Baba says, ‘the Father has come to teach you Raja Yoga. Only the Father, no bodily being, can teach you Raja Yoga’

It takes a certain tenacity to claim my inheritance. With each passing generation, the degree of tenacity has indeed decreased. These days, life is so automated! A couple decades ago, making a phone call was an activity– find a phone, drop a coin, make the call; now, it’s at my finger tips. A few decades ago, when a kid at school did something to hurt me, I learnt to deal with it, move past it. Now, if a kid as much as says a rude word to me, he’s accused of bullying and I am treated for ’emotional trauma’! And yes, there are legitimate cases of bullying that have to be dealt with but a lot of times, it’s also overdone. So, yes, as the years have gone by, things have gotten easier and more protected but easy is not always good or even healthy; in fact, no truly good thing can come without some hardship, without some standing up.

For half a cycle, Ravan has come against me, created strongholds in my mind, taken over my thoughts and feelings, and consequently, stolen all my inheritance of peace, happiness and contentment. It’s important to recognize that he is the enemy and that this is what he has done. And so if I want my inheritance back, I cannot claim it back by ‘praying’ in front of an idol I don’t know anything about or by ‘wishing away’ the bad stuff through ‘chanting’ a mantra or by ‘wearing a ring’ that a guru gave me. Sometimes, I think that a ‘vision’ is the answer- if I have a vision, that’s it, it’s all I need, my life is solved and I have attained salvation!

No!, I reclaim my inheritance from Ravan by standing up to Ravan, by learning how to fight back, by learning how to re-possess the land of my mind that he has occupied by chasing him away. Baba says, ‘I come at this auspicious confluence age to teach you Raja Yoga and make you into the king of kings.‘ He adopts me through Brahma and makes me His child. He reminds me of my true identity, of my worth and value, of my powers and virtues, of my own elevatedness. In doing so, He equips me to stand up to Ravan. So now, when Ravan says: ‘you are no good’, ‘you are a failure’, ‘nothing good can come out of your life…’etc., I don’t get afraid and retreat by thinking: ‘yes, you’re right, it’s just my lot in life…’, instead, I bring out my weapon and reclaim my land: ‘no, I am God’s child, He has told me who I am, and about my inheritance. And whatever my Father says I can have, I will have’.

This, is how I reclaim my inheritance; not by wearing rings or wishing or praying. Baba says, ‘this is a study, here you have to learn’. These sanskars of wishing and following rituals manifest in multiple ways. Sometimes, I think that I am doing all the right things: I wake up for Amritvela, listen to Murli, follow the disciplines and yet, why isn’t God changing my circumstances, why isn’t He making the problem go away? Same thing! I cannot get God to do things for me through good actions or by following ‘rules’. That’s what I did in bhakti- I thought that if I fast, if I break a coconut, if I chant the mantra everyday, things will change. Here, God comes to stand me up on my own feet, He teaches me to partner with Him. He becomes my Charioteer and shows me the way, gives me directions but He doesn’t pick up the weapon and fight; He expects me to do that. He wants me to learn to take responsibility for myself and hold myself accountable.

When Ravan uses past habits to draw me in like a magnet, God teaches me to resist. He teaches me to kick the old world but more importantly, He says: ‘and turn your face to the new world’. The trick is not just to know what to let go of but also to know what to replace it with. When Ravan tries to use unforgiveness to take possession of my mind, God teaches me to forgive. And yes, it’s hard; and no, He won’t magically fix things for me…I have to stand up and fight. Ravan will feed me with thoughts of: ‘no, they don’t deserve it!, what they did was wrong!, you have a right to stay bitter..’ – he pretends to be my only friend that understands ‘how I feel’ and makes God look ‘uncaring’. But I deliberately remember how merciful God is, how He showed me mercy again and again and again when I did wrong and I realize that He isn’t asking me to do anything for someone else that He hasn’t done for me. And thus, I learn to see through Ravan’s sneaky ways and defeat him by forgiving because that’s what my Father has taught me. When I take that one step of courage of determined thought, when I show my faith, God matches it with multi-millionfold help. When I make a mistake, Ravan will use it to make me feel guilty, regretful, he will try to label me as a bad person. But once again, I shoo him away from my land because I have the weapon of humility; I know to apologize for my mistakes, learn and move on.

As a Brahmin, I will go to heaven just for having recognized God as my Father but will I experience heaven right from the beginning or will I come in at the tail end? That is determined by how much of my sovereignty I claim back from Ravan. The more practice I have of living victoriously now, the longer I experience heaven. And what’s more- I inspire others to come to heaven with me.

If I can learn to not be offended by every little thing, if I learn to forgive quickly, if I learn to let go of the past, I will be amazed at how much of my mind I can claim back from Ravan. Sometimes, I listen to the parts of the Murli I am comfortable with and leave the rest for another time or I take words out of context to suit my convenience: ‘Baba, You said no one is perfect yet…’ I am not deceiving anyone else other than myself, I am depriving myself of my own inheritance. The more I follow God’s directions, the more I allow Him to do amazing things in my life, to take me to new levels of my destiny. If I want peace, I won’t get it by ‘praying‘ for peace or by becoming a sanyasi, I will get it by learning to not get upset, by learning to rise above my circumstances like a lotus flower. This is why sanyasis don’t come to heaven, Brahmins do.

‘No one else other than the Father can take me back home or give me my inheritance of heaven.‘, teaches Baba. No guru, no sanyasi, no scholar or teacher can help me. It takes my Father, the Creator of Heaven, to give me my inheritance of heaven. His love is the only alchemy that heals and restores the heart broken by Ravan, only He truly understands what is wrong- He’s seen every tear I have shed, every wound I have suffered, He knows my fears and anxieties – and He knows how to fix it. Only He is the Almighty Authority Whose enormous will can make my tiny will overcome the toughest of strongholds. My Father is here for me and He is going to give me back everything that was taken from me. He says: ‘Manmanabhav, surrender your mind to Me’.