Baba says, ‘All of you Brahmins are moving forward by receiving sustenance from God. Whether you are surrendered or whether you live in households, you are moving along according to the Father’s directions.’

I am so fortunate that I am being sustained by God Himself. People of the world also say that God is sustaining them, whereas there are in fact only a handful of souls that are being sustained by Him in a practical way. The sustenance I am being given by God is His Shrimat; I am moving along and being sustained with His elevated directions that I receive for every single aspect of my life. I don’t have to worry, panic, complain or even think about what to do in any situation or any circumstance; I simply have to follow. Do I experience myself to be such a special soul? A soul that God Himself chose to call His own and sustain?

The answer depends on the extent to which I have imbibed His sustenance or His shrimat. He sustains me through all relationships: as the Father, the awareness of the inheritance sustains me; as the Teacher, the knowledge of who I am and the cycle sustains me; as the Satguru, His guidance throughout the day sustains me. But if I haven’t recognized God for Who He is and how He operates, then I will find something so easy and elevated, hard and tedious. He is here to change me from beggar to prince, from a prisoner to a king of kings; He has come to make me into a sovereign. When I forget this and am not tuned-in to the drama, my response to His teaching, to His guidance is not happiness and gratitude, it is condemnation: ‘here we go again, one more thing that’s wrong with me’, ‘I am such a mess’, ‘nothing good can ever come out of me’. Then, I think God cannot possibly love me or be proud of me, He’s showing me all these things that are wrong with me! I feel certain that He’s gone off to love some other child- you know, the one who gives those good lectures, who seems to have it all together…

Baba says, ‘One type of children are those who recognize the Father, and the other is those who call out to Him and are still trying to recognize Him.’ And that makes all the difference in the world because it is the foundation to my spiritual growth and progress.

God is not like human-beings, His love cannot be bought by accomplishments or good behavior. He loves me because I am His most beloved child. Nothing I do can make Him love me any more or less than He does right this minute. He doesn’t correct me ‘in order to’ love me, He corrects me ‘because’ He loves me. He loves me so much that He cannot bear to see me labor through life because of the old behaviors, attitudes, and thinking that pull me down. He wants me to be liberated in life, enjoy unlimited peace, happiness and fulfillment. He wants me to go all the way and reach my full potential. But He can’t do that alone, He needs my co-operation. He needs me to receive His love which is the only alchemy that has the power to heal and transform. He has already accepted me as His most beloved child, He needs me to accept Him as my Father. When I do, that love then brings with it trust and patience; the two requirements for spiritual growth and maturity.

Then, when someone does me wrong and God asks me to forgive them, it might hurt at first but because I have that strong recognition, because I have that deep trust, I find the courage nd strength to obey. I may not understand it, I may not like it but I obey anyway because I trust that my Father will not do anything to cause me sorrow, He will only do that which is beneficial to me, which will liberate me. When He asks me to let go of that promotion and help out at the local center, once again, I may not understand it and might feel like all that I worked for is being taken away from me but because I trust, I obey. The longer I live, the more I realize how instrumental each direction has been to cut away at the gross and subtle bondages that had my identity and worth tied in them. I realize how one by one, God has been working to cut away at these chains of attachment and subservience to external things, people, facilities, accomplishments etc. and move me closer and closer to Him. He is the only One Who never changes, His relationship with me, His love for me, never changes. And so by teaching me to trust only Him, rely only on Him, make only Him my support, He ensures that I am never hurt on this journey as I have been for half a cycle. His shrimat therefore, protects me.

But when I am weak at realizing and imbibing this reality, I make easy things difficult, I feel less like a loved child and more like a sacrificial lamb, I come under Ravan’s influence who feeds me lies: ‘yes, you have a right to be bitter’, ‘yes, if God really loved and understood you, He would never ask you to do this’ and then I either come to a standstill or leave.

On the flip side, I sometimes take God’s love and sustenance for granted; this too brings me to a standstill. As I move along, I consider my elevated fortune of having God Himself as my Sustainer, to be ordinary. I forget that God Himself is my Father and Mother, that God is the One putting food on the table and feeding me; that God is my Teacher and that my aim is to be the most elevated human being; that God is the Supreme Guru Whose directions are to be obeyed. I take God for granted and just like that the fortune loses the sparkle and I lose my intoxication. I develop this subtle ‘don’t care’ attitude: ‘I am Baba’s child anyway’, ‘He knows I love Him and I know He loves me’. And so I don’t pay attention to shrimat- I do that which is convenient to me, and the rest, I shrug off. I think ‘I know’ what to do: ‘Yes, I know I am a soul’, ‘yes, I know I have to remember Baba’ but I forget that I don’t really know much of anything and that I am a student until the last breath. Then when things fall apart, which they inevitably will, I run to Baba: ‘Baba, I am sorry, please help me’. Yes, God’s mercy is unlimited but at some point, I do have to grow up.

‘The work of those who are special instruments is to stay with the sustenance of the Father at every second and to give everyone the Father’s sustenance’, teaches Baba. Unless I receive and imbibe God’s sustenance, I cannot be used by God to sustain others. I cannot give that which I haven’t received myself. ‘Everyone should have an experience of God’s loving sustenance from you‘, He instructs. It is a very common thing to be a speaker and speak the words but it is something different to give someone the experience. One wins compliments, the other brings souls into a relationship with their Father. ‘When someone has had an experience for even one second, he won’t require any effort from you till the end’, points out Baba, ‘so through your being embodiments of the teachings and with your love, you have to remain busy in this task night and day and co-operate in making the new children move forward’. When the older child grows up, he shoulders his father’s responsibility and takes care of his siblings. And so Baba expects His older children to become the same as the Father and increase the zeal and enthusiasm of the new ones. Just as the Father places me ahead of Himself, having dedicated Himself to making me elevated, similarly, He expects me to sustain my brothers and sisters by revealing the Father through my being.

No matter what types of sanskars a soul has or how discontented a soul might be because of those sanskars, they should leave any interaction with me having received that same alchemy of love that healed and transformed me. They should see eyes filled with love, co-operation and pure feelings of mercy that makes them aware of their own sanskars and inspire them to let it go. They should feel God’s love and power in my words. They should see selflessness in my attitude. The meaning of giving sustenance is to make a soul powerful, to empower them by enabling their own powers to emerge, and to give them zeal and enthusiasm, to make them a form of Shakti in every respect. ‘There is now a greater need for this form of sustenance’, says Baba, ‘the more you imbibe the elevated directions, the more the contentment of the self and others will increase.‘

‘Always remember that you are a specially loved child of the Father’, says Baba, ‘never doubt this. To be a very specially loved child means to be a sample, equal to the Father.’