Baba says, ‘it is essential to have these pictures in order to explain to everyone. After doing your business for eight hours, you should earn this income.’ 

The Supreme Father, the Supreme Soul who we refer to as God is not beyond name and form. Nothing is beyond name and form.

❖ Name: Shiv. It means the Benevolent One.
❖ Form: Incorporeal, point of light.
❖ Date of Birth: Beyond the cycle of birth and death, His is an incarnation. He comes at the confluence of the Iron Age and the Golden Age, at a time of extreme sorrow driven by the darkness of ignorance. The exact date and time cannot be known but His birth is celebrated as the night of Shiva or Shivratri.
❖ Place of Birth: India or Bharath.
❖ Address: Paramdham or the soul world. It is a world of light that is beyond this physical world, the sun, moon and the stars. It is the sweet home of silence.
❖ Occupation: World transformation through the purification of souls and the elements.

Sri Krishna is a human being. Through the study of Raja Yoga at this
confluence age, he attains his perfect and complete deity form and
is born in heaven or the golden age.
❖ This is why Krishna is referred to as Shyam-Sundar – he is the most
beautiful (Sundar), the first prince of the golden age. Then, as he takes rebirth, his beauty decreases (Shyam) as his level of purity decreases.
❖ Krishna is incorrectly referred to as the God of the Gita. Krishna is the prince of heaven! Besides, no human being can be God because God does not come into the cycle of birth and death like human-beings. He therefore never becomes impure. Only He is the Ocean of Knowledge and of all virtues. By putting Krishna’s name in the Gita, they have made the praise of Bharat, the greatest pilgrimage place, disappear, says the Father.
❖ Only the one Father is the Bestower of Liberation and Salvation. He says: Manmanabhav! Consider yourself a soul and remember Me alone and all your sins will be absolved.

The world cycle is 5000 years and moves through 4 distinct Ages (time periods) – golden age, silver age, copper age and iron age. Each is of 1250 years long.
❖ We are currently at the great confluence – of the impure iron age and the pure golden age. It is a time when God Himself comes to dispel the darkness of ignorance with the light of knowledge. He comes to re-establish the golden age.

The world cycle is really the story of the rise and fall of Bharat and is depicted in the picture of the ladder.

❖ Golden age: The play begins. Shri Krishna, the first prince arrives on the world stage. Souls here are 16 celestial degrees complete with all virtues and powers. It is the perfect world remembered as ‘heaven’.
❖ Silver age: Still radiant with divine virtues, the number of souls increase significantly. There are minor changes in nature and in the degree of happiness in souls reflecting a dip in their degree of purity from 16 to 14 celestial degrees.
❖ Copper age: Beginning of devotion/bhakti. Souls forget who they are and think of themselves as bodies. They fall prey to the five vices. Having thus forgotten their true spiritual identity, souls become uneasy and unhappy and the search for God begins. Religious founders come to the world at this
time to establish religion.
❖ Iron age: When iron age starts, religions have already been established and widespread. Souls, however, continue to deplete and move further away from God. There is a decline in moral, ethical and spiritual values. Sorrow is everywhere.

It takes 5000 years to descend, whereas I ascend in a second. So, this is a jump. Even Gandhiji used to say that there should be the kingdom of Rama again. It is only God who can bring about the stage of ascent. Everyone else, as the picture of the ladder shows, continues to bring others down.

The tree in time: depicts the variety in the human family, the family of souls who live upon this planet.

❖ The trunk of the tree symbolizes the era of paradise, which emerges from that perfect Seed.
❖ When the deities become overinvolved with the physical world, they lose
awareness of being a soul, they also lose touch with their original nature of purity, peace and truth. Divinity departs. Paradise is lost.
❖ As the unity of the trunk loses integrity, minds search for truth. The memory of God, the Seed, resurfaces from the depths of the human psyche. In response to the search, great prophet souls make their entrances and establish the mighty branch of a great religion on the Human Tree.
❖ Many new leaves emerge on the branches, as the human family grows drastically. Chaos and confusion ensue, as the search for self-realization and truth gives rise to divergent beliefs and ways of thinking. Each main branch diversifies into smaller limbs and twigs. Cults, sects and ‘– isms’ emerge.
Meanwhile, within the central trunk of humanity, the worship of nature and of human beings as gurus takes hold.
❖ But before old life dies, new life is given by the Seed, the Creator of the tree. God, the Seed of the Human Tree, reveals how what once was can be again.

At this auspicious confluence age, God Himself becomes my Teacher and teaches me Raja Yoga.

❖ Raja is a Hindi word, which means ‘a King’ and Yog or Yoga means ‘a connection’ or a ‘relationship’.
❖ Raja Yoga is the Supreme Yoga through which the Soul becomes
the master (a Raja/King) of all its senses (physical organs, mind,
intellect) by simply remembering its original nature and its
relationship with the Supreme Soul.
❖ The process of moving within, experiencing oneself as a spiritual being or a divine soul, which is a self-luminous, divine point of
energy, and then connecting with the Father, the supreme source of energy and virtues, empowers the self.
❖ God Himself teaches souls Raja Yoga at this time. Through His remembrance, souls are purified of all sins.

Hatha yoga, on the other hand, refers to a set of postures or asanas meant to keep the body healthy. But, says Baba, this too is a type of violence because you cause your body to suffer; you cause it difficulties. Raja Yoga is non-violent yoga, which is extremely easy. As I walk and move along, I simply continue to remember the Father. Many people perform the hatha yoga rituals for good health and yet, they are not able to know, let alone meet their Supreme Father. And yet, they still call that yoga and they speak of yoga ashrams. This is easy Raja Yoga; it is the yoga that is taught by God. 

Baba says, ‘After doing your business for eight hours, you should earn this income through doing the business of the jewels of knowledge.’ That is a physical income whereas this is a spiritual income. Therefore, says Baba, you should pay a lot of attention to earning this income. On the foundation of this knowledge of who I am, Whose I am and the time in the cycle, I must practice yoga a great deal, instructs Baba. ‘Wake up early in the morning and remember the Father with a lot of love.’, He says. Sure, I might understand the knowledge well, I might even give very good lectures, but understanding alone does not burn away sanskars of half a cycle. That can only happen through the alchemy of God’s love which I experience when I remember Him. It’s one thing to know of someone- their name, address, occupation etc. and a very different thing to have a relationship with them; only when I relate and spend time with them do I really get to know them, their nature, and have experiences. It’s the same with God. I might know of Him and even give a class about Him but do I really have a relationship with the Supreme Father, the Supreme Soul?

When I remember Him throughout the day even as I go about my activities, I experience His help, His companionship. I hear Him give me advice, experience Him giving me courage and strength. I still shoulder all my responsibilities, but I experience Him take the burden away; He is getting everything done and I am just the child, the instrument. His remembrance thus ensures that my thoughts, words and actions are elevated, that I always remain double-light. In other words, I remain in a stage of ascent- from the iron age to the golden age. I experience the strongholds of Ravan break away and I become liberated from bondages. Baba says, ‘Souls will fly with remembrance not with knowledge.’ Did I ever even dream that God Himself would surrender Himself to me? That He would belong to me? And yet, He does. He becomes mine through all my relationships but mainly, He becomes my Father, Teacher and Satguru and I receive an inheritance from Him. All I have to do to claim it fully is remember.