Baba says, ‘To insult someone or to become angry is to have a devilish nature. You have to uplift even those who defame you.’

Baba is the Remover of Sorrow and the Bestower of Happiness, He is the Benevolent One, the altruistic Server. He comes at the end of the cycle when souls are tired, when their light is barely lit, to once again light their lamps and make them alive. He says, ‘I know you are tired, let me massage your feet, I am your obedient servant.’ He doesn’t say that to a select few who do everything right, He says it to every child. He doesn’t just respond when the seniors speak, He responds to every child, makes Himself available to everyone. Does He not know what I’m like?

He says, ‘I am not called the Innocent Lord because I don’t know everyone’s nature; I am called Innocent because I choose to see past it.’ He knows what I’m like, He sees what I do but He loves me just the same. Doesn’t mean He doesn’t give me teachings or that He doesn’t discipline me if needed, He does both; He is the Father. But He doesn’t do it in order to make me worthy of His love; He does it because He loves me. Nothing I do right or wrong can make Him love me any more than He does right this minute. Because His love is not based on my ‘perfect’ behavior, it is based on the fact that I am His child. It’s simple.

As children of the same Father, everyone is my brother or sister. Like Him, I see what they do, how they speak or behave, I don’t deny it. But then, do I just like Him, love them anyway? or do I change course at that point and get onto the road of judgment, criticism, anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness? Baba says, ‘this is not the Father’s nature, this is Ravan’s nature.’ If I make myself known as Baba’s child but display the enemy’s nature, I defame the Father’s name rather than glorify it. ‘BapDada is constantly co-operative with every child and will remain till the end,’ He explains. ‘The Father never has dislike for any child, He always has pure and positive thoughts even for someone who causes harm.’

To be co-operative with someone who is co-operative or to keep a contented person content, to give love to a loving person is not a big deal, even people without knowledge can do that. But as God’s direct child, my specialty is that I have the power to be co-operative, loving, patient with anyone, no matter who they are. The person or situation or circumstance does not determine my behavior, I am God’s child no matter who, what or where. This, Baba says, is being a mahavir. I don’t make excuses such as: ‘I am usually okay but what they did was so bad that I had no choice’ or ‘the situation was such that I had to get angry to get things done’. There were children who took sustenance from Mama and Baba, then left, defamed the yagya and then returned when they realized their folly. Baba’s response was not to sue them when they defamed him; his attitude was, ‘how can a father sue his own children?’. He also didn’t ask them to leave when they returned. Instead, he welcomed them back and filled them with hope, courage and strength so they could get back to making effort to claim their inheritance. This, Shiv Baba says, is to have feelings of a bestower.

‘Never have feelings of dislike for any soul because you know that they are influenced by ignorance, they are without understanding. One cannot have dislike for those without understanding’, Baba points out, ‘rather, there is greater mercy and love for them.’ Be merciful like the Father and uplift your brothers and sisters, He teaches. To be merciful means to maintain my good wishes and pure feelings for everyone no matter what. It means to continue to hold them in an elevated vision, not in their current form. It means that I look beyond the behavior at their intent- each one wants to be a worthy child of God or at their motivation – fear, a need to fit in. It means that at that moment, I recognize that they are in the grips of ignorance and choose to see but not see, hear but not hear. It means, I become innocent like the Father.

‘You are Shiv Shaktis’, Baba reminds me, ‘devotees come to you to ask for blessings, for strength, for hope.‘ Those sanskars of benevolence have to be developed now, at this confluence age, He points out. So remember who you are and have a benevolent attitude and feelings and sustain any soul. Then, no matter what type of harm that soul may be causing, you too, like the Father, will be able to uplift that soul with your sustenance, He says. No matter how impure that soul may be, you can purify that soul with your tolerant, understanding and accepting attitude. To purify is to bring them back into the right awareness.

To uplift those who harm you is the duty of Brahmins, Baba reminds me. Don’t put aside a weak soul considering him to be weak, instead empower him. Make a weak soul capable of taking a high jump and you would then you be said to be a mahavir and someone who uplifts everyone like the Father.