Baba says, ‘However much children remember Me, it is only when they have this knowledge that they will be able to stay in remembrance all the time.’ 

When someone is about to be put on the gallows, he understand inside that he is going to God. The executioner tells him to remember God, even though neither of them actually knows God. And as a result, despite being told, despite his own desire, the person remembers his friends and relatives at that time. Why? because those are the people he really knows.

I can only accurately remember someone I know. I might have heard about them from others and so I know a few things -right or wrong- about them. So I might ‘recall’ those things in my mind but that does not mean, I know them. Knowing only comes from meeting and getting to know the person first hand. Then, I can say, I ‘know’ them. Then, I am able to remember them accurately- not just their name or occupation but in my remembrance, I celebrate a meeting with them, I experience their nature, their character; I remember what they said, when they said it, how it made me feel; I remember how they helped me in my time of need, how they stood by me during my trials; I experience their innocence, their attitude of acceptance, their ability to remain neutral without getting into judgment and criticism. etc. etc. So remembrance requires that I have knowledge of the thing or the person I am remembering; knowledge is foundational to remembrance.

There are many who say that they have faith in God but faith, Baba says, is blind without knowledge. In fact, that’s what bhakti is – it’s blind faith, a game of dolls. It’s because I don’t have knowledge that I believe that Lakshmi and Narayan are God and that Hanuman is also God and that Ganesh is also God. If I had met God and knew Him first hand, then I’d know better than to worship the deities or these days, trees and animals! Not only would I not worship deities but if I knew God, I would know that in fact, I am the deity of the golden age! Then, I would also know that it is now that time in the cycle where I have to make the effort to become that again. I’d get busy studying from God and imbibing every point of the knowledge He is teaching me. But when I don’t know these aspects, that is, when I lack the knowledge, I simply sing songs I don’t understand and listen to stories that are false. Therefore, there is only limited attainment in bhakti.

Even Meera who is considered the greatest female devotee did not attain a place in heaven because she lacked the knowledge. She stayed in remembrance of Krishna, but she didn’t realize that Krishna isn’t God! No human-being, in fact, can be called God- I know this now because God Himself told me this. While Meera worshipped Krishna, he, had already taken rebirth and taken on a new name and a new body. And while she spent her whole life singing his praise and even took her last breath in his remembrance, she still had to take rebirth here, in this old world.

But now, I, have unlimited disinterest in this old world. I know that I will not take rebirth here, I know that this old world is to be destroyed. So, not only have I connected my intellect to the new world, I am helping establish it! I am helping build the Krishnapuri where I will live. This knowledge of the world cycle is not in anyone else’s intellect, no matter how great a scholar, a devotee or a sannyasi they might be. I only receive this knowledge when I study from the Ocean of Knowledge. He becomes my Teacher at this time and teaches me these unlimited aspects. Talking about sannyasis, they leave their homes and families and move to the forests because they think the world is hell and that there is no happiness here. Yes, the world is indeed hell but God doesn’t teach me to leave my home and family because of that. He teaches me to live in it like a lotus flower. He teaches me to discard the dirty swamp of the world from my intellect.

The Father says: ‘I teach you to make you into the masters of the new world.‘ Lakshmi and Narayan are the masters. Although their subjects too are masters, there are varieties of status; there is a difference between the king and them. The difference in status is because of the knowledge. I have recognized Baba, I have faith in Him but just like bhakti, here too faith alone without knowledge only gets me so far. Baba says, ‘you have to study this knowledge, follow the Father’s directions; only then can you make your lives elevated.’ If I only have faith, then I will sit back and wait for God to do everything, like I did in bhakti. But Baba says, ‘don’t ask Me for mercy or blessings. This is a school, one studies in a school.’ When I know this about Him, I don’t beg or plead or complain in remembrance like I did in bhakti. Instead, I study from Him. The Father explains the aim and objective to me. No one else in the world has this aim and objective in the intellect. I now instantly say that this is what I am becoming and that the kingdom I am helping the Father establish will be over the whole world.

I am helping God establish heaven using my body, mind and wealth. I offer everything to the Father, for this task. ‘Nothing belongs to me, Baba, even this body isn’t mine.’ I have unlimited disinterest– I live in the old world, in the old body but my attachment is broken, my attachment is only with the one Father. ‘Mine is one Shiv Baba and none other’- I had been saying this since bhakti but now, I get to live it practically. The difference- I have the knowledge now. I know Who Shiv Baba is, I know how we are related and I therefore get to fulfill my relationships with Him. My vision is no longer drawn to anyone else, there is no confusion.

And that’s the key, says Baba. Based on the knowledge, there has to be loving relationship. Sometimes, I can have the knowledge in my intellect, I know the soul, I also know the Father with His full intro, I am aware of all the relationships, I have the knowledge of the cycle, the Creator and the creation and yet I lack that easy remembrance, I lack that constant experience of bliss, power and peace. My remembrance isn’t constant or permanent. I repeatedly forget to remember. The reason for this, Baba explains, is that the knowledge is only in the head. There is knowledge but no love in the heart. Simply intellectual knowledge cannot enable me to have remembrance, for that I need the knowledge to become merged in the heart. Knowledge and love have to be combined. While knowledge gives me the truth, love enables me to experience the truth- I become merged in the ocean of all attainments and experiences. Else, I become merged in the ocean of questions: ‘why?’, ‘how?’, ‘when?’

This is the specialty of the true moths. They know the Flame but they don’t stop there, they sacrifice themselves to the Flame. That is, they surrender to Him, make themselves belong to Him. Then, I don’t have to make an effort to remember, remembrance becomes natural. It becomes difficult to forget.