Baba says, ‘when you follow the Father’s shrimat, no one can cause you sorrow.‘

As I go along on this spiritual path, there are times when I race ahead, sometimes even take a high jump and then there are times when I come to a standstill. One day I am flying and the next, I have come to a stop. Instead of being a master almighty authority, I become unhappy and subservient. The reason for this, Baba says, is many trivial things. In other words, waste thoughts.

The reason for waste thoughts, Baba points out, is that, throughout the day, in your thoughts, words and deeds, you disobey shrimat in the form of the maryadas that you have received from the Father. From being obedient, you become disobedient. When I step outside the line of the code of conduct even in my thoughts, then I leave the door open for Ravan to come and take me prisoner. You should also check, He teaches, whether you are disobeying Brahmin disciplines and systems in your thoughts, words, deeds, relations and connections. You will definitely have waste thoughts mixed in your intellect when some disciplines or systems are missing. For example, if I feel lazy to wake up for Amritvela, then that affects the rest of my day- I will lack power to face the situations that come my way and will experience sorrow as a result. If I miss murli, I will miss the directions from the Teacher, I will miss the signals that prepare me for the day or the answers to the questions that have been nagging me. If I spend the day being loose – allowing myself to read all the worldly news, gossip with co-workers, prepare and eat meals glued to my phone or TV, go to bed without having cleared my accounts for the day, then I fill my mind with all the wrong stuff. Consequently, I experience sorrow. In Bharat, there is saying that: there is benefit (fayda) in following the disciplines (kayda). So check yourself carefully, says Baba, for only then will you become free from waste thoughts.

Sometimes, I listen to the Murli, that is, I receive the knowledge but I don’t know how to use it or accumulate it. At the time that I listen to the Murli or at Amritvela, I feel happy for those few minutes, then because I lack the power to imbibe the knowledge, I constantly experience myself to be empty of the treasures of knowledge and powers. This is another reason why, He says, you are unable to remain constantly cheerful. Because of lacking the might that comes from imbibing knowledge, you become an easy target for Maya. Not just that, I also become unhappy on seeing other souls full! The main method, Baba teaches, for accumulating the treasure of knowledge, the treasure of elevated time and for increasing the physical treasures is to have a clean and pure intellect and an honest heart. As long as I’m selfish and caught up in the limited ‘I and mine’, then half a cycle’s worth of experience proves, I will remain unhappy.

‘The basis of having a pure intellect‘, Baba says, ‘is to know the Father with the intellect and surrender your intellect to the Father.‘ To surrender means to finish the consciousness of ‘I and mine’. This is the shudra intellect, says Baba. I have come to change you into deities but you cannot become one unless you become a Brahmin first. So give away the old shudra intellect and receive a divine intellect, He says; to give is to receive. The method to give away the old intellect is to have pure thoughts. Everything belongs to the Father. It isn’t mine anymore, I have to use it per His directions. This is known as surrender, being free from attachment. Bottom-line: The reason for not being an embodiment of remembrance, for having waste thoughts and for becoming unhappy is this consciousness of ‘mine’. Baba says, ‘you want the new but you also try to hold on to the old. You call yourself a trustee but you become a householder in practice.’ The basis for becoming free from waste thoughts is to relinquish being a householder. Sometimes, I say: ‘this is just my nature…my sanskar…my intellect’. Baba says, ‘when you have surrendered, the Father’s nature is your nature, the Father’s sanskars are your sanskars. Just as the Father’s intellect is divine, so your intellect should be the same.’

‘Throughout the day‘, Baba says, ‘let the intellect remain busy in the pure activities that the Father has given you to do.‘ The activity of the intellect is to have pure thoughts. The activity of the mouth is to speak the knowledge you have heard from the Father. When it comes to actions, the shirmat is to perform every deed as a karma yogi, to live as lovingly and detached as a lotus, to reveal the Father’s elevated task through your every deed and to perform every deed as a divine act. This is living as a trustee, using everything per the Master’s directions.

Often, when I get unhappy and fed up, I think or say: ‘I just want to go somewhere, be free from ever having to perform activities’. ‘That’s what sannyasis do, they go away somewhere. That is not true freedom.’, says Baba. ‘True freedom’, He teaches, ‘will come from performing pure activities.‘ It’s Ravan, the body consciousness, that ties me in bondage and takes away my joy. Sacrifice Ravan into the sacrificial fire and forever become free from sorrow.