Baba says, ‘tell the Father your charts accurately and take advice from Him at every step. When you take advice from the Father, you also receive the power to follow it.’

For half a cycle, I lived in Ravan’s world as an orphan. I had no identity or belonging and Ravan used this to his advantage fully. He told me that if I wanted to fit in, I had to ‘be someone’, ‘win’, ‘accumulate’, ‘be approved by so-and-so’, etc. etc. Do whatever it takes- beg, borrow, steal, he taught me. So I spent my life impressing others, working hard, winning approval…’being someone’. The more I lived this way, the unhappier I became but I had no one to go to for advice, for guidance. So I kept trying different things, failing, trying again, sabotaging myself, all in the hope of getting it right some day.

Then, Baba came and He said: ‘I am your Father, you belong to Me. I have come for you, My long lost and now found child.‘ I didn’t just meet my Supreme Father but also the Father of Humanity, Brahma. Both of them personally sustain me, teach me and guide me. But I can only avail of their sustenance, teaching and guidance when I recognize and accept them in my life as my fathers. That means, I go to God, go to Brahma baba, just as I would go to a physical father – with rights, with confidence, as mine. But often, although I intellectually accept God as my Father, I don’t really accept Him because I can’t see Him. Due to half a cycle of identifying as and seeing bodies, it’s hard to accept someone Who is so subtle, not to mention, invisible as my Father and relate to Him as such. But I don’t have to see Him, He reminds me, I simply have to recognize and realize. Yes, I don’t see Him but I experience Him in every aspect of my life.

‘Come to Me for everything’, He tells me. Why wouldn’t I? When I tell my Father what I need or want, or what’s ailing me, He helps accordingly. He is longing to be a part of my life, every tiny aspect of it. That’s what He’s here for! And by tiny aspect, He cares about when I wake up, what I eat, how I speak, what I wear, what I watch, how I sleep…..everything! He’s not just here for the big events in my life, He’s here for the tiniest, seemingly insignificant things. He really, truly, is present in my life as my Father. And sometimes, when I go to Him for advice, I might find His advice to be different than what I expected, it might even feel wrong but if I follow through by faith, I will see the benefit. For example, I might ask Him for help with a promotion at work or in securing a new contract and He might advice me to quit that job and take up a smaller position in a smaller town. On the surface, it might seem as if this advice makes no sense, like I am incurring a loss but only my Father knows what it is that I truly need, not me, not my friends or family…only my Father. It might be that I need to build up some humility first, maybe I need to grow my faith…whatever it is, if I simply obey because it is my Father telling me, I will see progress, I will grow my spiritual muscles.

The Father gives me shrimat: ‘Don’t miss earning this income while chasing after that income because that income which is worth a few pennies is going to end.‘ I followed my own dictates and those of others for half a cycle. I have tried everything to be happy and fulfilled and came back empty each time. Now, my Father is here. He alone can give me the inheritance of peace, happiness and prosperity; let me claim it fully from Him by obeying His every direction. It doesn’t matter what I think or feel or if I understand it fully yet or not, let me not mix my own dictates into it, let me not question it, just obey.

When I do learn to claim my own inheritance in this way from my Father, I cannot help but want to enable my brothers and sisters to claim theirs as well. ‘Look at me’, I want to tell them, ‘I was once an orphan too but our Father is here now and He is giving away His inheritance. Come and claim yours just as I am!’ ‘It is your duty to be a stick to the blind‘, He tells me. ‘None of you should have to be told to go and do service. You yourselves should come and tell Baba: Baba, I can go on service somewhere if you give me permission.’ That might mean that I have to take that position in that small town but when I have the recognition of what I am receiving and from Whom, then it is not a question of if I will make the move, I can’t wait to move! ‘You’ve been caught up in benefitting yourself for way too long’, says Baba, ‘it’s time now to benefit many others.’

Sometimes, it’s not the attraction to pennies that keeps me distracted from claiming my inheritance from Baba, it’s the fear of the unknown. I get asked to do something that I feel I neither have the training for nor the skill. Baba says, ‘When you take advice from the Father, you also receive the power to follow it.‘ God only asks me to do the things He has already equipped me for. All I have to do is trust and say, ‘yes, Baba’ and watch Him take me to heights I could never have reached on my own.

Sometimes, it’s the heaviness of past mistakes that drags me down. I start out being happy, full of enthusiasm and then suddenly, out of nowhere, a memory of a past mistake comes up and takes away all my joy. Baba says, ‘while walking and moving around, remember Me and your past sins will be absolved. There is no other way.’ When I remember Baba, two things happen. One, His love is the alchemy that penetrates and heals past wounds. It gives me the power to move past the guilt, shame, regret and accept myself as a pure soul- not as a reformed sinner but as a pure child of God. This is what it means to have my sins absolved– it is to become new, as if I’ve never sinned. That’s the kind of power God’s love has, it can take me from being a soul buried under the weight of all that past baggage to being a pure, righteous, new creation of God. Two, He becomes my reference for the right way to do things so that I don’t make the same or new mistakes anymore. ‘Look‘, He says, ‘everything that is new has to become old. But that’s not what’s important. What’s important is that it’s now time to become new again!‘

‘So‘, He says, ‘now make very good effort to claim your inheritance from the Father. You have to follow shrimat at every step. However, only those who give their full news to the Father will be able to follow it. The Father should receive the full news of the way His children are living, so that He can give you advice accordingly from time to time. Follow Shrimat and also remind others.‘