Baba says, ‘make effort to become “Manmanabhav”.’

It is said: ‘when you conquer the mind, you conquer the world’. But why? because the mind is the venue where the drama or life unfolds. ‘You are the creators of the drama’, Baba reminds me. Sure, people and events are external but they are just props; it’s how I perceive them that creates the drama. It’s how I think about them that determines how I then feel about them and act toward them. When my thoughts are based on falsehoods, then my feelings, attitude and behavior are all wrong. So the call to action is to ensure my thoughts are the right thoughts, that they are true and elevated.

Baba is Truth, in fact, only He is Truth because only He knows the truth – about me, about Him and about the cycle. And so He says, ‘Manmanabhav!, only belong to Me in your mind‘. When Baba fills up my mind, my mind is like a fragrant garden. While thoughts are the seed for feelings, actions, attitude etc., the ground in which the seed of thoughts germinate is the ground of awareness. Unless I have this ground ready and fertile, the seed will not bear good fruit. When I have the right awareness of who I am- a pure, peaceful, loveful soul, of Whose I am – I am the child of God and of my elevated part at this time, I will not create the right thought; they will either be wasteful or ordinary at best.

And so Baba says, ‘it doesn’t do much good to just hear the knowledge, like a cow, continue to chew on and the digest the grass of knowledge you are being fed daily’. When I chew and digest physical food, it provides strength to the body. Similarly, His knowledge is food that gives strength to the soul; it is only this knowledge that is true and elevated- it guides me toward the right thoughts, feelings, and attitude; my vision, face and behavior are all elevated. Negative or wrong thoughts and feelings drain the soul and leave me useless and hopeless. If I can switch over to the truth, my whole world changes.

Baba says, ‘If you continue to churn this, you will remain happy and also have an interest in doing service.’ I cannot listen to God’s knowledge and not want to change my life and help others do the same. When I transform, I essentially liberate myself from the many forms of dysfunction, or what Baba calls the bondages of falsehood that had been tying me down and causing me sorrow. When I feel the weight lift off, when I start to breathe easy, when I start to smile again, I can hardly wait to tell others of what I’ve learnt and help them be liberated as well. I now have the key to Ravan’s prison and I want to free my brothers as well. ‘There are many‘, Baba says, ‘who say that they want to leave their job and engage themselves in doing this spiritual service. They want to bring benefit to many. However, says Baba, to do this service, they need to have divine virtues.’

Just like a worldly employer would, Baba also sees my stage before He hires me to do His task. I might have the interest and the talent but if I don’t have the character to back it up, I won’t be able to sustain myself. More importantly, I will defame Baba and the family. The more I churn the knowledge, the deeper my transformation. To churn is to go deep into each point of knowledge and experience it; for example, what does it mean to be an ‘image of support‘ to the world?, what does it mean to be a ‘remover of sorrow and bestower of happiness‘ to all?, what does ‘self-sovereignty‘ look and feel like? The more experienced I am in each point, the better the server I become. Else, if I am not experienced, I might speak the right points on stage but the moment I get off, the slightest offense can make me angry, or cause me to misunderstand people and set off a chain of waste thoughts. People are tired of hearing hollow words, Baba points out, they want to see the truth modeled before them. Then, they will go from saying ‘this too is good knowledge’ to realizing that ‘only this is the true knowledge that brings salvation and liberation-in-life’.

And so Baba says, ‘if you truly want to serve, you have to be surrendered with your mind.’ To surrender the mind is the greatest surrender, then everything else falls into place. ‘Take care‘, He says, ‘that every thought is elevated and not wasted’. The effort I make is never just for myself, it is for the world. The Father asks: ‘don’t you hear the cries of sorrow of your brother souls?’ There is a lot of service that remains to be done, He reminds me. There is a whole world out there that has no idea of the present time or the task that is being carried out at this time; they have no idea that this is the elevated confluence age, that God Himself is here on this earth to liberate His children from Ravan, to establish heaven once again. I have both experienced this liberation and am witnessing the establishment of heaven; it is my duty to inform all my brothers so they too can come and claim their inheritance from their Father.

‘In order to do this, become Manmanabhav’, He tells me. This is the true effort.