Baba says, ‘Have zeal and enthusiasm in every thought and success in your thoughts will be guaranteed.’

The basis of success and of the flying stage is to have wings of zeal and enthusiasm, teaches Baba. Each child, whether new or old, has zeal and enthusiasm and they become the wings to take me into the flying stage. I already have the wings of knowledge and yoga but along with those, I need to have new zeal and new enthusiasm automatically emerge every day at every moment and in every action. This is the basis or the foundation for the flying stage.

No matter what kind of task I might be performing at any given moment, whether it is that of cleaning dishes or any ordinary work, in that too, Baba explains, there should be natural zeal and enthusiasm. It shouldn’t be that I have zeal and enthusiasm only when I am studying the knowledge or teaching it to others or when I am busy in spiritual service. My stage, Baba says, should always be elevated, never ordinary. But often, when I am engaged in an ordinary task, my thoughts too become ordinary without any zeal and enthusiasm: ‘I need to get this done so I can do service…’, ‘I wish someone else could do this so I could read the murli…’, ‘why am I stuck doing this work when they are all enjoying themselves…’. This, Baba says, is not the sign of a flying stage.

Sometimes, there is a small or big situation and immediately my thoughts become weak: ‘what will I do now?’, ‘I cannot possibly come out of this loss…I’m doomed!’, ‘how will ever make any progress in these circumstances…just my karma!’, ‘I cannot seem to overcome this anger…I’m just not a powerful enough soul’, ‘Baba must be so disappointed in me…He will never waste His time with me’. Sometimes it gets so bad, I even think that this path is too difficult and it might be just better to go back to what I was doing previously. But then I remember God’s love, I remember my experiences with Him, the miracles He has performed in my life before, and just like that, the experience of God’s love revives me from my unconsciousness and I once again receive the wings of zeal and enthusiasm. Even while thinking about it, I fly from a stagnant stage into a flying stage. Baba says, ‘pay attention to your thoughts. If you create weak, wasteful or ordinary thoughts, your stage will be accordingly. Have zeal and enthusiasm in every thought and success in your thoughts will be guaranteed.’ I have been through this situation every cycle and have emerged successful, nothing new!, I will be successful once again. Where the Almighty is my Companion, success is guaranteed. These thoughts give me wings to fly high above the situation and get to the other side.

‘Every day at Amrit vela‘, Baba teaches, ‘pick the points of zeal and enthusiasm that you need for the day and emerge them in front of you.’ If I simply only remember one point every day: ‘I am a point of light, Baba is a point of light, we have to return home and go back into our kingdom’, then, because it is the same point daily, I get bored, I lose interest and with it all my zeal and enthusiasm. Instead, let me make remembrance creative. ‘Note down the special points of zeal and enthusiasm from every day’s murli‘, teaches Baba. I can make a very big list of these points. ‘Note it down in your diary and in your intellect‘, He says. When these points don’t automatically emerge in my intellect and I’m in one of those lulls, let me recall them from my diary. This will then increase my zeal and enthusiasm.

Throughout the day, rather than simply practice: ‘I am a soul, I am a soul…’, let me churn a different point of knowledge every day, that is, let me go deep into the experience of that point. This keeps me entertained and increases my zeal and enthusiasm. Let me experience Baba’s companionship through all my relationships as I go about my various activities. Let me have a heart-to-heart conversation with Him, remember Him with a lot of love. Also, Baba says, ‘become a constant spinner of the discus of self-realization‘. By seeing my various forms throughout the cycle, I remain happy. My zeal and enthusiasm increase: ‘yes, it was I that was the deity who is worshipped to this day. I am now becoming that once again. God Himself is here now and is teaching me Raja yoga. Why wouldn’t I claim my full inheritance from Him? If not I, who will?’ By thinking such thoughts that are filled with zeal and enthusiasm, I remain safe from Maya and in the flying stage.

Sometimes, I write to Baba about what I did wrong or I give Him my weakness but then I also hold on to it and keep thinking: ‘I am like this, I am like this’, ‘I did this, I did this..’. Baba says, ‘since you have already offered it to Baba, why then are you still holding on to it? it is no longer yours.’ Baba has forgiven me and also forgotten about it, so why do I still remember it? Let me also learn the art of checking and them immediately moving on to changing it. If I remain stuck in the checking part, I will feel disheartened. Instead, the right approach, Baba says, is to learn from the mistake and move on. ‘Never come to a standstill‘, He says, ‘keep moving forward.’

In the whole cycle, this is the only time when I have the stage of ascent, every other time, I am descending. God, my Father, is here and He is in-charge of my life. I have nothing to worry about; all I have to do is simply follow His directions. I don’t have to think, doubt or complain, simply follow. Sometimes, I get asked to do something and I immediately think: ‘I don’t have the training or the experience for this. How can I do this?’, ‘will I be able to do this?’, ‘I think I might fail…what will everyone think of me?’. These are weak thoughts and they set me on a path to failure or limited success. Instead, let me remember Who is the one that gave me this task! The One who made me the instrument has full faith in me, let me also have faith in myself. Besides, says Baba, ‘when it is Karankaravanhaar Baba who is getting everything done, where did the ‘I’ come from?‘ He is in-charge, I am simply the instrument. This awareness immediately makes me light and gives me wings.

Zeal and enthusiasm is the very breath of Brahmin life, teaches Baba. Where there is zeal and enthusiasm, success is guaranteed. ‘So never lose those wings‘, He says, ‘always keep flying.‘