Baba says, ‘Baba doesn’t hold anything in His heart against you children. You mustn’t hold anything in your heart against others either.’

Everyone says that God is the Highest on High. He is the incorporeal One, the fearless One and the One with no grudges. He doesn’t hold any grudges against anyone. He doesn’t keep anyone’s mistakes in His heart. Similarly, He says, you mustn’t hold anything wasteful against anyone in your heart either. You are benefactors of everyone, Baba reminds me. If I hold grudges or keep others’ mistakes in my heart, then, Baba says, I don’t even qualify to be a Brahmin. To hold grudges or dislike for others is a qualification of iron-aged human-beings. It is only when this alloy, this tamopradhan sanskar, is completely removed that you will be called true Brahmins, says Baba. At present, you are neither a iron-aged human-being nor a deity, but you are a Brahmin in the middle. But to even be a complete Brahmin, this sanskar has to be removed.

When anyone asks you where BapDada lives, you reply: ‘BapDada lives in my heart’, so then you must always keep your heart clean. If there is anything wasteful, BapDada cannot live in such a heart. Those who keep BapDada on their heart-throne are the ones that are constantly seated on BapDada’s heart-throne. It is sung: ‘the Lord is pleased with an honest heart‘ and part of honesty is cleanliness. The sign of honesty and cleanliness is that the heart, head and speech are all the same- it isn’t that I appear fine outwardly but inside I am seething with rage and discontentment. Where there is a clean heart, there is no heaviness and everything is easy.

And the basis for such a clean heart that BapDada can live in, is humility. The reason I have dislike or hold a grudge against someone is because I believe ‘I am right’. And maybe I am in fact right, but when I am humble, I realize that ‘being right’ and proving that I am right is not the point. When I am humble, I prioritize brotherhood and unity. I feel love and mercy for everyone, like the Father is loveful and merciful toward me. He knows what I’m like, He’s seen all my mistakes, He’s seen my bad behavior but not once did He hold that against me. As a loving Father, He showed me my mistake to help me learn and grow but never to put me down. In fact, He no longer even remembers what I did, He’s forgotten it! Then, the next time when I made the same mistake again, He didn’t say: ‘This one is like this anyway, this one is not going to change’. Instead, He continued to be the same loving and merciful Father always believing in me, never giving up. It is only because of this unconditional and complete love and acceptance that He offers me, that I am able to change. If there was instead judgement and criticism, if there was frustration, then I would give up too.

To believe ‘I am right’, to want to ‘prove’ are all signs of arrogance and where there is humility, there isn’t arrogance. When I am arrogant, I am also easily insulted. The slightest slip by someone can cause my pride to be hurt and then, I hold grudges and dislike: ‘I knew this was her motive…’, ‘I knew he wasn’t reliable..’. But if I were to reflect further on this, I realize that in fact, to feel insulted or to have an air of arrogance is a sign of a lack of self-respect. When I have self-respect, I rise above finger-pointing, blame, keeping score, a need to win or prove something etc. And therefore, to have humility, I first need a firm foundation of self-respect. Then, I consider myself an instrument of God in His task for construction and so I remain busy in this task by bringing everyone together, keeping harmony and love. To be such an instrument and remain humble is the seed of good wishes and pure feelings, teaches Baba. Instead of of holding grudges or trying to get limited respect through proving ‘rightness’, be humble, He says. Humility is good manners, stubbornness is not. Sometimes, I am afraid that others will take my humility to be a sign of weakness and take advantage of me. But that is not the case. True humility from the heart touches and changes hearts, it receives blessings and good wishes. And rather than worry about being taken advantage of, let me do what is right and leave myself in the hands of God. When I follow His Shrimat, He is in-charge of me and will take care of me.

And so, Baba says, have a clean heart that is free from the stain of any old sanskars. Whether others know you or not, whether they have a distant relationship with you or a close one, through your love, let everyone who sees you feel that you belong to them, let them always experience acceptance and love. This form of giving becomes a form of receiving. To give respect to others means to put them ahead, same as the Father, and infuse them with zeal and enthusiasm. When you give them the treasures of zeal, enthusiasm, happiness and co-operation all the time, you are made into a charitable soul for all time.