Baba says, ‘At any time of a fast speed, apply a powerful brake and practice bringing about transformation.’

I stumbled around for half a cycle in the world of Ravan because of one fundamental mistake: I considered myself a body rather than a soul. Baba came and reminded me of the truth: You are a bodiless soul, He said. You are a resident of the soul world and you came down here to this physical plane to play your part in this unlimited drama. I, the soul, the actor, took on the costume of the body to play my part. I’ve changed my costume 84 times in fact, this is my final costume before the end of the drama. Then, I don’t get to stay on…I have to return home and come back to the stage for the next run of the drama.

When I go home, I have to take my costume off- it doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to the set where I was working, that is, playing my part. I return home the same way I came- bodiless. Having been on stage for so long, for 5000 years in fact, I have gotten used to wearing the costume so much so that for the last half of the cycle, I thought I was the role I was playing, that the relationships I was portraying were true, that the job title was indeed my identity and so on. Now that Baba has reminded me of my truth, the effort is to detach myself from the body and all the expansion that comes with the body.

I am not the role, the relationship, the gender, nationality, the title, or anything else. I am a pure, bodiless soul and a child of God. The long list of false ‘I’s and ‘mine’s needs to now be merged such that the only ‘I’ is: I am a pure, bodiless soul and the only ‘mine’ is: mine is one Baba and none other.

The most important practice I need to return to this true ‘I and mine’ is the one of applying the powerful brake of a full-stop. For half a cycle, the mind has been used to running in whatever direction it pleases. The eyes see something and the mind starts to create thoughts about what was seen- whether useful or not. The ears hear something, the nose smells something…and the mind creates thoughts. Sometimes, I am just sitting and suddenly, out of nowhere, the mind races off into the past bringing back memories or into the future, building scenarios of what may occur. Similarly, a situation occurs and the intellect is immediately confused: ‘what should I do now?’, ‘is this right or is that right?’, ‘why is this happening to me?’ I feel paralyzed, unable to think straight. And when someone says or does something I don’t like, I respond with anger, irritation, frustration…’I don’t mean to get angry’, I say, ‘but I just can’t help it…’. If I make a mistake, then too, I react by feeling shame, condemnation, disheartenment etc. The sanskars of the past keep coming back up.

‘The mind, intellect and sanskars are the powers of the soul‘, Baba reminds me, ‘they have to act as per your order.‘ Let the mind and intellect be set wherever I want them to be, when I want them to be, for as long as I want them to be. ‘Check this‘, He says, ‘every now and then‘. Throughout the day, every half hour, let me take a few minutes to check if I can remove my intellect from the task I am busy with and direct it to the Father. Am I able to do this in a second? This is controlling power. If I don’t have controlling power, I cannot reclaim my self-sovereignty. I will sit to remember Baba and my mind and intellect will be pulled and so Baba says, practice controlling the traffic of your thoughts throughout the day. Sometimes, I let the whole day go by and then assess how I did at the very end, before going to bed. But by then, it’s too late, I have lost the opportunities to practice and build power, to claim my sovereignty. And so Baba says, make sure you check throughout the day.

I, the soul, am the king and the physical and subtle organs are my subjects. If the mind and intellect wander as they please, if my eyes and ears see and hear whatever comes in front, then, that is a sign that I am not seated on my throne of the soul. I have slipped back into body consciousness. The eternal form of the soul is of a king, a master. It is only later in the cycle that I become dependent but my original and eternal forms are of independence and so, says Baba, let there not be any bondage of the mind either. If there is the bondage of the mind, it will bring other bondages with it. To be free from bondages is to be king, to be a self-sovereign because bondage will not allow me to experience attainments. So, let your brake be constantly powerful, teaches Baba. Only then will I be able to pass with honors at the end, that is, I will only have one Baba in my thoughts when I leave this body. And my final thoughts lead me to my final destination.

‘Aim to go into the first division‘, says Baba, ‘this is Raja Yoga‘. First means fast, not being slack. Make the brake be applied fast. When I am driving uphill, I ensure the brakes are working well. Here, Baba points out, you are going so high! So, I need a powerful brake. Therefore, He teaches, check again and again. Let it not be that you think that your brake is very good, but when you apply it, it does not work. You will then not be deceived. So practice: As soon as you stay ‘Stop!‘, it stops. Learn to stop the traffic of thoughts: there is a lot of benefit in this.