Baba says, “Only when you have firm faith will you be able to study this study.”

While studying for a degree, I need to be clear about my aim and objective and have faith in the knowledge I am receiving. For example, I need to know that I am studying to be a doctor and that this specific set of subjects that I am studying will indeed qualify me to be a doctor, will equip me to cure the ill. Next, I need faith in the teacher who is teaching me- that they indeed are experts in this area of study and are capable of guiding me. Then, I need faith in the university I am enrolled in- that it is indeed legit, that I will actually receive a degree through this place. Unless I have this firm faith, I will not study the study.

This university that I am enrolled in at this confluence age, is the Godfatherly university where I am studying to become Narayan from an ordinary human being and the one who is teaching me is incorporeal God through Brahma. I need this firm faith; if I don’t, I will not study. First of all, I need faith that I have indeed become an ordinary, impure human-being, then I need faith that yes, by studying this knowledge, I can indeed become an elevated human-being, a self-sovereign, a deity. And most of all, I need to have faith that the one speaking the knowledge to me is God, who is Truth, the Ocean of Knowledge. If I lack faith in any of these areas, or am unclear of my aim and objective, I will not make effort.

In that school, there are many subjects and so there is a margin. Here, there is just the one subject- remembrance. Such a big kingdom is established through this one subject. Anyone who receives this knowledge will come into the kingdom but if I don’t study well, I will claim a low status; no different from the worldly study. There too, those who study well, claim a high paying job and earn well; otherwise, they don’t. This is just the way the drama works! There is victory or success when there is faith. Only when there is faith will I study. Some don’t have faith to begin with, so they come up to the gate of the university but then they turn back- “becoming a deity? heaven? I haven’t heard this in any of the scriptures!” No, I haven’t because scriptures are all man-made and this study is being taught by incorporeal God, the Ocean of Knowledge Himself. I need this faith.

But equally, children who enroll also stop studying when their intellects start to develop doubts. Such is Maya that she immediately creates storms and brings doubts. There is a loss in my business or an illness in the family and immediately people around me start to say: ‘You see, this is all happening because you stopped bhakti. You need to start worshipping at the temple again, then things will become okay…’, so I leave. Sometimes, I become afraid because I start to have thoughts I haven’t had before and so I think I am getting worse rather than better, when in fact, that’s not the case at all. When I take God’s lap, the illnesses that I didn’t even know I had, come out in full force. Like homeopathic medicine, it gets worse before it gets better. But when I lack faith that this is the Purifier, I panic and leave.

Then, I go back to making gurus. But, teaches Baba, human-beings can never be called the Satguru. ‘Satguru’ means the One who is the complete truth. I receive spiritual strength only from Him- I receive peace through the power of remembrance and receive happiness by studying. Just as those teachers teach, the Father also becomes my Teacher, practically. The Father doesn’t have a body of His own and so He takes the support of the body of Brahma. He comes here Himself and teaches me. I study the same way that other students study; this is not a matter of blind faith. Sages and holy men who read and study the scriptures, who even give themselves titles of ‘Sri Sri’ etc., Baba explains, have no greatness. Why? because no one can receive peace through that. They themselves are stumbling around, searching for peace! If there were peace in the jungles, they wouldn’t then return home or build palaces for themselves in the world. Also, no one attains permanent liberation and so no one can promise that to others. Everyone, including the truly great devotees of the past like Meera, have to take rebirth and come down. This is just the way the drama works.

Sure, if I were to ask someone what they receive from their guru, they’d say: peace. But, says Baba matter of factly, they don’t receive anything. I need this faith. They don’t even know what peace means. No one can give me peace; peace is the original religion of I, the soul, it is the garland around my neck! The Ocean of Knowledge, the Father, teaches me this. I need this faith. He also explains how this world was once the land of peace and happiness and how I was the master of that world. I lost my peace and happiness when I lost my purity to the vices; now, the Father comes to make me pure again through the study of Raja Yoga and make me the king of kings, Narayan, once again. I need this faith.

The Father says: ‘You have to become viceless.‘ Those who cannot become this themselves will insult me, oppose me in many ways. They believe vices are the food, that they are necessary, that it makes them happy. But the Father, God, the Almighty Authority, explains to me that these vices are my greatest enemies and that I ought to renounce them. In fact, the praise of the deities that I have been singing for birth after birth is that they are completely viceless. So if I have doubts about why I should let go of the vices, then either the praise I have been singing is false or I don’t have faith that I am becoming that deity myself. Only the remembrance of the one Father can give me the power to become viceless. His greatest order is: “Children, consider yourselves to be souls and remember Me!” But I will follow it only when I have the faith.

If I don’t follow the order, I will be unable to become pure and unless I become pure, I cannot become a deity. It is due to body consciousness that I have vicious thoughts; I look at others with a vision of vice- lust and anger are the two main ones. There is so much violence and sorrow in the world due to these vices. Deities can never have a vision of vice; my vision becomes pure only through this knowledge. In the golden age, there will be love but it will not be mixed with the odor of vice. It will be pure, soul conscious love. But because people have been indulging in vice for birth after birth, it feels difficult to let go and I won’t want to until I have the firm faith in my aim and objective and in Who is teaching me.

“Look at one another as souls, the vision should not go towards bodies at all, this is the destination”, explains Baba. The Father has come to make everyone viceless and take us home with Him. Unless I am pure, I cannot even return home, let alone come to the new world. All karmic accounts have to be settled. I can either do it the easy way through remembrance or the hard way, through experiencing punishment. Depends on whether I have faith or not. If my intellect is being drawn somewhere other than the Father, then there is impurity somewhere. I don’t have to renounce my home and family to remember. In fact, remembrance, like breathing, is the most natural thing I do as a human-being. It’s just a matter of paying attention to what I am remembering; of pulling the intellect away from the body conscious world, to the Father. “The more you remember Me, the Father, the more you will continue to forget everyone else. No one else will be remembered. However, you will only have this stage when you have full faith.“, says Baba. If there isn’t faith, I will not remember and rather than claim my inheritance of changing from beggar to prince, I will remain a beggar. Baba says, “only when there is faith is there victory.”