Baba says, “the time continues to come closer; it doesn’t wait for anyone.”

Each day of this confluence age is a gift from God, it is a precious opportunity to make my future elevated, to perform elevated actions such as to leave a legacy or a memorial in the world. It is an opportunity to live life alongside God as His child, learn from Him as His student, to make birth after birth elevated by following His guidance. Once a day is gone, I can never get it back, it is lost forever. Sometimes I hear this and say: ‘what to do! I’d like to do so much but there just isn’t enough time!’ Time is something that everyone has the exact same amount of – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Yet, some people seem to accomplish a lot more in the same period of time while others don’t get much done at all.

How am I using my time? Am I using it to claim my inheritance and help others claim theirs? or am I squandering it away as I have the last half the cycle? Check how you are using your time, says Baba. There are some common mistakes I make when it comes to how I spend my time:

Stop getting angry about things I can’t do anything about: Sometimes I blame circumstances for not having enough time. I blame my upbringing, my education, the government, the politics at work etc. and say, if it hadn’t been for these circumstances, if I had a better education, if this and that…then I would’ve been able to do more with my time. God comes and teaches me to not be a prisoner to my circumstances, to not allow myself to be defined by them. He teaches me how to remain peaceful and happy despite everything that’s going on. If I blame my circumstances, then I use that as an excuse to stay where and how I am and that’s exactly what Ravan would like me to do. But God teaches me to rise above the circumstances, not be controlled by them and create a better future.

God teaches me to keep my peace so I can keep my power. Maybe there is an illness in the family, a child that is off-course or a financial crisis. Baba says, “The Father never feels sorrow about anything. He sees everything as the detached Observer. When children fall ill or have a disease, does Shiv Baba feel any kind of sorrow at that time? Not at all. He would say: According to the drama, each one has to settle his accounts with the suffering of karma. Just as He observes everything as the detached Observer, you children too have to observe as detached observers.” This doesn’t mean He has no love for the children; He does. In fact, no one loves me more than the Father. But He is able to remain loving because He doesn’t become influenced by circumstances and situations. This is the time of settlement and so yes, these last few scenes in the drama may not be always easy, externally. But when I use the point of knowledge, that I am settling, then I don’t take sorrow from the scenes. God comes and makes me the spinner of the discus of self-realization by giving me the knowledge of the beginning, middle and end of the drama. When I spin the discus in my intellect constantly, then I don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees; I don’t complain about a few isolated scenes, I look at the whole story and how elevated a soul I am, how elevated a part I play throughout the cycle.

Sometimes I think that because I have recognized God and follow His shrimat, do service etc., I shouldn’t ever have to suffer any illness or face any situations. But as the saying goes, when it rains, the rain falls on everyone, it doesn’t discriminate. The question is do I have my umbrella of God’s remembrance, of His knowledge, open? That’s what differentiates me from others in the world. I have been equipped to protect myself. It isn’t the rain that’s bad, it’s how I allow myself to feel about it and respond to it.

Stop complaining, it’s useless.: To worry and complain about something or someone is the most useless way to spend my time. It changes absolutely nothing, it steals my time and I lose all my joy. The more I speak about my problems, the more they take over my life, the more frustrated and angry I get. Most obstacles come through people and the reason they come is because I have expectations from them and the reason I have expectations is because I have relationships. Baba says, “Renounce all your bodily relations, including those with your own bodies and continue to remember the one Father. Children, end your attachment to the old world. Become soul conscious.” This doesn’t mean that I renounce my home and family, rather, it means that I learn to live detached like a lotus. I care for the people in my life as a detached observer who has no expectations based on relationships- ‘how can my own mother do this to me?’, ‘my child does not respect me!”. They are not my mother, my husband, my child etc. they are souls, children of the same Father. They have been entrusted to me to love and care for, that’s all. I don’t take from them, I take only from God. I go to Him for my happiness, for my fulfillment, not to human-beings no matter who they might be.

Don’t try to buy time by losing sleep: When I am tired mentally and physically, I make more mistakes which I wouldn’t have if I had got enough rest. The time I think I am saving by cutting on sleep is time I will waste the next day by making mistakes. So let me factor in enough time in my timetable, for rest.

Stop hurrying: On the same token, I also lose time when I try to hurry my way through my day. I forget to take things I need when I am constantly rushing out the door, I also lose things, drop things. Then I have to spend time to returning to pick up the thing I need or go looking for something I lost. I lose my peace, my time and my energy. I also get angry and frustrated at myself and others. So, let me manage my time well and prepare my bag well in advance so I don’t forget things.

Stop craving for what I don’t have and learn to enjoy what I do have: I have had so many attainments through God in just this birth, He has brought me so far from where I was when He found me. He has enabled me to do things I never thought I was capable of doing, He has brought out talents from within me that I wasn’t even aware I had. But often, rather than focus on my own wonderful journey, I waste so much time looking at others and comparing myself to them. “maybe I ought to be like you, maybe I ought to do like you, if only I looked like you, if only I had that talent…” Let me realize that everyone has exactly what they need for their journey. If I don’t have something, I don’t need it for my journey. Each soul is unique with their own specialties. Let me focus on honing the ones I have, enjoy them and use them for Baba’s task rather than try to do something that someone else is meant to do in the drama. It is better to be a original than a poor copy of someone else.

Stop living in the past: When I understand the drama, I realize that whatever has happened was good, what is happening is better and what is to happen will be the best. In other words, my best days are always ahead of me and so the wise thing to do is to live my present so well such that I create a stellar future for myself based on my present actions. If I live in the past, there is no power in that. I cannot redo it, cannot erase it…so let me learn from it and move on. God doesn’t live in my past, He lives in my present and is busy trying to prepare me for my future. Let me co-operate with Him by being fully present in the here and now.

Locate the things that hijack time and be firm in avoiding them: Do I spend endless hours scrolling through social media? checking my messages on my phone? reading the news cover to cover? gossiping with that ‘friend’? living in the past? Whatever it is, let me take a few minutes to make a list of all the things I spend time on and eliminate the things that don’t benefit the self and the world. I don’t need to know all the news, just a few key headlines will do. That person who gossips is not my ‘friend’ and social media is a time suck. Baba says, “You don’t have to go on pilgrimages or to weddings, etc. any more. The Father’s final direction is: Sweetest children, you now have to go to the supreme abode.” Maybe I don’t go to parties or weddings anymore, but do I spend time hearing all the news, looking at all the pictures posted online, etc. etc. I have this one short life in the confluence age to set myself up for success for the whole cycle. I have this one short life to unburden myself of all the sins of past births and become brand new, a deity of the golden age.

This is why, one day of this confluence age that is wasted is equivalent to many, many days of the rest of the cycle that is wasted, so it is up to me to make every second count. Let me not waste a single moment in anger, unforgiveness, self-pity or other negative emotions. Let me not waste a single moment complaining or worrying about things that I cannot control, let me rise above them. Let me live the life that God wants me to live, on purpose, that is, let me follow shrimat at every step. This is the only way to not waste my time and my life. It is said, wise people do now, what they will be happy with later. Later, Baba has pointed about, is around the corner and this is the only time in the entire cycle that God comes to help me prepare for later. If I live smart now, I will have a great future. If I waste my time now on useless things, I will have nothing but regrets later. The unlimited Father explains to the children who are to claim the inheritance that the time continues to come closer; it doesn’t wait for anyone.