Baba says, ‘You have to make effort to receive your reward and unlimited happiness from the unlimited Father.’

For half a cycle, I have been living in the land of sorrow. I have been making lots of effort to find happiness but it was the wrong effort; I was extroverted trying to find happiness in external things- name, fame, position, relationships, accomplishments etc. I didn’t realize the foolishness of trying to seek happiness in that which is temporary- there today, gone tomorrow. I tried to fit in, be the person everyone wanted me to be but loyalties changed, definitions changed, feelings changed. And so I felt like an orphan trying to make it on my own in the big bad world.

Then, my Father came. He adopted me as His own child. He gave me a new name- child of God and a new family- the Godly family. He sat me on His lap and made me the owner of all His treasures. And daily, He tells me the same thing: ‘Remember who you are now and remember Whom you belong to. If you forget, you will lose everything again.’ When I remember the Father, I also automatically become aware of the inheritance I have from Him, I remember His true unconditional love, His acceptance of me, I experience His sustenance at every second. But when I allow my remembrance to become slack, my mind brings up that memory of that betrayal from the past, or of what that colleague did at the office today or of that mistake I made yesterday that hurt someone.

Baba says, ‘you have to make effort to receive your reward and unlimited happiness from the unlimited Father.’ The effort is to remain on the pilgrimage of remembrance. My effort is to receive a kingdom from the Father; that kingdom exists inside me first and then outside. In other words, I have to become a self-sovereign first before I can become a world sovereign. To the extent I claim self-sovereignty, I will claim world sovereignty. And that depends on the effort I make now.

The sign that I am progressing is that my happiness would remain stable for longer periods of time. Baba says, ‘continue to break away your attachment from the old world and old bodies. You first go to the Father and then to the new world and so remember the Father and the inheritance.‘ He doesn’t just caution me and tell me to stay on the pilgrimage, He teaches me the pilgrimage. ‘Remember the Father with so much love that, while sitting in remembrance, tears of love continue to fall. Baba, o sweet Baba, I have received everything from You. Baba, You are making me so lovely. You are making me into the king of kings. For half a cycle, no one will be able to take my kingdom away from me.’

There is a time for everything, teaches Baba, now is the time for study, to make effort. ‘Imbibe this knowledge now and then you will not have to make any effort‘, He says. In the golden age, I will not have to make any effort, I simply experience the reward. I am now creating that future for myself. There, I will not remember that I am experiencing the reward because if I did, I’d also remember the effort I made. So I forget both the effort as well as the reward, I simply experience the reward. It is only now that I have the awareness of my past, present and future. No other human beings know this. So if I look externally and behave like others in the world, define my priorities like others do, then I am deceiving myself. They don’t have the knowledge, but I do. ‘Become introverted‘, He teaches, ‘The fortune of everyone else is broken, your fortune is now being awakened, whereas that of everyone else is asleep. Consider the fortune of those whose intellects’ yoga is engaged in earning money or in other limited attainments to be asleep, whereas your true fortune is being awakened. The stomach doesn’t need a great deal to eat.’

The Father says: ‘If you want to claim the unlimited kingdom, stay awake throughout the night and go on a pilgrimage. I only come in the depths of the darkness of the night when the night of Brahma is about to end and the day has to begin. I come at the confluence of the unlimited night and the unlimited day. Therefore, you too should conquer sleep and practice staying in remembrance throughout the night. When you do this, you will become strong. Although Maya will harass you a great deal, you must still continue to make effort. All the effort in this has to be made by the intellect. While sitting, walking and moving around, stay in remembrance.‘ The Father says: ‘Don’t become weary, o travellers of the night! You will experience great pleasure at night and that intoxication will also continue throughout the day. Firstly, remember the Father and secondly praise your own fortune.‘

To praise my fortune is to remember that I am becoming the master of heaven, it is to remember that it is the Supreme Father, the Supreme Soul that is teaching me personally, it is to be aware of the sustenance I am receiving and remember all the experiences I’ve had with Him. I was a resident of hell until the Father came and He has brought me into the confluence age; He is now making me into a resident of heaven! He is changing me from human to deity. I am earning the only income that will go with me throughout the cycle. ‘When you remember this, what you were and what you are becoming, the mercury of your happiness will rise‘, says Baba.

‘Student life is the best. You should make effort and become kings and queens‘, He says. You have become that every cycle. In the picture of the ladder, you can see how high you climbed, He teaches. Those who climb high taste the nectar of the kingdom, whereas those who fall are totally crushed. To fall back into vice or become slack in my remembrance is to fall right down. I have this one chance in the whole cycle to make effort and make my life like a diamond; when I realize this, I will pay attention. ‘Those who do something will receive the reward for that‘, points out Baba, ‘be merciful to yourself‘. To be merciful is to not waste time, is to not get careless in my awareness, it is to constantly spin the discus of self-realization rather than engage in other-realization. ‘The more merciful you become, the more you will benefit yourselves.’, He says.

The main weakness is body consciousness, all the ‘I am mine’, ‘he said/she said’, ‘why, what, how’ troubles me a lot and doesn’t allow my stage to move forward. And so Baba says, ‘you have to forget your bodies and remember Me alone.’ I say: ‘Baba, I am giving You everything I have, including this body worth straws, and I will receive everything from You there.’ So, it is as though everything is insured and is safe in Baba’s safe. 

‘You are doing everything for yourselves.’, Baba reminds me. ‘To the extent that you make effort, accordingly you receive a status. Once you fail the examination, that’s it! It shouldn’t be that you repent at the end. You won’t be able to make effort at the end. Therefore, benefit yourselves and others as much as you can. Become sticks for the blind. You have established heaven every cycle and you will definitely do it now; it is fixed in the drama. Remain fully engrossed in claiming your unlimited inheritance from the Father.’ 

Why wouldn’t I be! I am becoming ever healthy and wealthy, all my desires are being fulfilled.