Baba says, ‘You know that those people are in a physical war, whereas you Brahmins are in a spiritual war. You are at war in order to conquer Ravan and become the masters of the new world.’

I was held captive by Ravan or the five vices for half a cycle. During that time, I lived a life of sorrow and peacelessness. I lost all hope and courage, I had no future. Then, the Father came and He lit my light once again. He reminded me of who I am- that I am a pure soul, a child of God. I had been thinking of myself as a body and my thoughts, words and actions were based on this wrong consciousness. No wonder I was full of sorrow; I, the soul, was in complete misalignment with who I am.

‘I am not a body, but a soul‘ – this thought changed me from a shell into a diamond. I am the child of the Father from the previous cycle. I am an heir, I have all rights. This thought changed me from one without courage into a master almighty authority. Now, this is my energy, these are my thoughts.

‘You are at war with Ravan‘, Baba reminds me, ‘to reclaim your lost kingdom.‘ Do I stay in this awareness? Those people fight a physical war but my war is spiritual. Do I consider myself a maharathi of the spiritual army? To be a maharathi, Baba explains, means to consider oneself to be one who is riding one’s chariot. This is the main thing: I am not the body or the chariot. Rather, I am the charioteer, that is the soul, riding this chariot. On the battlefield, if I, the maharathi come under the influence of my chariot, then not only will I not be victorious, but I will become an obstacle to my entire army. I would become one who creates upheaval.

In other words, this world is a battlefield because this whole world is now the world of Maya/Ravan. I might start my day well, with the right intention of being victorious. I am in the awareness of being a soul, a child of God during amritvela; then during the murli, I equip myself with all the weapons as well. But, if I then become careless i.e. forget this awareness and slip back into body consciousness as soon as I step into the world outside, then, Baba says, I wouldn’t qualify as a maharathi. As soon as I get cut in traffic, or when the boss leaves me out of that meeting, or when the person at the store is rude to me, or when the friend causes me a loss, if I allow these triggers to push me back into the old consciousness, then, that is the charioteer coming under the influence of the chariot. Then, not only do I lose my temper, become bitter, become disappointed and lose my battle but I also take that baggage of sorrow to my other interactions at home, at the office etc., and cause everyone to lose their battles too.

‘The Father doesn’t cause anyone sorrow, neither should you‘, teaches Baba. ‘You must become pure yourself such that you never cause anyone sorrow through your mind, words or actions.‘

Just as a warrior puts all people and all comforts to one side and only keeps the battle and victory in his intellect- he keeps himself engaged in fulfilling his aim- in the same way, ask yourself, says Baba: ‘Do I have the aim of just these two things or is there also something else in my awareness? Have I become such a warrior?’ No matter where I may be, I always have to have the awareness that I am a warrior on the battlefield. Warriors don’t waste their time in trivial things, they remain focused. They don’t like to rest, they are not lazy or careless. They are never afraid of anything; they are always fearless. And most importantly, they never forget who the enemy is and they never forget their weapons! They always carry those with them.

‘Remember‘, teaches Baba, ‘that it is Ravan who is the enemy, not your brothers.’ No matter what the scene, who the soul is on the other side, it is Ravan acting through them. To remember this and then create the thought, speak the word and perform the action is to move toward victory. If someone is angry, rather than be angry back at them, I remain cool and calm; I defeat Ravan. If someone betrayed me, rather than plan vengeance, I forgive. I defeat Ravan. When I do this, I remind others of who they are as well. They receive a vision of who they are and what they have become. They too then join the war against Ravan.

‘So check‘, says Baba: ‘Do you just have this one deep concern of bringing victory to the self and to the army?’ I can be victorious – I can remain cool and calm, I can forgive – only when I have detached myself from the expansion of the body. If my intellect is still pulled by limited desires, by relationships, then, I will be distracted and lose the war. ‘So check‘, says Baba, ‘if you are completely free or still dependent on others for some things?‘ To be completely free means to be free from the attachment to the body and bodily relationships. I still continue to live at home but I don’t have the attachment to other souls or to a job or a title etc. ‘You should be free even from your old nature, from your old sanskars’, says Baba. Have I become free to such an extent? ‘Such a soul is called completely free from attachments’, says Baba. Sannyasis have limited renunciation- they leave their homes and responsibilities and move to the jungle to become free from attachments. But moving away doesn’t give me any power; there is no attainment. Here, the Father teaches me unlimited renunciation- I stay at home and like a lotus, remain detached with my intellect. This is power of purity, this is attainment. I take the support of the body when I wish, I interact with others when I need to and then immediately detach. There is no pull of expectations, of desires, no distraction of loss or gains, of success or defeat, praise or defamation. There is just the Father and I.

In fact, this is the very first qualification of being a Brahmin, Baba reminds me: To break away from everyone else and to connect myself to the One. The first promise, the first words of this birth of dying alive were: “One Father and none other”. And so Baba asks, ‘are you fulfilling this promise or is it that while saying that you belong to One, you still have connections with many?’ Such a warrior whose intellect is attached to many cannot win the war. I have to be focused on being the warrior and being victorious in the war. That means, I only stay connected to the one Father Who is giving me directions on how to defeat the enemy and who is equipping me with weapons. If I stay connected to the Father during murli but then allow myself to get caught up in the maze of the world, that doesn’t help.

No matter who the soul is that I interact with, I do so with the feeling of Godly service, with feelings of benevolence. No matter what the atmosphere, I don’t get influenced by it, rather, I become the one to transform it with my soul conscious power. In no other birth do I get to be the direct child of God. This is the birth filled with such specialty. Therefore, the virtues of the Father should be my virtues; I cannot have those virtues in any other birth other than this one. Having become the child of the Father, if I don’t know the Father, then I am worth a shell. Having taken a birth as valuable as a diamond, if I don’t make my life as valuable as a diamond, then I am worth a shell. If I have a diamond in my hand and not realizing the value of it, if I throw it away thinking it to be a stone, then I am worth a shell. In other words, not very sensible. Therefore, says Baba, realize the value of this invaluable Brahmin birth and check if you are truly living a Brahmin life.