Baba says, ‘Remain cautious of it. Never get confused because of the fog.’

Starting half a cycle ago to this day, people call out to the Father: ‘O God, have mercy! Bless us! Liberate us from sorrow!’ ‘However‘, says Baba, ‘they don’t understand anything‘. They say they want freedom but what is true freedom? what exactly are they asking for? They don’t really know. And so Baba says, ‘it’s as if they are in a fog and can’t find the way out.’

Baba says, ‘tell everyone that they are lying in the jail of Ravan’. Due to not knowing, people continue to commit sins even while in the jail thinking they are doing the right thing! Baba says, ‘there is no freedom here in the kingdom of Ravan. Here, everyone is continuously under seige.’ Under seige by the vices. The Father comes to give me freedom, He comes to free me from the jail of Ravan. For half a cycle, I am truly free in the kingdom of God and then, when I forget who I am and become dependent in the kingdom of Ravan, I lose my freedom. I am now at the cusp of the new cycle, I am at the most auspicious confluence age and am once again receiving my freedom from God. But when I am in the grip of Ravan i.e. the vices, I don’t understand exactly how God grants me this freedom. There are a lot of questions of ‘but why…’, ‘how…’, ‘what…’. Baba says, ‘don’t get caught up in the jungle of questions, this too is like being caught up in the fog’.

To make matters worse, there are a number of false gods and gurus in the world at this time in the cycle. Each one has their own opinion and rituals they recommend to whosoever will listen. One teaches that God is omnipresent and the other says, they themselves are God. It is like the blind leading the blind! And so people call out: ‘O God, please come and become a stick to the blind. We are stumbling a lot…’ Baba says, ‘everyone is so confused. You have to show them the path.‘ I was there myself not too long ago- studying various scriptures, stumbling along on pilgrimages all in the hope of finding God Who could then show me the way out. But how could I find God when I didn’t even know Him? If He were omnipresent, how and why would I even need to find Him? Such is the darkness of ignorance that it has, Baba says, completely engulfed the world. Only the One Father can show souls the way out, the way back home. He alone is the true Guru or the Satguru, the Bestower of Salvation for all.

Baba says, ‘true freedom or liberation-in-life is in heaven, when you become pure deities, when you are liberated from the kingdom of Ravan.’ People think that we became independent when the foreign government left or when the war stopped etc., but the Father teaches: ‘you cannot become free until you become pure.’ People rightly call out: ‘O Purifier…’ but again, they don’t understand. When we first came from home, were we impure? No! We became impure when we forgot we are souls and became body conscious. But people who are in the fog of body consciousness don’t realize this, they keep stumbling trying to find peace, happiness, love and contentment from temporary, bodily things- name, role, relationships, appearance, possessions etc. Baba says, ‘give everyone the message: consider yourselves to be souls and remember the Father alone.’ He alone is the reference point at this time in the cycle; everyone else is body conscious, including the gurus. When I remember Him, I remind myself of who I am, and this is how I return to my state of liberation.

No human being can be called a guru, says Baba, because no one can show me the way back home. They cannot because they don’t know the way themselves. Baba not only shows me the way but He becomes my Companion and Guide on the journey. It is one thing to hand someone a map and point them in the general direction of their destination and a whole different thing to be their companion guide. ‘You are never alone‘, He says, ‘I am always with you.’ The only times I am alone are when I make myself alone. If I make a mistake, rather than shrink back and hide, let me run to Baba and tell Him what happened. He is my Father, He is not judging me or here to condemn me, He is longing to help me! Ravan tries to fill my head with voices of shame, guilt and regret in an effort to shut me down but let me stay strong and full of faith that God loves me just as much when I make a mistake as He does when I get it right.

At every step, He gives me shrimat. In the past, I stumbled because I had no guidance, now, I do. Do I still mix dictates of my own mind and of others with shrimat? Baba says, ‘to be faithful and obedient to the Father is not like going to your aunty’s home.’ Following shrimat can sometimes feel hard, even unfair but when I remember Who is teaching me, I trust and when I trust, I obey. And so Baba says, the first question for me and for everyone else to answer is: ‘what is your relationship with the Supreme Father?’ Have I really, truly, accepted Him as my Father in my bones? If I have, it is easy to follow His directions. It is when I haven’t accepted Him that I get caught up in the fog of ‘but why should I…’, ‘this isn’t fair…’, ‘but you have no idea what they did to me…’, ‘this makes no sense…’, ‘but what if…’, ‘how will I…’ etc.

Baba says, ‘you know the knowledge but Maya is such that she makes you go to sleep again and again. You even forget that you are spinners of the discus of self-realization. Maya creates a lot of opposition. You are on a battlefield. You have to remain very cautious that Maya doesn’t turn your heads around and take you in the wrong direction.’ Indeed, He cautions, Maya’s fog is very powerful! Many are affected by the storms of Maya, they fluctuate. Times are bad and conditions are bad and so you have to remain very cautious of Maya. Never get confused because of the fog. Always keep the life-giving herb with you, the Father says: ‘Manmanabhav! consider yourself a soul and remember Me alone.’