Baba says, ‘The Father’s orders are: Engage yourselves to Me quickly. Only by engaging yourselves to Me can you claim a right to the inheritance.’ 

When I am dating someone, I still have my own will, I have my freedom. I decide how much time I want to spend with them, I come and go as I please. It’s my life, my terms. So I have my freedom but the thing I don’t have is the name.

I only get the name when I am married. When I get the name, I get everything that comes along with that name. For example, maybe I don’t have a car of my own; when I am only dating, I can ride in his car when we are together but I don’t get to call the it my car. Similarly, I can visit him at his home but I don’t get to call it my home. But the moment I am married, suddenly, it’s now my car, my home! I also have help- if I need help opening a jar of jelly, he can help me get the lid right off! If I need help lifting something heavy, he helps me with it. In other words, he belongs to me and with him, everything he owns also belongs to me.

The other side of this though is that I can no longer do everything as I please, as I want to, when I want to, the way I want to. Why? because now, I have someone else in my life that I am answerable to. What I do reflects on him too, so what I do and how I do it, matters to more than just me. My time is no longer just for me, it is for the both of us. So, I no longer get to live life on my own terms, I live life in companionship with him.

So the question is: am I just dating God or am I married to Him?

If I am just kind of fooling around in my spiritual walk with Him, where I only think about Him when I have an emergency and need help; where I like a little date here and there but mostly, I like to live my own life, do my own thing, and behave however I want to behave, then, the thing to remember is that in doing so, I am trading off everything that He can offer me. I can forget about writing His name next to mine, the name which is the Highest-on-High, above which there is no other name. I can forget about calling His property, my property. He is the Creator of Heaven and so His property is heaven. I don’t get to claim it as mine when I choose my own freedom over belonging to Him.

‘Give me all that is yours and take all that is Mine’, He offers. What I have is shells that are worth nothing. What I have are all the things that tie me into bondage- old sanskars, fears, insecurities, anxieties, attachments, limited desires and all the rest. When I truly belong to Him with my heart, I receive all His love, the knowledge, the virtues and powers. When I imbibe them, the old stuff leaves automatically. The power of His loving remembrance, that is, of His companionship, breaks away the chains and liberates me. And so Baba says, ‘what you believe to be freedom is in fact a life in bondage. Only through belonging to the Father can you claim true freedom or liberation-in-life.’

Then, He also asks me to make Him my Child. I hear that and think that means that whatever I might spend on my physical children, I now also keep a portion aside for Baba. When asked how many children I have, I proudly declare I have Baba + my other children. I feel good that I didn’t forget to count Baba, I passed that test question! But simply to keep a portion aside and count Him as my child is not all that is involved in fulfilling this relationship. I don’t just get to call Him my Child, I also have to raise Him. How am I raising this child? Do I wake up with Him in the morning? Do I speak to Him throughout the day and check up on Him? Do I ask Him what He’d like to eat today? Do I eat with Him, feed Him? Do I listen to His stories and tell Him mine? How is my behavior around the house? If I get angry, irritated, loud as I talk to my other children; if I throw tantrums; if I punish my kids when my expectations are not met, if I keep the house unclean, am too busy on the phone or glued to the TV all the time, then that’s not called making God my child. A child requires a loving atmosphere in which to grow up; it needs love and attention. Am I providing that to my Child?

The Father says, ‘I am the Lord of the Poor‘; He doesn’t need anything from me, He is the Bestower. What He is looking for are honest and clean hearts, He is looking for His children. Children have no trouble belonging to the Father, in trusting Him with their life. He comes bearing the gift of heaven itself on the palm of His hand but I have to be worthy enough to receive it. If I am simply dating Him or I simply call Him my Child, for namesake, then that won’t work. I need to have His name next to mine to claim what is His. I need to will my everything, all my worthless shells, to Him so I am free enough to claim all that is His, as mine. He says: When you make me your Child, I will take care of You forever. And so the The Father’s orders are: ‘Engage yourselves to Me quickly. Only by engaging yourselves to Me can you claim a right to the inheritance.’