Baba says, ‘there is sorrow in blood connections. You have to renounce them and have spiritual love for each other.’

This is a world of sorrow, Baba says, all souls are impure. Where there is no purity, there is lack. There is a lack of everything from peace, happiness, joy, and contentment. And when I lack something I try to get it from someone else. This is why relationships at this time are dysfunctional and cause more sorrow than they give happiness. A relationship only works when the individuals are complete or full themselves i.e. there is no neediness. Then, they share with each other, this is how it is in the golden age. But now, there is lack, and so everyone wants to get something and there is very little to no giving.

And so Baba says, ‘at this time, there is sorrow in blood connections. You have to renounce them and have spiritual love for each other‘.

It’s great when the people in my life can cheer me on, can encourage me but I can’t be so dependent on people that I rely on them to keep me feeling good about myself. Then, like a drug, if they don’t meet my expectations, I get angry and frustrated and if I don’t receive their approval, I feel inferior and work overtime to please them. This keeps me subservient to others, in bondage and prevents me from moving toward my destiny. ‘Become soul conscious‘, says Baba. My value comes, not from people, but from my Creator. It is based solely on the fact that I am a pure soul, a child of God. All other souls, no matter who they are, are all my brothers and I ought to have spiritual, soul conscious, love for them, not attachment or dependency.

When I rely on people, it’s a roller coaster- sometimes they are for me, other times, they are not. People will get busy, their priorities change, and sometimes, they might even turn against me. When I realize the plot, or how the unlimited drama works, I realize that people don’t determine my destiny. What they do or don’t do, what they give or don’t give me, cannot stop my purpose. The only power people have over me is what I give them. So, instead of depending on them to approve me or encourage me, let me learn to approve and encourage myself. Besides, everyone is on their own journey, have their own issues to deal with and so to expect them to make their lives revolve around me is unfair to them. Let me let them off the hook, they are not responsible for my happiness, I am. Rather than look to people, let me learn to receive value from my eternal Father. He is always available, always cheering me on, always on my side, no matter what. What I receive from Him, no one can take away.

If I want to live a victorious life, I need to be free from bondages holding me down. I need to be free, not dependent. I cannot live like a victim of circumstances and people and expect to be victorious.

Maybe I didn’t have a good childhood, maybe my parents abandoned me, or maybe I am mistreated by relatives or by my boss. Yes, it hurts and it doesn’t seem fair. But the good news is that my future doesn’t depend on my past or my present. I get to write my own narrative, I get to decide how my story ends. If I didn’t get the love or the support from the people in my life, then I don’t need it. People cannot determine or stop my destiny- if my destiny depended on all the people in my life doing the right thing, then I’d be in a lot of trouble! But that’s not the case. Let me shake off the disrespect, let me not believe the lies that Ravan whispers in my ear about how I’ve been shortchanged due to my circumstances or my family. They can’t lessen my self-worth, they don’t determine my value.

Brahma Baba faced opposition in his lifetime from all kinds of people – close family including his own children, from politicians, religious leaders, haters, critics. They all tried to discredit him, shame him, make him feel guilty, make him feel inferior but at no point did Baba allow that to influence him. He never thought: ‘look at all this opposition, God must not be with me’ or ‘I must not be the father of humanity after all, look at how they’re treating me!’ His attitude was: ‘nothing new!‘ He was not dependent on anyone’s approval or support to keep moving forward. He knew that his identity did not come from people, it came from his Father and so he remained unshakeable and kept on following Shrimat.

And Baba reminds me that I too have been handpicked by God Himself! He has adopted me, made me His child. Let me learn to go to Him for my worth and value, for approval and encouragement for then, I will never ever be disappointed. If I try to please people, I will be deceived- I will be included one day and rejected the next. People are selfish, God is selfless, unconditional. Only He is Ever Pure. But often I fall into the trap of thinking: ‘if I could get this aunt or uncle (or someone else) to like me, they know a lot of people, they could open new doors for me’. Let me realize that promotion doesn’t come from people, it comes from God. Only He knows and can push me into my destiny. I don’t have to play up to people, compromise on my truth to appease them or do any unnatural things. All I have to do is what God tells me to do, honor Him and keep Him first in my life.

Sometimes when I’ve been hurt, I hold on to the bitterness, the resentment and I feel that I am owed an apology, that people need to make things up to me. The truth, however, is that no one owes me anything. Everyone is acting based on their sanskars, on what they believe to be right. Rather than expect perfect behavior from others, let me get better at protecting myself, at guarding my peace and happiness. Let me stop trying to get people to apologize to me for whatever has happened and go to God. Only His love has the purity and therefore, the power, to heal and transform me. This is why He tells me daily: ‘consider yourself a soul and remember Me alone’. People can’t make anything up to me, only God can. He can make me whole again. In fact, He is the Magician who can take even the worst thing that has happened to me and somehow turn that to my good. He doesn’t just get me back to where I was before the hurt, He brings me out much better, much stronger.

Let me get good at building my self-sufficiency in my eternal Father, my true Beloved, my constant Companion, my true Friend. This is key because the higher I go, the more the disapprovals, the jealousy, the judgment, the criticism that will come my way. If I allow it to hurt me, I will feel stuck and I won’t be able to fulfill the purpose God has for my life. The less I depend on people, the stronger my spiritual muscles will be and the higher I can go. Arjuna understood this principle of self-sufficiency in God. In the Mahabharata, he and his cousin, Duryodhana, who were to fight each other, approached God to ask for His help in winning the war. God said He’d help but they would need to choose – either Him or His vast army. Arjuna was wise enough to choose God because he knew that’s all he needed to win any war, and overcome any circumstance. Baba is teaching me the same thing: I don’t need all my family members to cheer me on or all my coworkers to support me. God gives me the happiness of all relationships. He has the sweetness of all relationships. All other friends and relatives cause you sorrow, says Baba, only the eternal Father gives everyone happiness.

Let me never forget that even if the whole army of the world is against me, God and I are still a majority! When I realize this and learn to only rely on Him and not on people, when I base my self-worth on what He is telling me about myself, then I become His beloved son. I live a victorious life, full of confidence, security, happiness and attain the fullness of my destiny. I claim my full inheritance.