Baba says, ‘instill the habit of remembering the Father and you will become soul conscious, you will remain happy and intoxicated all the time and your behavior will be reformed.’

For half a cycle, I was living in the unlimited orphanage of Ravan. With no identity or belonging, I was left to fend for myself. I had no sustenance, no access to education nor guidance for how to make it in the world. So I did whatever I thought was right or what others convinced me was right. More often than not, my choices were wrong and I became more and more unhappy. Then, Baba came to this orphanage and adopted me as His own child. He made me belong to Him. I received a new name- child of God, a new family- the Godly family. I receive sustenance from the Father Who is the Ocean of Love, He is also the Supreme Teacher from Whom I receive the most elevated education and the True Supreme Guru from Whom I receive guidance at every step about every thing. In fact, He says: ‘ask me about everything. Take my direction at every step.’ What’s more, I also have a second father, and a mother in Brahma baba, through whom the Father adopts me. And so, unlike my previous life where I had no one, now, I have a team dedicated to me- they are fully invested in ensuring I reach my highest potential.

Baba says, ‘every Brahmin child receives equal opportunity but not every child uses it equally.’

If after belonging to God’s family, I neglect my education, ignore directions and continue to behave like I used to before, if I continue to hang out with the old crowd and make poor choices, then, it defeats the purpose of belonging to God. Not only am I striking out my own fortune but my behavior puts other souls off from claiming their fortune because they think: ‘isn’t God your Father and Teacher? is this what God’s children look like!’. And thus, I end up doing disservice and defame the Father in the process.

Baba says, ‘remember: I am a soul and it is now time to return home. I will then attain a status in the new world.’ This awareness brings responsibility. It helps me realize that if I become careless now, I will lose my status for every cycle. This is the only time in the whole cycle where I receive access to God practically, where I learn to be righteous. Baba says, ‘I teach you Raja yoga. This is the study to become sovereigns.‘ If I don’t learn now, I will always remain dependent with no controlling or ruling power. I will not learn how to discern and make the right decisions, I won’t learn how to live, relate and work alongside others in harmony. In other words, I will continue to live like the orphan I used to be and cause myself and others sorrow. Now is the only time to claim my inheritance from the Father and change from beggar to prince. Let me not betray myself by being careless.

Baba says, ‘Check in the mirror of your heart: Do I have any defects in me? If I am not following shrimat, I would totally destroy everything (all truth). Shrimat is received so that the soul becomes good and that then becomes imperishable. Unless there is yoga, there cannot be any reformation. The more you remember Baba, the more strength you will receive. If you don’t imbibe virtues, Maya will slap you at every step.’

And so the question I have to ask myself is: ‘What is my relationship with the Supreme Father, the Supreme Soul?’ He has adopted me but have I in turn truly accepted Him as my Father? If I consider myself the soul, the child of the Supreme Soul, then I will have no problem obeying His directions. A child obeys, it’s the grown ups that are deceived by the dictates of their own mind. If I don’t consider myself a child of God, then when He gives me a signal, rather than simply say: ‘Yes, Baba’, I will think: ‘but that makes no sense…’, ‘but I worked too hard for this…’, ‘how can I forgive them after all they did to me…’, ‘but I don’t feel like…’ ‘what if I lose…’. I get caught in the web of ‘if’s, ‘but’s and ‘what’s.

The moment I was adopted, I became the child…on paper but to truly be able to inherit all that the Father is offering me, I need to develop a relationship with Him. I need to truly become the child. That comes only through considering myself a soul and remembering the Father. Unless I consider myself a soul, I cannot become God’s child; I will always be a bodily name, someone’s relative, friend, a title, a profession, etc. and that’s when I have trouble following directions. ‘Only when the awareness of bodies is reduced‘, Baba says, ‘can your behavior and words be reformed. Otherwise, because you don’t become detached from your bodies, your behavior becomes even worse. By becoming body conscious you say something or other. Your intellect has to be very clean.’

When I surrender my intellect to Him alone, then I experience His love, His innocence, His sustenance. I experience His presence in my life at every step and learn to trust Him. Remembrance is not a ritual I perform while sitting down at a set time, it is all the time. The more I make Him my world, relate to Him in all my relationships, churn the knowledge He gives me, observe and learn from Him, the more soul conscious I become. How? because He is my reference point. Remembering Him reminds me of who I am and how I ought to be. Yes, Maya will bring storms and try to distract me but the more I practice, the more it becomes a habit and thereby, easy.

Baba says:’ O traveler of the night, do not become weary!’ Let go of your monkey business and follow Shrimat. Otherwise, you punish yourself. ‘You called out to Me,’ He reminds me, ‘and I have come to take you away from the orphanage, from the corrupt world of Ravan. I change you from beggar to prince, from human into deity. This is your inheritance but it is up to you to claim it fully. Only when you become the most elevated of all here can you receive a status there. Become elevated here. While living at home and with your families, become pure in this final birth.‘