Baba says, ‘you have come here to make your fortune of the kingdom. The more you stay in remembrance and pay attention to your study, the more elevated your fortune will continue to become.’

Am I going through life waiting for my circumstances and conditions to change so that I can enjoy myself? If this kid would behave better, if I could overcome this sanskar, if I had a better job, if I had more money, if I didn’t have so much housework, if I was closer to the center, if the instrument teacher was better…then I would enjoy myself. Baba says, ‘you have come here to make your fortune for the kingdom‘. The kingdom is the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of self-sovereigns, the kingdom of rulers. ‘I teach you Raja Yoga‘, He reminds me daily, ‘not yoga for subjects!‘

As a child of God, I have the power to move beyond my circumstances. Do you remember when we first met?, He asks me. That moment when I recognized that this is my eternal Father and said, ‘My Baba! and He responded with ‘My child!’. In that moment, nothing else mattered, I had found my Father, I finally had an identity, I belonged now, I had a new birth, a new family. It is a moment that is etched in my memory and that makes me smile even to this day. Have I now grown up? Baba says, ‘never forget the days of your childhood’ because when I do, I start carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. But as long as I remember that I am a child of God, I learn to trust Him with everything – with changing me, with my circumstances, with my family, job, everything. ‘I am the Father, Teacher and the Satguru’, He tells me, ‘come to Me with any and all questions and concerns’.

If I am waiting for circumstances to change or for me to change before I enjoy myself, then I will keep waiting till the end. I might get through one situation, then breathe for a moment before 2 more show up, then I get through them and I have 2 more! A child doesn’t wait to perform perfectly or have a ‘perfect day’ to be happy, it is happy simply because of who it is and whose it is. Same here. My Father is the One Whom they call God!, my Teacher is the Ocean of Knowledge, I am studying the most elevated study there is, and my Satguru has the medicine to cure the most hardened sanskars. Sounds to me like I have the greatest fortune!, what more could I ever want? How can I ever lose?

The only scenario in which I would lose is when I am misfortune focused rather than fortune focused– it’s how I hand over my kingdom, my sovereignty to Ravan. Baba says, ‘awaken your fortune of the kingdom’. When I am misfortune focused, I am waking up the wrong things and it happens when I lack faith – in myself, in Baba and in my destiny. Then, I look at my circumstance or my sanskar and they look as big as a mountain, they overwhelm me. But when I have faith, I am working for but from a place of victory. In other words, I already have the victory before a problem has even come to me. I already know how my story ends; My Father is Truth and He is telling me that I am to become the king of the world, a sovereign. So, that implies that whatever comes to me is necessary in my journey to get me to where I am going. So rather than sulk, I pay attention to the lesson, see the diamond that my Teacher is showing me in all the coal. God is with me at every step holding my hand and guiding me! and so I live carefree knowing that I cannot lose!

Sometimes, I hear what God tells me but I think that to believe it would be arrogant: ‘I couldn’t possibly think I can be Lakshmi-Narayan, that is for the seniors…’. This is false humility and it neither impresses nor helps God. He wants me to believe His word, He wants me to churn it, that is, go deep into the experience of what it means to be a master of the world and claim it. ‘I am giving you unlimited attainment’, He says, ‘but your status is based on your ability to receive’. This is the effort- to simply receive my inheritance with child-like faith. Only when I have faith will I even make effort to become.

‘Well, when I overcome this anger, then I will be worthy to receive what God is giving me’. This is backwards because I cannot overcome anything without His partnership. ‘It is only the one Father who makes human beings into deities, impure beings into pure beings and residents of hell into residents of heaven.’, He reminds me. Let me stop trying to do that which only He can do and actually do what I need to do – which is to believe, have faith in what He is telling me and in where He is taking me. Your promise to Me was: ‘Mine is One Shiv Baba and none other‘ and so now, only remember what the Father is telling you, remember His praise – every one of these brings me into my self-respect, remember His activities- these remind me of my experiences with Him, reminds me of how He supernaturally makes things happen if I’ll only trust Him, remember His virtues and powers- this is now my property; as His child, I have His nature within me. ‘The more you stay in remembrance and pay attention to your study, the more elevated your fortune will continue to become’, He explains.

I have so much going for me!, My fortune was awakened the moment I recognized God as my Father. I am now a child of God, a child of the Fortune-Maker, and so I am victorious – I have to accept this truth, believe it and live it. This is liberation-in-life and it is right now, not something I wait to receive in heaven. Let me get fortune focused like Krishna and kick away the thoughts and attitudes of the old world and turn my face toward the new world.