Baba says, ‘Only if you remember Me, the rust on you souls will continue to be removed. There cannot be another surgeon of human souls.’

To remember the Father is to die alive. He is the eternal Flame. There are different kinds of moths, Baba says. Some simply dance around the Flame whereas some actually burn and sacrifice themselves. It sounds harsh but when I fly into the Flame, all that burns are the strings of the bondages holding me back while I come out free, liberated-in-life. The whole old world is to catch on fire, Baba tells me but that physical fire does nothing for the soul. It is only the fire of yoga that burns away defects and purifies the soul. And so Baba says, ‘consider yourself to be a soul and remember Me alone’.

Unless I die alive from the defects and weaknesses, I cannot be useful to the Father in His unlimited task of establishing heaven on earth. The purer I become, the more useful I am. How? because then when I give the message to other souls to remember the Father, the arrow will actually strike the target. If I myself have not imbibed the truth, if I myself have not transformed, then I cannot inspire others to transform either. Baba says, ‘The more yoga you children have, the more power you receive from the Father and the more you will become like the Flame.’

He is my only reference point for how to be. Only He is unadulterated, remains beyond the influence of vices. And so the more I remember Him and how He is, the more I remember who I am originally and how I need to be. After half a cycle of being robbed by Ravan or the vices, there is no strength left in the soul because there cannot be strength in falsehood, there is only strength in truth. The more I remember the Truth, the more I reawaken my own truth and burn away the falsehoods. This is dying alive.

Ask yourself, says Baba: ‘Have I received everything from the Father? is there anything lacking in me?’ There is the story of Narad where he was asked whether he considered himself worthy of marrying Lakshmi. It’s the same with me: are there are any strongholds within me that are pulling me back, that repeatedly cause me to lose my inheritance of peace and happiness, that require me to make a lot of effort? Once I realize that yes, I have this anger or I have this greed that keeps pulling me down, then I take it to the only Surgeon Who can treat that illness. From my heart, I have to tell the Father: ‘Baba, I have this illness that I cannot seem to get rid of, please show me the way.’ Only the Purifier, the Immortal Surgeon has the cure for all illnesses that plague the soul. Try as I might to cure it myself, I cannot. For example, if I have an anger issue, I often try to cure it through external behavior modification i.e. I might distance myself from others or stop talking altogether for fear of losing my temper. This is neither a cure, nor is it sustainable. What I need instead is a heart and vision transplant where I learn to see myself and others as pure beings, as souls; where I learn to see my own and others’ specialties, not the defects; where I develop the power to tolerate and accommodate because I become part of a brotherhood; where I realize that we are not each other’s enemies, that Ravan is our collective enemy.

And so when I speak to the Father about my illness, He starts to work on me, shows me, helps me understand, gives me the power of His love that I need to transform. ‘This is what I have here for’, He tells me, ‘I have come to purify you and make you perfect’. He doesn’t judge or condemn, He understands and accepts. He knows the journey I have been on, He is longing to help me rid myself of all the illnesses and reach my highest potential. By availing of His services, I don’t bother or burden Him, I make Him very, very happy! And so He says: ‘Tell me everything, don’t hide anything from Me.’ Sometimes, I don’t like the Father’s method of purification and go back to seeking gurus who can prescribe an easier cure, one that allows me to live as I want, and do what I want. Baba says, ‘have mercy on yourself. Only the One Father is God and only He can chase away the evil spirits of Maya. She is like a mouse that blows and bites in such a way that you don’t even realize; you become completely lost and let go of the Father’s hand.’

And so Baba tells me daily: ‘practice soul consciousness.’ The more I stay on the pilgrimage of remembrance and spin the discus, the more I realize that I am a soul that has played multiple roles throughout the cycle; that I am not the role or the relationship but rather, I am the soul, the actor that has played those roles. The more I imbibe the truth, the stronger the pull I experience from the Magnet, that is, the more power I receive and consequently, the more I am able to serve other souls.

‘So start by looking inside yourself first to see if you have any defects and tell the Father‘, Baba tells me. The Father makes you worthy and then you have to serve and reveal the Father to others. Let there be the thought of serving others day and night, He tells me, for then I will bring about progress in my own life as well. Let it not just be that you go to sleep at night and then wake up in the morning and that is it. No; wake up early in the morning and remember Baba with a lot of love. At night, go to sleep in remembrance. If I don’t make effort now to reform myself and become an instrument for service, I will regret it at the end and then there will not be an opportunity to do anything about it. Everyone has to become pure to return home- if I don’t become pure through yoga, with help from the Surgeon, then I will have to become pure the hard way, where the drama will bring me to my senses when I experience a loss due to the defects. With the Father, I conquer the defect and thereby gain power; alternatively, the defect conquers me and I lose power. The choice is mine.

The Father says: I cannot bear to see My children suffer. Now have mercy on yourself. You have to check yourself again and again and again.