Baba says, ‘If you let go, you become free. Continue to renounce body consciousness. Simply remember the Father.’

I was wandering for half a cycle in the darkness of ignorance. I had eyes and yet, I was blind. I called out to the Father to come and liberate me from this darkness and show me the path. He came and did just that, He gave me the third eye of knowledge with which to see clearly. The darkness still engulfs the world, but now, I can see the path in the midst of the darkness. I love Baba, I love the knowledge but the question is how much?

Consider yourselves to be souls and remember Me, the Purifier Father, He says, this knowledge isn’t complicated. I understand that I have to do this, I’ve even done it successfully in the past and so I recognize first-hand that when I remember Baba, I feel happiness, I feel like all the burdens have been lifted off and experience lightness. And yet, I’m unable to remember Him consistently- it’s often a hit or a miss. The quality of my remembrance is a sign of my love for Baba because I remember that which I give attention to, that which I spend time on, that which is a priority in my life. As they say- ‘where the attention goes, the energy flows’.

And today, the world is full of things clamoring to get my attention- work, school, spouse, kids, friends, chores etc. I arrange my schedule around these priorities and try to fit God into my schedule. The truth is that the more things I have in my life, the easier I make it for Maya to use any of these things to distract me from what should be the most important priority of my life- God. Then, each time I think of sitting down to remember Baba, she will remind me of something else that needs my attention right then, or of something that happened the day before, or of what someone said or did and I will spend the time processing my feelings rather than remembering Baba.

Well, here’s the deal: God is here. God, the Creator, is here. God, the Fortune Maker, is here. God, the Father, is here to give me my inheritance. And this is the auspicious confluence age that comes once in 5000 years and is the only time when I get to meet God, make my fortune, claim my inheritance from Him for the new cycle. Let me examine my priorities- rather than fit God into my schedule, let me arrange my schedule around God.

And the sad irony is that all the things that I am prioritizing over God, all the things that I am chasing after – none of it will go with me! In fact, God says, it will all be destroyed. I think that the job, the roles and relationships, the bank balance, the name and recognition- whatever it is that’s taking up time- will bring me happiness and fulfillment. But they don’t…I know this for a fact based on half a cycle’s worth of experience. It’s why I called out to God to begin with! My happiness and fulfillment comes from knowing who I am, Whom I belong to and from serving in God’s task. ‘Well, I’m not chasing after money or position and I really want to serve but….I do have responsibilities that I need to shoulder’, I argue. The principle is that when I surrender myself fully to Baba- my thoughts, time, wealth, relationships, responsibilities- then, I become His responsibility. When I use my time to do that which He wants me to do, then He takes care of my responsibilities. Let me not be deceived into thinking that I have bondages where I don’t.

All of you are like birds on the alokik tree, says Baba. This tree is attractive and has many branches – some small and some large, some thin and some thick. Each bird is sitting on its own branch. Yes, this world of Ravan has many distractions that attract us toward them, we all have things we need to do but that is not the problem. The problem comes when I forget to fly. Some birds, Baba says, come flying and sit on BapDada’s fingers, some on His shoulders but some simply circle around and yet some others sit at a distance and simply look at Baba. Even when Baba calls me to come to Him, I am unable to come. I have the wings and am even flapping those wings but….I am still clutching on to the branch so tightly that I am unable to fly and come closer. Then I call out: ‘Baba, free me, make me fly!’

Baba says, ‘on the path of bhakti, you stumbled a lot. But even now, although you have found the path, Maya doesn’t allow your intellects to remain permanently connected to the Father. You even understand that by remembering the one Father, all your sorrow will be removed. In spite of that, you forget Him!’ 

The only way to remain connected to the Father is to detach myself from everything else. It doesn’t mean I leave the tree or don’t sit on the branches. But I have to take care to not be so attached to the branch, so dependent on it, that I forget I can fly. Baba repeatedly says to the birds, ‘become conquerors of attachment. Let go and become free’. Sometimes I hear this and manage to let go a little but I still clutch on to it. I’m afraid to let go completely lest I fall. When I remember Who is calling me, I trust. God is my Father. He will never allow me to fall, slip or fail. Let me let go of the branch confidently and fly to Him. And no, I haven’t forgotten how to fly, that is to say, I haven’t forgotten how to remember. That is the most natural thing I do. Let me stop believing these doubts, these fears that Maya brings and simply fly.

Sometimes, the branches are thin, that is the bondages are subtle- they are sanskars, either my own or someone else’s; other times, they are circumstances. Whatever the branch is, the principle is the same: ‘When you let go, you can become free.‘, teaches Baba. Situations won’t fly, I have to free myself and fly. If I am waiting for a conflict to end, then when that ends, another will start. If I am waiting for another soul to change so I can be free, then again it’s as if I am waiting for the branch to let go when in fact, it is only I that can let go. Brahma Baba mastered this principle of ‘let go and become free’ right from the beginning. It was this lesson that enabled him to become number one, points out Baba. He never thought that he would only become free if his companions or his relatives freed him. He never thought that he would only become free when those who were creating obstacles stopped doing that. Or, that he would become free when the various adverse situations went away. He simply made this lesson of ‘when I let go, I become free’ firm for himself.

Remember who you are, Baba reminds me daily. You are a soul, a free spirit, a bird with wings, you can fly, you are meant to fly. Pay attention, He says, that you are not clutching on to any branch. It is only when you fly that you can celebrate a meeting with the Father, it is only when you fly that you can co-operate in the Father’s task, it’s only when you fly that you can experience being liberated-in-life. Baba, the Purifier, is doing His part and showing me the branches, let me do my part and let go…bravely, confidently. This is God telling me, He will NEVER allow me to fall.