Baba says, ‘Through knowledge, there is the day, happiness, whereas through devotion, there is the night, sorrow. Knowledge can only be received when devotion comes to an end.’ 

In the world, there is praise of the path of devotion because it is now the path of devotion. But devotion can bear no fruit, only knowledge can. Only when there is this realization can there be unlimited disinterest in devotion and a pull toward knowledge.

Devotion is effort, knowledge is attainment. In devotion, the mindset is that I have to please God through my effort, offerings and accomplishments. The more I do, the more I give, the more I lower myself before Him, the more He is pleased with me and then, He grants me my desires, and salvation. So each time I have a crisis or a desire, I get to work: I decide I am going to prostrate myself x times for y days, I will offer x coconuts for y days, I will fast for x days, I will walk barefoot to the temple for x days, I will wear a certain ring and chant the mantras x times for y days. I feel that when God sees me laboring, when He sees how much pain I am causing myself, He will become impressed and become merciful enough to grant me my wish, or get me out of the crisis. Then, if I am wealthy, I will ensure I offer something big to God, maybe even build something for Him…so He remembers I did this for Him. I make big donations to charity and perform big pujas to ensure I cover all bases.

In devotion, I think God is like an iron-aged human being who needs to be ‘bought’ by my good works, by my sacrifices, by my outward praise and flattery. I have no relationship with God in bhakti because I don’t know Him. So I am easily deceived: if a ‘guru’ tells me that a specific idol is God, I don’t know any better to question it. If he told me to worship a cow or a tree, I don’t know any better to question it. So I do all the wrong things, wander around, labor constantly and come back with hardly anything. Bhakti is therefore powerless, it also makes me powerless. It doesn’t teach me how to live like the master that I am, it makes me a servant. Rather than help me claim my inheritance, it snatches it away from me and pushes me further and further down. I constantly sabotage myself and lose my self-respect.

Baba says, ‘Through knowledge, there is the day, happiness, whereas through devotion, there is the night, sorrow. Knowledge can only be received when devotion comes to an end.’

Only God is the Ocean of Knowledge and so only He can give me the knowledge- of who I am and His own introduction. The first thing He does when He comes is establish a relationship with me: ‘I am Your Father’, He reminds me and ‘you are My child’. Now, remember! God doesn’t ask me to labor, to leave my home, to cause myself pain, He simply asks me to remember the truth. ‘The truth is in you‘, He tells me, ‘now remember Me and awaken your truth’. God gives me the fruit of devotion by giving me knowledge; He comes into the darkness and switches on the light so I can see clearly again.

In devotion, I worked hard to please God, the Master, and waited in anticipation of receiving something at some point, maybe. In knowledge, the Father comes and tells me, His child: ‘Take it now, take it all‘. In making me His child, He makes me the owner of His treasure store; everything He owns- the virtues, the powers, the attainments-they all become mine. In other words, everything I need to become my own master, to stand on my own feet, to know right from wrong and true from false, He gives me. And just like that I go from wandering to coming home; I go from being an orphan to a child with rights; I go from considering myself the dust of the Master’s feet to sitting on my Father’s lap; I go from laboring to attaining. I become liberated-in-life.

But what Baba gives me, He expects to see flow through me. ‘This is Raja Yoga, and so why should you become subjects? Since Mama and Baba become the queen and king, why shouldn’t you too become kings and queens?’, He asks. Baba and Mama become king and queen due to their self-transformation and service. They studied hard, emulating the Father in everything and served selflessly in furthering the Father’s kingdom. If I am still too busy focusing on myself, on my own mini dramas of ‘what happened to me‘, ‘what he/she said to me‘, ‘what I need‘, trying to impress Baba with ‘how many centers I’ve opened’, ‘how well I lecture’, then I am holding on to the sanskars of bhakti. As long as I am still in the ‘give me, I want, I need, look at me’ mindset, I am not just being useless to Baba but am also using up His time to get help for myself. ‘This is not being a Raja Yogi‘, says Baba, ‘this is not called being a master of the self‘. A king’s treasure store is not just full, it has to be overflowing because he is responsible for sustaining other people. If I am not overflowing with treasures and instead still seeking, then I am a praja yogi (a subject) who simply earns a little and uses it up. So check yourself, says Baba: ‘Are your treasures overflowing? As children of the Bestower, do you feel a pull to give to everyone or are you just lost in yourself? Is your time spent in sustaining your own self or do you sustain others?‘ If I don’t serve here and sustain others here by accumulating, I cannot become a future world king. Those sanskars have to emerge here, says Baba.

I have been liberated from the effort of devotion, from being in bondage, let me not go back there. As a knowledgeable soul, it is my duty to stay liberated and help my brothers and sisters who are still caught up in bondage, who are still waiting for fruit, to receive their rightful inheritance from their Father. They should experience the contrast between the hard work they are doing and what I am attaining. They should sense that they are wandering and I am attaining. Then, they will start to question their path. ‘Only when people develop such disinterest in devotion can the seed of knowledge be sown‘, points out Baba. Through my own stage of peace, happiness and contentment, I have to create such an atmosphere that they realize that they have attained nothing through performing devotion. When they receive co-operation, selfless love, unconditional acceptance from me in every interaction, when they experience hope, courage and encouragement, they will start to question themselves. When they see me accommodate their clumsy behavior, when they see me return love and tolerance no matter what, they will start to question themselves and wonder: ‘who are these people?’, ‘how do they have what they have?’, ‘how come I don’t have it doing all that I do?’, ‘what do I have to do to get it?’

And I don’t have to look far to find them. They won’t at the workshops or lectures, instead, they will be seated right next to me at work, they will be the ones I run into at the store and at the schools, meet on the bus and the train. They need to see a glimpse of the Father through me. ‘They will only come to know the Father later on when they first receive some kind of sign or assurance from you’, says Baba. This is the kind of effort you need to do now, He points out. Check yourself and see whether you have become worthy of receiving an inheritance from Baba. When Baba asks you, you all say, ‘I will become an empress’, so, let there also be that type of behavior. You have to engage yourselves in doing tireless service. Make progress and create the life you want for yourselves. Be concerned about how much service you do and how many you make equal to yourself.