Baba says, ‘Reveal the Father, the Bestower of Support, with your every action and many souls will reach their shore.’

Most people in the world think of God as the All Powerful, as the Creator. They think that if they live right, if they perform good enough, then God will bless them. ‘If I can get rid of this anger..’, ‘if I don’t fail anymore…’, ‘if I stop making mistakes…’, then God will bless me, then He will be proud of me. Baba says, ‘no one is complete as yet. This is a student life, you will continue to make mistakes and learn till the very end.’ So there will always be those times when I make mistakes, get carried away by emotion, see and hear the wrong things etc. The condemning voice of Ravan will come immediately and say: ‘you’ve blown it this time! it was all your fault…after all these years, you still made this mistake…God will never have anything more to do with you!’

But that’s not how Baba is. As my Father, He does wish for me to become His equal…be able to exercise all the right powers and virtues at the right time. Why? because He doesn’t want to see me hurt myself. But that doesn’t mean that He thinks I should never make a mistake. No! when I make that mistake and am unable to come up to His level, my Father comes down to mine. He says: ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got you.’ He’s not so high that He cannot come down to where His child is. Yes, He is the Creator, yes, He is the All Powerful but that’s not all He is. He is also the Bestower of Support; He is also the Comforter of Hearts; He comes to rub the feet of the mothers who have become tired in the world of Ravan.

He comes to my messy places. He is the Purifier– He gets His hands dirty for me. When I know better but make that mistake anyway, Ravan wants me to shrink back in shame; he condemns me and sows seeds of guilt. But God, my Father, comes after me and meets me in my brokenness. He doesn’t stick with the ‘perfect’ people, the ones who perform perfectly; He comes looking for His children who are lost. He doesn’t look down from up above and think: ‘Ugh! look what the world has become. I’m not going down there. I’ll just stay up here where it’s comfortable and simply show some mercy from a distance.’ No!, He comes to where His children are, to rescue them, to liberate them from the strongholds of Ravan and take them back home with Him.

He comes into the dysfunction, into the failure, into the depression, into the anger, into the compromise for His children. I cannot get too far off course or make too many mistakes, go too far down that God will leave me alone. He doesn’t come to condemn, or to find fault; He comes to lift me up, to restore me to my original pure, powerful self; He comes to set me on a new path. He doesn’t even stop there but He honors me; He lifts me up out of the dirt and makes me the crown on His head. He lights my lamp and calls me the light of His eyes. He reminds me daily of who I am and Whose I am. The Highest-on-High comes and becomes my Teacher. ‘What would be the big deal’, He says, ‘if God too taught those whom the world also teaches?’ No, He teaches those in whom the world has no hope. Not only does He teach them but He makes them into the princes and princesses of the new world! ‘Those people’, He points out, ‘may become philosophers, maybe chairmen, directors etc. or other senior officers. However’, He asks, ‘what are all those levels of status compared to what you receive? In this one birth, you receive God’s guarantee that you will attain the most elevated status for birth after birth whereas they don’t have a guarantee for even this one birth!’ This is who our Father is! Where would I be without the Bestower of Support.

I think I found God but God wasn’t the one lost for me to find Him! He found me….in fact, He came looking for me. He chose me before I could choose Him. As His child, I live each moment, each day, with the confidence that I can never ever get too low that He won’t come and get me. I live knowing that He’s always got my back. I can never make too many mistakes or fail too many times for Him to write me off. He, never gives up on His children. Wherever I go, there He us. He is with me on the mountain top and at the depths of the ocean. There is no depth that He won’t reach down to in order to free me.

God loves redeeming people that human-beings would think are beyond repair. He comes for the Ajamils; He cares about the prostitutes just as much as He cares about the school teacher. He loves to take people that look too far gone, that look like they don’t stand a chance and gives them purpose. Even though He is the Almighty Powerful, the Highest-on-High, He reaches down low to help me reach my destiny. He gives those who have no training and no experience, influence. He enables them to do things they never thought they could ever do. He causes them to shine. I could be working in the wrong place, could have been a selfish and manipulative person all my life and yet, I can never get low enough where He will turn His face away from me. His love and mercy are unconditional, it has no limits; He goes after any one.

I judge people based on how I was raised, how I see things. I might think: ‘Baba’s not going to have anything to do with them- they don’t live right; they are dishonest; she doesn’t dress appropriately; or they are from this and that religion…etc.’ But God’s love and mercy, His support sees no barriers. He doesn’t look at someone’s reputation in the world before He decides to help them; He helps unconditionally. This is His greatness and His purity- the fact that He comes into the midst of impurity to serve and make pure. Some people in the world wait to catch me in a mistake, they are hoping that I’ll fail. They like to exploit and expose any mishap I have to their advantage. Let me not be like them. Instead, let me show others the love and mercy that God showed me. Love covers for people, it doesn’t burn them. That means, when someone makes a mistake, rather than spread stories, I merge it within my heart. When someone is rude or impolite, rather than tell them off, I show tolerance. In other words, I help the other heal by showing love, and acceptance.

This was the example Brahma baba set through his life. He put the children first and surrendered himself to them- his peace was in their peace, his happiness was in their happiness. Even when some children created opposition, Baba always only showed love. When some children left, he always encouraged others to reach out to them and give them love.

Where would I be today if it wasn’t for the mercy and love of God!? He reached down low for me; He met me where I was. Through His example, He teaches me to be the bestower of support to others. I am never more like God than when I am helping the hurting, restoring the broken and lifting the falling. The world is full of people that judge, criticize, taunt, ridicule, reject and push down. Let me be a lifter, a healer, a restorer. How many times has God shown me mercy when I least deserved it? how many times has He got me out of a problem that I got myself into? It would be one thing if He did it condemning, shaming, judging and berating…but God doesn’t say a word! He is the Innocent Lord; He doesn’t find fault, He instead reminds me of my virtues, of my powers, of my elevatedness. He refuses to see me any other way. Can I do the same for others? Can I be the lifter, the encourager and help my brothers and sisters experience the Father who is the Bestower of Support, the Comforter of Hearts. Can I help them reach their shore just like the Father helped me reach mine?