Baba says, ‘You know very well that it is only at this time that you can accumulate in your account. The account of accumulation of this time is that which you accumulate throughout the full season.’

The confluence age is the only time in the entire cycle where I have a direct relationship with God, where He becomes my Father, Teacher, and Satguru and fills me with all treasures. This is when I learn from Him about who I am- what kind of a soul I am, my qualities, my powers. This is when I learn from Him the right way to think, speak, act after half a cycle of doing everything wrong. This short time is the only time during which I need to take a high jump and go from being completely degraded to completely righteous so that I can set myself up for success in the new run of the cycle. The more righteous I become, the sooner I enter heaven, and the more sovereignty I experience now and in the future.

So Baba says, ‘do you realize the importance of this time? are you accumulating in your account for the cycle?’

He gives equally to all- He is the Ocean of Love, everyone has equal access to His love and sustenance; He is the Ocean of Knowledge, everyone receives the same knowledge at the same time from the Teacher; He is the Ocean of Help for all. ‘I don’t discriminate’, He points out, ‘and yet you don’t take equally.’ Most of us start out the day with the right intention- to be a sovereign. I celebrate my meeting with Baba at Amritvela, listen to the Murli, I am charged! But then as I step out into the world, the sovereignty starts to decrease as my mind starts to fluctuate based on situations and people, and by the end of the day, there is very little to nothing left to accumulate.

‘Check‘, Baba says, ‘if the importance of this time remains in your awareness throughout the day‘. If it does, then I will pay attention to spend the most valuable treasure of this auspicious time in a worthwhile way. Same with the treasure of thoughts and words. I might not spend my time in a wrong way but do I spend it in an ordinary way? I might not think negative thoughts, but how much do I waste worrying about things I can’t do anything about, thinking about past mistakes or hurts? What do I speak about- is it about the state of the world, what he/she said and did? or do I speak uplifting words? If I were to reflect, I’d find that it isn’t just enough to not do the wrong thing to be happy, to be content, to feel full; for that, I need to also do the right thing. ‘You are not sanyasis’, Baba reminds me. They renounce the world and move to the mountains. Sure, they don’t do anything wrong but do they do anything worthwhile? No wonder, they don’t understand happiness and prosperity because they don’t accumulate.

‘Yours is the family path‘, Baba says, ‘your renunciation is of the unlimited kind‘. In this path, I engage with people and with life wholeheartedly and generously. When someone in the office is having a bad day, I don’t try to simply stay out of the way, rather, I reach out to see how I can help make their day a little better. There’s the boss that always leaves me out of things but is now having a tough time. Rather than silently enjoy her misery, I go out of my way to help. This is how I reveal God, by renouncing the false ‘I and mine’ and keeping the Father in front through my qualities, my actions, my words. There’s that person that betrayed me in the past, and Baba has been signaling to me to forgive them. I think: ‘well, okay, it’s not like I hate them or anything, I’ve moved on…’. Yes, I don’t hate them but the question is, do I love them? ‘No, but what they did was wrong and I’ve moved past it now…’. Yes, but do I love them? Yes, I don’t have bad feelings for them but do I have good wishes and pure feelings for them?

‘Well, this is a bit much!’, I think, ‘it’s not easy to pay attention to every thought, word and action and forgive everyone and be good in this world’. There are three things Baba points out in response.

1. When asked what your aim is, you always say that it is to be Lakshmi and Narayan. Well, that’s asking for a lot, do you really want it? To be the emperor and empress of the new world is not like going to your aunty’s home, He says. Your qualifications have to match your aim to be the most elevated human beings, God’s highest creation. So, yes, there is effort you have to put in but remember the reward!
2. Talking about effort, you have to make the right effort, Baba teaches. Rather than try to correct every thought, word and action, pay attention to staying in the right awareness– of who you are, Whose you are, your elevated aim, of this auspicious time, the elevated task being carried out at this time. If you have any of these in your awareness, that is being Manmanabhav, He says, and everything else will automatically fall into place.
3. In fact, let’s make it even easier, says Baba. Simply follow father Brahma. Baba demonstrated that one can indeed make this effort successfully and his life is the blueprint for me to follow. Every single test paper that comes to me, baba also faced and he made it through. So can I. What’s more, I have more help with my effort than baba did- he had one Father guiding him, I have two! You don’t even have to think, says Baba, when in doubt, simply ask yourself: would baba do this, would baba think this, would baba speak this? before you think speak or do anything.

Sometimes, I get careless and think: ‘I have come a long way, I just have these few issues, they will also resolve with time’ or ‘even the seniors have this issue, so it’s not a big deal if I too have it’. I have to make the effort to fulfill my unique purpose for my life. If I look at others, or if I leave it to time, I deprive myself of my full inheritance. Instead, says Baba, make up your mind that: ‘whether others do it or not, I have to change, I have to do it’. This is determination. And ‘where there is determination, there has to be success‘, says Baba. Sometimes, you start the day with determination, with a pure promise but then your determination weakens when the storm comes, He says. This is why it is important to keep my promise fresh in my awareness throughout the day. ‘Check yourself every hour’, He recommends. Let me learn to talk to myself, keep myself encouraged, strong and full of faith. Sanskars and fears that have been etched into me over half a cycle will not move just with 45mins of Amritvela, the awareness has to be constant. Then, I can stand strong like Angad.

Baba says, ‘I want every single child to live a full life, a victorious life, a liberated life‘ – that has to start now. The longer I remain a self-sovereign here in the midst of the old world, the more I accumulate. To accumulate is to make a deposit, to make something my natural nature and that requires time and practice. If I get careless, I might learn of the right things from Baba but not have time to make it mine by putting it into practice in my life. ‘So beware of Maya‘, He cautions and then adds: ‘You are the children of the Almighty Authority! if you can’t do this, then who can? In fact, sovereignty is your birthright, you are simply claiming that which is yours. I am that, I was that and I am becoming that once again. Where there is faith, there is determination and victory.‘