Baba says, “Do not forget this childhood. If you forget it, you will lose your highest-on-high inheritance.”

There are three types of childhood. One is the worldly childhood. The second is the childhood of the path of isolation; there, they leave their homes and families, die alive and belong to a guru or a sannyasi. He isn’t their father; they simply belong to a guru and live with him. They too die alive when they belong to a guru and go away to a forest. The third is this wonderful birth of dying alive. I die alive from the bodily parents and belong to a new set of Parents- the spiritual Mother and Father. I take spiritual birth in God’s lap. This spiritual Father is the one teaching me and guiding me. Do I have this faith deep in my bones? If I do, I will live this precious life with childlike obedience.

A child never questions or doubts its father, it trusts and obeys. Shiv Baba is God, He is the Highest-on-High, He is Shri Shri, the most elevated and so His directions are also the most elevated. When I truly consider Him to be my Father and make myself belong to Him as His child, I too trust Him and simply obey His directions. When I am obedient, then Baba becomes responsible for my life- that is the principle. But often, Maya makes me forget this new birth and I go back to believing that I am responsible and that I make the decisions. Outwardly, I still call myself a child of God, I say: “I am Baba’s anyway…” but I live life on my own terms. Then, when things inevitably go wrong, I run to Baba, offer Him the problem and remind Him that it is His responsibility to take care of me. Let me realize that God is not a dump for my problems, He is my Father! He cannot take my problems without taking me first. When I belong to Him, then He guides me to the right path and enables me to perform actions that I don’t need to repent for.

Sometimes, Maya comes in the guise of the Father and deceives me. I have been serving in a certain way for a while now and I’ve been waiting for Baba to allow me to serve in a bigger way. I don’t feel that my talent is being used fully, I have the desire to do a lot more. Now, having waited and waited, my patience is wearing thin; those who don’t have half the talent that I have seem to be serving and here I am still waiting. So I decide to take matters into my own hands and try to make things happen so that ‘I too can help God’. Let me learn to recognize a golden deer when I see one! God doesn’t need my help with opening doors or finding opportunities- that’s His job. He is the One that opens new doors and enables me to do things I never even knew I could do. But He does things in His own way, on His timing. Nothing I do or say will hurry God or make Him change His mind. Let me learn to trust.

My time is never wasted with God; it may seem that things are taking too long or that nothing is happening but my Father is constantly working on me, preparing me for new levels. He is using the circumstances to pull out attitudes I need to change, to teach me patience, to grow my faith and build my character. To be the child is to never lose faith no matter what and continue to obey. “If you really want to help Me, then ‘Manmanabhav!‘”, says Baba, “only belong to Me in your mind. You souls have alloy mixed into you. The Father is now once again making your intellect divine.” He says: “O souls, while walking and moving around and carrying out any task, remember the Father. If not, your sins will not be absolved. All effort is required for this.” If I try to go off on my own, ignore or disobey the Father’s directions, then I will have to cry or repent a great deal.

On the path of bhakti, people would sacrifice themselves at Kashi in the name of God. Baba says, “I don’t need a sacrifice, I need obedience.” Sacrificing myself in this way doesn’t transform me; I take rebirth and continue right where I left off because the sanskars are still the same. Only childlike obedience to God transforms me from the inside and I become elevated. Today, while I no longer go to Kashi, I try to please God through sacrifice in other ways. I try to make a large financial donation to the center or I sponsor large events or I help open a new center or I get a few books published or put in my weekly quota of x hours to help at the center…whatever. These are my offerings to God and I think because I do ‘so much’, I am absolved of any wrong-doing and entitled to the full inheritance. Let me not deceive myself! It’s great if I can help in any way I can but it all has to be in loving obedience to God, not instead of. Everything I do has to be in accordance with His shrimat, else no matter what or how much I do based on my own will, I cannot be truly happy or content because there is the debt of disobedience on my head.

The Father says, “For as long as each of you has a body, continue to remember Me and I will give you the sovereignty of heaven because you become obedient and faithful. You are now studying with the Father in order to perform such actions that you will never have to repent for your actions for 21 births. He enables you to reach your full karmateet stage.”