens, I will become a fast effort-maker’. Then, inevitably, something else pops up tomorrow and becomes the excuse for postponing my ‘fast effort’ to the day after tomorrow.

The sun does not say: ‘I am unable to give light because there is so much darkness around or because there are so many clouds around.’ It gives light no matter what. No cloud or no amount of darkness can scare it away or stop it from doing what it needs to do. If the sun were to make excuses, all life on earth would perish. ‘The souls of the world, your brothers and sisters, are tired of stumbling around‘, Baba points out. ‘They are waiting for the constantly ignited lamps to come and dispel their darkness.’ If I myself am flickering, then I cannot offer support to anyone else. ‘When you are the light to others, can you not give light to yourself?‘, asks Baba.

To make excuses is carelessness, Baba teaches me, it is a very ordinary way to live. But you are world transformers and therefore, you cannot live ordinarily. Your attitude should be: ‘I have to do this whether someone else does it or not, I have to do it‘. This is to make a firm pledge, says Baba. Often I make a promise to myself with a pure heart but Baba says, ‘it is one thing to make a promise and another to make a firm pledge.‘ When I make a pledge, then the principle is, I may die but I cannot break my pledge! When a patient is very sick and is advised strict medication and diet- the patient might not like it but they will put aside their feelings and follow their doctor’s orders because they know their life depends on it. Same here, says Baba. When it’s a question of life, then no matter how big or small the circumstances might be, whether I think it’s fair or not, I remain steadfast because I am aware that if I don’t, I will die.

And sometimes, the reasons are indeed legitimate. Maybe I had a hard childhood, maybe I had abusive relationships or a lot of strife in my family and yes, those often become the reasons for a lot of the sanskars or the baggage I carry in my life. But Baba teaches me not to allow the reason to become my excuse because once I allow it to become an excuse, I become trapped in it. It becomes my justification for everything. I get to write my own narrative, I have the power through Baba to change my life for the better, to unburden myself and fly.

Baba comes heeding my desire to change, to become pure and righteous again. He uses situations and circumstances to allow me to come face to face with my old behaviors, and attitudes that have been the bondage holding me back. I cannot wish them away or justify them away, I have to face them to overcome them. With the power of my firm pledge, let me make the change. In the school of God, I don’t ever fail but I do get to keep taking the same test again and again and again until I pass. The sooner I make the change, the sooner I can move on to the next chapter of my life.

Many times, I am waiting for opportunities to do big things, I want to serve but the only reason God can’t push me into my destiny soon enough is that attitude or behavior -it’s what’s holding me back. Unless I get rid of it, I won’t be able to sustain myself where He’s taking me next. Let me do myself a favor, let me not deprive myself of the awesome future that’s waiting for me by holding on to old patterns. Let me with the awareness of being a world transformer, a lighthouse to the world, a helper of God along with the power of my firm pledge, change excuses into solutions.