Baba says, ‘You know that whatever happens, second by second, is in the drama. You have to remain firmly on the rails of the drama.’

I am an actor in the unlimited drama of the world. This is the greatest drama, the greatest story ever told, do I have this faith? If I do, then I have the power to enjoy the drama, else, I will spend my time questioning or complaining about every scene. As a result, my own performance suffers. Often, this is what happens. When there is a scene that looks bad externally, I immediately become upset and get into the wasteful spinning of: ‘why is this happening to me?’, ‘how can this happen?’, ‘what will I do now?’ ‘You now have the knowledge of the beginning, middle and end of the cycle’, Baba explains, ‘this should always remain in your intellect.’ But more often than not, rather than remain aware of all three aspects of time, I only look at the present moment, the present scene and make my judgement: ‘this is a bad scene’ or ‘this is a good scene’ but this is a wrong assessment, Baba explains. The drama is not good or bad, it is perfect! Every scene is accurate with a past, present and future.

I may not understand why something happened but I have the knowledge that nothing has happened by accident- it is based on a past action or interaction, if not of this birth, then from a previous birth. So the sensible thing to do is not spend time and energy questioning or complaining about the scene but to rather discern what it is that I need to do now such that I can settle this account once and for all and/or not create a new account. ‘This is the time of settlement‘, Baba reminds me, ‘you must settle all the karmic accounts now.’ This is the final birth in this cycle, there is no more time in the future to settle accounts, it has to happen now. So the choice is: do I want to settle gracefully by using the knowledge? or do I want to settle it by battling?

Just as the drama continues to move second by second, in the same way, the stage of the mind should move in a straight line following on the rails of the drama. It should not fluctuate even a bit. A train runs well when it follows on the rails but if the driver were to start questioning: ‘why is there is a turn in the rails here?’, ‘why is there a tunnel here?’ then, the train would go off track and either get into an accident or come to a standstill. Whether in thoughts, words or actions, my stage should be: ‘I trust the drama. if there is a turn here, then I am going to turn with it. No, I can’t see what’s ahead once I turn but I don’t need to see because I know. The turn is beneficial, and what’s on the other side of the turn will also be beneficial.’

What about when someone in my family dies? is there benefit in someone dying? Baba has taught me that the soul never dies; its just that the soul, the actor, has finished playing its current role, shed its costume and has gone on to play its next role somewhere else, wearing a different costume. He sheds a body and takes another. So, the right thing to do then is to wish the soul well as it moves onward on its journey. Maybe there’s a loss in my business, what benefit could there be in that? If something ends, then to trust the drama means to trust that I don’t need that thing in my life anymore. Maybe this incident is meant to push me to try something new that I’d been afraid to try all this time or move in a different direction. I don’t have the answers right at the moment the incident occurs but to trust the drama means to be okay with that. I don’t know what is to come but I do know, it is beneficial; I do know that it will be the best for me . If I were to simply reflect back on my life and look at the toughest challenges I’ve faced, I know that I didn’t understand why that loss occurred or why that person walked away at the time, but eventually, it always worked out for my good. If those events hadn’t occurred, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

‘Whatever scenes of the drama you see, whether they are scenes of fluctuation or scenes of total stability, have faith in both types of scenes’, teaches Baba. Even in scenes of fluctuation, you should experience benefit. Your intellect should have faith to this extent. Even if the atmosphere is one that makes you fluctuate, or the problems that confront you are very intense, let your intellect still have full faith: this is what it means to be victorious. Then, on the basis of your faith, even a very heated problem will become very cool. And what are problems anyway?, asks Baba, ‘they are nothing but a form of Maya.’ It’s usually not the situation or event as much as the way I respond that is the problem. And my response is based on what thoughts I allow in my mind. As soon as something happens, Maya immediately starts to feed thoughts to my mind: thoughts of fear, doubt, uncertainty, anxiety etc. She ensures my mind and intellect are clouded such that I lose my ability to see or hear things clearly. And so it is said: ‘a conqueror of Maya is a conqueror of the world.’

I conquer Maya through faith. ‘Just remember that this is nothing new!’, teaches Baba. ‘How many times have you been victorious? Is it just this once at this confluence age? or are you repeating what you have become innumerable times? Therefore, the problem is not new to you. You have been victorious many times, you are becoming that now and will continue to become that in the future too. This is called being victorious by remaining firm on the rails of the drama, that is, by having faith in the drama.’