Baba says, ‘make your mind and intellect strong with the nourishment of happiness and your stage will become powerful.’

It is said that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. In the same way, spiritually, a diet of happiness keeps Maya away. If I were to reflect back on my own experiences, I’d notice that when I am brimming with happiness, then nothing or no one can affect me negatively. Even if someone were to come by and say something impolite or do something wrong, I’d simply shrug it off and move on because I’m too full to be bothered by trivial things. I’m too busy being happy. But if those same people were to make those same mistakes on a day when I’m already feeling lousy or irritable, then it’s like fuel to the fire. I am sure to blow my fuse and tell them in no uncertain terms why they are wrong. Even the tiniest thing can tick me off.

And so Baba says, ‘there is no other nourishment like happiness. Make your mind and intellect strong with happiness and your stage will always remain powerful.’

I have had so many attainments since coming to Baba. In fact, the greatest happiness is that the Father has made me belong to Him. People of the world, even the sadhus and sannyasis are desperate for even just a glimpse of God whereas I am constantly merged in His eyes; He calls me the ‘jewel of His eyes’, ‘the light of His eyes’. People of the world live in fear not knowing what to do, if what they did was right or wrong, what might happen in the future etc., whereas I live in peace knowing all three aspects of time. I know my past, present and future and I have God as my Father, Teacher and Guru guiding me at every step. God is teaching me personally to make me into the king of kings! I didn’t even think that something like this is even possible but here I am- God’s child and student- becoming the emperor of the world!

This is incredible fortune. Am I fortune focused or misfortune focused? If I am fortune focused, I remain intoxicated thinking about my attainments. I choose to remember who I am by spinning the discus of self realization and seeing my elevated parts throughout the cycle. I choose to remember Whose I am and what I am becoming once again. But if I am misfortune focused, when something little goes wrong, I dwell on it: ‘Oh, I shouldn’t have done that…Oh, this shouldn’t have happened….’ Rather than learn from a mistake and move on, I choose to stay in the pit of self-pity or guilt and think: ‘when will I ever change….maybe I’m not cut out for this after all….God must be so disappointed in me….I’m such a failure….I should just leave and go somewhere…’ Rather than focus on how far I still have left to go, why not look at how far God has brought me!? Yes, I got angry….again…but this time, maybe I realized sooner? maybe I don’t get angry in many of the situations I used to before? maybe this scene helped expose something new about myself I hadn’t realized – a trigger, a sore spot within me I didn’t know I had?

My being sad and guilty does me no good, it only delays my progress. God knows what He is doing, He changes me little by little; sometimes, the changes are so tiny, they are almost imperceptible. But if I were to look back over the last 2-5 years, I’d see that I have changed, that I have learnt so much! And so Baba says, ‘have patient O mind…‘ My crying, sulking or threatening to give up is not going to make God hurry up! He works at His pace, in His own way, in His own timing. My job is to remain faithful in my intellect knowing that He has made me victorious countless times before and that I am on my way to victory once again.

And so, Baba says, no matter what happens- whether a sanskar roars back, or someone in my family falls ill or there is a loss in my business or someone betrays me- never give up your happiness. Always continue to sing the song of fortune: ‘Wah Baba! Wah! Wah my fortune! wah!‘ This is what it means to have a faithful, loving intellect that is turned towards God. I have the faith that no matter what happens, God is always with me and so I cannot lose. I choose to live by this faith and not by sight. ‘Those who eat the nourishment of happiness in this way’, Baba says, ‘will always remain healthy. They will never become weak, they will always remain powerful.’

When my mind and intellect are constantly powerful, then my stage is also powerful. When my stage is powerful, then I remain unshakeable and immovable. ‘Let it not be‘, Baba cautions, ‘that you forget to take your nourishment sometimes‘. No matter what my age- young, old, in-between- I have to keep on singing this same song of fortune. The Father and I are together, nothing else matters. And so this happiness is eternal, it’s imperishable and no one can take it away from me…unless I give it away. ‘Happiness is your birthright, your inheritance. You should never lose it‘, He says.

Instead, the best way to not just keep my happiness but to actually increase it is to distribute it to others. ‘The more you distribute your fortune, the more it will increase’, He says. Physical wealth decreases when I spend it but this wealth increases the more I spend it. I am going into the golden age, the land of happiness. I won’t be earning happiness there, I will simply be comfortably eating what I have earned here. This one birth of effort sets me up for many births of reward. ‘So remain content‘, teaches Baba. If I cannot remain content now, when my Father is with me, when He is responsible for me, practically, when He is filling me with attainments and experiences daily, when else can I be? If I am content with everything, I am happy; if I’m not content, I’m not happy.

So perhaps the fundamental question I have to ask myself is: ‘what is my relationship with the Supreme Father, the Supreme Soul?’ If the answer is a confident, faith filled: ‘He is my Father’, then I have nothing to worry about. Let me keep eating the nourishment of happiness.