Baba says, “Children, this is a study. Only by studying do you receive a status. The status is the highest.“

When the Father asks me what I will become, I consistently say that I will become the sun-dynasty crown prince or princess or Lakshmi and Narayan. Am I making sufficient effort for that? God Himself comes at this most auspicious confluence age, and becomes my Father, Teacher and Satguru all so that I can claim the highest prize, the highest-on-high inheritance. Do I have the happiness that I am studying today and that tomorrow I will become the crown prince or princess? If I don’t have this happiness, the intoxication of what I am becoming, it likely means my faith isn’t firm. And because my faith is not firm, I’m likely not studying at the level I should be to attain such a high aim.

At the end of my study, the degree I attain is: full of all virtues, 16 celestial degrees complete, completely viceless, completely righteous, and non-violent. There is no other degree that is higher than this one. And so I have to make full effort. I used to be a devotee before but now the Father has liberated me from performing devotion and made me His child so that I can claim the inheritance from Him. He doesn’t even make it hard for me. I get to continue to live at home, with my family, doing my job but studying this study at the same time. The foundation to be able to study this study is purity. While living at home, I have to remain pure like a lotus. Celibacy is first and foremost but then I also have to remain pure in my thoughts, feelings, words and vision. If I am outwardly celibate but indulge in looking at magazine spreads, reading gossip, speak a colorful language and have a roving eye, then that’s not purity. I have to understand deeply in my bones that purity is a gift from the Father to me, not a deprivation. Previously I thought of myself and others as bodies and indulged in vice. Now, I know better. The Father has reminded me that I am a pure soul, not a body. This one thought changes me from a shell into a diamond.

“Do not become monkeys chasing after those shells. Monkeys eat chick peas. The Father is now giving you jewels. So, what would your state become by continuing to chase after shells or chick peas? You would go to Ravan’s jail. The Father comes and liberates you from Ravan’s jail. He says: Your intellects must renounce all bodily relations, including with your own bodies. Have the faith that each of you is a soul.“, He says.

It is said in the Gita that lust is the greatest enemy and that when I conquer lust, I conquer the world. For half a cycle, Ravan had me lusting after bodies, after name, fame, status, wealth, and a whole host of other material things. Now, the Father comes and teaches me that I am a soul and the master of the body. While taking 84 births, I have now become impure and because of that, the body is also impure. I lusted and committed sins because of being body conscious, by studying from the Father, I become soul conscious. The first lesson of this study: I am a soul, not the body and the last lesson: is the embodiment of this truth. The journey in between is where I shed everything that is in the way of my going from knowing to being. This is why the Father’s #1 shrimat is Manmanabhav. “In order to make both yourself and your body pure and clean, consider yourself a soul and remember Me alone“, He says. My sins will be cut away on the basis of how much I remember the Father- this is not a question of putting in my daily quota of x number of hours; rather it is about honest, deep, loveful remembrance of the one Beloved who is here to take me back home with Him. When I remember the One alone, I also follow only His directions for my life. The Father is giving me freedom from Ravan again just as He had a cycle ago. Do I have the courage and the will to take it?

“God Himself is teaching you and so you should have so much regard for Him! You should study so well!“, says Brahma Baba. When I have the constant awareness of what I am becoming – the crown prince or princess of heaven, then I will make effort. It’s easy to have the awareness and the intoxication in the morning during class but the real test is when I step out of the classroom and into the world. Do I pay attention to my thoughts, words, actions, vision and attitude then? Or do I become slack, forget and become one of the world? “What can the Teacher do if the student won’t pay attention?”, asks Baba, “there is no question of mercy or blessings in this. This is a study.” When I study, I help the Father because my transformation inspires others to come to the Father and study as well. “Wake up early in the morning and study on your own“, teaches Baba. The atmosphere of the early morning is the most conducive for study and when I start the day with study, it goes with me throughout the day.

It is because the deities were pure that their praise is sung. Sannyasis rightly say that happiness in this world is like the droppings of a crow. Indeed, where there is no purity, there cannot be happiness. This is why this old world is called the land of sorrow. the But sannyasis have no idea of how much happiness the deities have. The very name is the land of happiness. In fact, no one else in the world knows these things. Only the one Father comes every cycle and explains this to me so that I can become soul conscious again. This, is the path of knowledge.