Baba says, ‘You shouldn’t become disheartened. You mustn’t be like the ‘touch-me-not’ plant that wilts as soon as you touch it.’

God is the Almighty Authority. He came to this world to give His children their inheritance of peace, happiness and contentment. He had given it to me last cycle as well but I lost it to Ravan; He has come again to help me reclaim from Ravan that which I have lost. Ravan has taken over the whole world at the moment and is also very powerful. To fight him in order to take back what is mine is not a task for the faint of heart; it takes courage, tact, and power. Ravan knows Whose child I am and he knows my Father well, perhaps even better than I do! He knows that my Father is the Powerhouse, the Almighty and that when I connect with him, I receive all the power I need to defeat him. So his strategy is to do everything he can to break my connection. He also knows that all it takes is one step of courage from my side for God to match it with a thousand of His and that when that happens, he doesn’t stand a chance. So he works overtime to keep me feeling small and disheartened.

This, Baba reminds me, is not a physical battle; it is a battle of wills. The one who has the stronger will will win the war. And so the last thing I need if I am serious about winning this war against Ravan is a sensitive nature. If this is a weakness I have, then it’s fertile ground for Ravan to keep me from making progress and so my job#1 is to toughen up.

When I have a sensitive nature, I get disheartened by the littlest things: someone didn’t appreciate my work, or I felt ignored, or I wasn’t included in something, or someone disagreed with my opinion, or my expectations were not met, or someone was inconsiderate to me. Sometimes, all it takes for me to feel offended is for someone to swerve and take my parking spot! Any of these triggers can easily set me off, my mood changes, and I wilt. People are afraid of getting close to someone like me because you never know how I will react.

And Ravan uses this to the maximum! He knows the right buttons to push and the exact right times to push them. He will especially set me up for a meltdown right before yoga or murli or before going to bed. When I go to bed angry and disheartened, that’s what I wake up with. Then, I have a lousy and weak start to the new day. When I am angry or disheartened before Murli, nothing that Baba speaks will sit in my intellect; ‘your intellect has to be clean, it has to be a golden vessel for this knowledge to be imbibed’, Baba teaches. When my stage is fluctuating because of an offense, I might still be able to teach the course or give a lecture but I will not be able to remember Baba or serve through the mind. The words that come out of my mouth will lack power to change hearts and lives.

‘And so pay attention to not be sensitive‘, says Baba. ‘You mustn’t be like the touch-me-not plant that wilts as soon as you touch it.’

When I am sensitive, I lack the courage to do anything and I then expect the instruments or Baba to help me. ‘Baba, she did this to me, this is why I feel this way..’, ‘Baba, why did they do this to me?’, ‘Baba, make this change…’ Baba smiles and reminds me of who I am: ‘You are the child of God, the child of the Almighty, you are a Shiv Shakti, a Mahavir’. The principle is that when I take a step of courage, God helps. The way to remain courageous, that is, the way to combat the sensitive nature is not asking Baba for mercy; instead, it is to emerge the power of tolerance within myself. Yes, people have all kinds of sanskars and yes, we will say and do things that hurt but it is up to me to not be offended by it all. This is why Baba has given me controlling and ruling power! He says, ‘what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong but don’t allow the feelings to take root in your heart’.

My peace and happiness are my responsibility, not someone else’s. To think that I am peaceless or sorrowful because of what someone else did is to be deceived; it means that I have walked right into Ravan’s trap. Let me remember that Ravan is our collective enemy, not each other. Every soul is in his captivity right now and it is he that works through them to get to me. Let me build my power to discern so that I can recognize the bait and not take it. When my brother or sister does something hurtful, rather than get angry, bring my walls up and shut them out of my life, let me be quick to forgive and win the battle against Ravan. My staying mad doesn’t help me nor does it change the other; all it does is break my connection with Baba and strengthen Ravan’s kingdom. When that situation comes, rather than get into the spinning of ‘why, what and how’, let me trust Baba as my Protector and Benefactor like Brahma baba did and move forward. Let me choose to believe the best in people; even if they did mean something for harm, if I choose to let it go and hold on to the goodness, I free myself from Ravan’s captivity.

Unless I remain liberated, I cannot liberate others or be of any use to Baba. ‘Look around you at the state of the world, at what Ravan has done to everyone’, says Baba. If I can get myself off my mind, stop worrying so much about ‘how I feel’ and ‘what happened to me’ and shift my attention to caring for others, to serving, then I automatically release myself from Ravan’s clutches and become an instrument to help further God’s kingdom. And so Baba says, ‘Manmanabhav! consider yourself a soul and remember Me alone’. The awareness of who I am and Whose I am is the life giving herb that helps me conquer Ravan. My Father is Almighty Powerful God, His mere remembrance fills me with power and strikes terror in Ravan’s heart. ‘It shouldn’t be you that is sensitive‘, teaches Baba, ‘but now, with the power of one second’s pure thought, make Ravan and Maya unconscious like a “touch-me-not”‘.