Baba says, ‘Make that donation and the omens of the eclipse will be removed.‘

I have come to the school of God to change from human into deity. At this time, all souls are impure, He says, I have come to make everyone pure. But not everyone becomes a deity- for that I need to make effort. Deities don’t have the five vices, He explains, and so in order to become a deity, you have to donate the five vices here.

I was immersed in the five vices for half a cycle – it was a life of selfishness, greed, ego driven choices, anger and lust. And when I am under the influence of vices, it is as if I have an eclipse over me. No matter what I do, how hard I hustle, I cannot seem to feel deeply happy or contented. And because I have the eclipse, I often can’t even tell I am suffering. I accept it as normal and keep doing more of the same wrong things, and getting hollowed out more and more.

Only the Satguru has the remedy to my problem. He says: ‘Make a donation of the five vices and the bad omens will be removed. You will become 16 celestial degrees pure‘. Deities are 16 celestial degrees pure, and this is why they have constant peace, happiness and contentment – purity is the birthplace of peace and happiness. ‘This is why purity is the number one subject in this study’, says Baba. To become pure means to be free from the vices.

To donate the five vices, the first step is to acknowledge that indeed, I have the five vices within me. If I pretend to myself and to Baba that I don’t have the vices, then that is the greatest betrayal of the self. ‘You know you are impure.‘, He confronts me, ‘I, your Father, am speaking to you souls.‘ He is my Creator, He knows me better than I know myself. He is also the Purifier and can see deep inside the soul, all the hidden secrets, the darkness, the things I’m struggling with. He, with help from the drama, allows me to get into situations that bring out the vices in me. If He is trying to set me free from anger, I’ll find myself in situations that get me angry- I’ll get lied to by a close family member and feel my blood boiling inside. If He is confronting me about my bitterness or jealousy, then maybe I’ll see the most unqualified co-worker get the promotion I was hoping for. If it’s patience, I’ll likely find myself in the slowest line at the store, and in the slowest lane in traffic! God doesn’t create the situation but He allows it, not to see me fret but to help me see and confront the vices.

The way to overcome the vice is to make a donation. So if my problem is patience, when I find myself in the line at the grocery store with the slowest clerk in the world, I have to summon up that one mustard seed worth of patience that I do have in me and use it. I have to resist, with determination, the urge to throw up my hands, roll my eyes, mutter under my breath and do any of the other things I would otherwise. And I don’t do this just as a outward show but because I have decided deep in my bones to donate this vice and adopt the virtue of patience. To use the virtue is to donate the vice. The first time I do it is really hard but it breaks the spell. The second time I do it, it gets a little easier and then with a few more times, I have completely rid myself of the omen of impatience.

The key is to get after the thing He is showing me with full focus until I’m rid of that omen. Often, I make the mistake of dividing my attention between many things but there’s usually a main thing that Baba is showing me at the moment. Let me identify what it is and focus on it. It’s like melting gold, says Baba. When they melt gold, if the fire cools down in the process, the alloy cannot be removed. This is why they melt it over a very hot fire. Then, when they see it has separated from the alloy, they pour it into a mold. Same principle here- my focus is the hot fire. Let me not spread myself thin, rather, let me get laser focused on that one omen, then I move to the next thing God shows me.

‘It is good to donate the vices, is it not?’, asks Baba. It might feel like the hardest thing in the world at first, it might seem unfair, for example, to forgive the person that did me wrong instead of getting angry. I might feel the anger rising up with Ravan doing his very best to try to convince me that indeed, I have every right to get angry and that I should let them have it. But, I have made a decision to get myself of this bad omen and so I don’t succumb, I resist.

‘Remember who you are‘, He says, ‘and remember the Father.’ Without first stabilizing myself in the right awareness, I will lack the power to transform. The more I touch base with my truth of being a pure soul and connect with the Father Who is my only reference point, the more equipped I am to discern right from wrong and choose the right. Only by remembering the one Father can you become satopradhan, He teaches.

The more I remember Him, relate to Him, the more I realize and accept the fact that I have all the Father’s virtues within me. Indeed, I have the ability to love, to forgive, to bless, to have good wishes, to accommodate, to be patient. I just need to emerge these back to the surface by using them. And because they have become buried down below under layers of vices, it can seem at times that perhaps I just don’t have a certain virtue- maybe I’m just not a patient person after all, I think. But that’s not true. God has told me that I have every one of His virtues in me, so I do. It might not seem that way but let me accept it by faith and summon it anyway. I’d be pleasantly surprised at what I discover about my own self.

‘Destruction is just ahead‘, cautions Baba, ‘ask your heart if you have become full of all virtues and completely viceless. Continue to make fast effort to burn the alloy. Make the donation of the five vices and any eclipse will be removed. You now have to become elevated and claim the kingdom of the sun-dynasty heaven.’