Baba says, ‘A Mahavir is one who is constantly fearless and becomes victorious.’

In the task of establishment and of doing service, Baba explains, there will sometimes be small and sometimes big storms. But one who is a Mahavir soul will not be afraid of these storms, He points out, because a Mahavir is one who constantly has the weapons of all powers with him; he is a special victorious soul. When I constantly have the weapons with me, then no matter what obstacle or storm comes my way, I am ever-ready. The memorial of this in bhakti is Hanuman.

They show Hanuman carrying such a big mountain on the palm of his hand as if it was a ball! He was asked to bring a certain herb from the mountain but when he got there he realized he didn’t know one herb from the next. But Hanuman didn’t panic and cry out in distress: ‘O what shall I do now!’, ‘I wish I was smarter…’, ‘I should have checked…’etc etc. He didn’t dwell on the circumstance, he simply decided he would take the whole mountain with him! This is being a Mahavir, teaches Baba, it means to become an embodiment of the solution, not the problem.

On the way to Lanka to meet Sita, Hanuman had to overcome several obstacles. When he came upon high mountains, he didn’t waste time trying to break the mountain; he simply took a high jump. When he came upon oceans, he flew across them. He didn’t for a moment get caught up in doubt: ‘but I am a monkey, how can I fly?’, ‘how can I go across this ocean, God made a mistake picking a monkey, He should have picked a bird…’ He didn’t create waste thoughts; instead, He simply remembered Whose child he is and flew. This was the specialty of Hanuman- he was constantly in remembrance of Rama alone and no one else. So he was always safe from the dictates of his own mind and those of others.

This specialty also made him God’s trustworthy child. When it came time for Rama (God) to pick someone to carry out the most important task- deliver a message to Sita- he trusted Hanuman with it. He didn’t pick a scholar who knew all the scriptures or any other intellectual from the world, he picked the one who He trusted to be faithful, loyal and obedient. He picked a Mahavir.

Along his journey, there were many who doubted Hanuman, there were those in Lanka that laughed at and made fun of him. They were all giants- big and strong and here was a monkey! But not only did Hanuman not engage with such trivial matters but he didn’t even take offense. Instead, he felt mercy: these were souls who were in the kingdom of Ravan and didn’t even know what that meant. God had come and yet they were deprived from His inheritance. How can I reveal God, the Father to them so that they might wake up from their deep sleep of ignorance and claim their inheritance too? This, Baba says, is tolerance, another specialty of a Mahavir. To smile when someone praises me in not being tolerant, explains Baba. But if I can remain smiling at a time when someone becomes an angry enemy and rains insults on me and not show the slightest sign of wilting on my face or even in my thoughts, then that, Baba says, is tolerance.

Hanuman made big thing into a small toy and overcame it, he himself remained light and made others light too. He didn’t make a stone into a mountain by thinking: ‘why are they treating me this way?’, ‘do they not know who I am?’, ‘I don’t deserve this…’, ‘I will teach them a lesson..’ etc. but rather, he made a mountain into a ball, he put the expansion into its essence. With the full-stop of ‘nothing new!’, he simply continued to move forward. He didn’t take the long, tiring route of battling people and their sanskars or battling mountains and oceans, he always took the short, easy route- remember the Father and fly across! When I battle, I become tired and breathless and come to a standstill. But when I stay in remembrance of who I am and Whose I am, I remain light and fly; I enjoy my journey. This, Baba says, is being a Mahavir.

And so Baba teaches me to also be a Mahavir, that is, a soul for whom her world is the one Father and none other, who is therefore an embodiment of all the weapons of knowledge and thereby, ever-ready. One with a faithful and loving intellect that is turned toward God, and is therefore trustworthy. ‘I need such helpers‘, He says, ‘to liberate Bharat from Ravan and make it heaven again.’ No matter what you have to face or tolerate, you have to perform elevated actions and bring about elevated transformation. Don’t become careless and think: ‘O but I am still an effort-maker, I am moving along, I am doing what I can.’ Remember that you are a Mahavir who holds a mountain in the palm of his hand and flies with it in a second.