Baba says, “The Father alone is called the Remover of Sorrow and the Bestower of Happiness. No one apart from Him can remove your sorrow.”

No one enjoys sorrow! Whenever I experience sorrow, I try to remove it. Even if there is fighting or battling going on somewhere, I try to stop it. And when I do experience sorrow, I think: ‘Why did this happen to me?’ and with that force, I then proceed to blame God for the way I feel. I don’t understand who is responsible for my sorrow. Maybe there was an untimely death, maybe an illness, maybe a financial loss, a child that is off course…did God bring that? All the fighting and the battling, all the causes of sorrow which exist in the world, did God create all of that? On the one hand I praise God as the Remover of Sorrow and the Bestower of Happiness; Any time there is sorrow, even if I am an atheist, I say: “O God!”, so then clearly, God cannot be the giver of sorrow. If He was, I wouldn’t remember Him so much at the time of sorrow. Since I remember Him so much, I must expect that He is the One who can liberate me from the sorrow I am experiencing.

Indeed, it is worth considering why my own Father would ever cause me sorrow? In fact, I run to Him any time I am in the slightest trouble of any kind. “O God, remove this sorrow! O God, give me a long life!’ Whatever, the reason for sorrow or peacelessness, I run to the Father. Even in the case where a child is off-course, if it is the Father that caused it, then why do I run to Him and say: “O God, please give this child a good intellect (sumat)?” Why do I run to Him for guidance if He is the One taking me or my family off course? All this points to the fact that God is the giver of that which I, the soul, internally run to Him for each time- liberation-in-life, happiness. It means that He alone has the cure to all that which ails me. Internally, I only feel love for God, I feel Him to be my great Friend, my only true Friend, the only One I can trust. I feel secure and happy inside. So His relationship with me is that of a Giver of Happiness. If that is the case, then clearly, it is someone else that is the cause of my sorrow.

But here’s the thing: there is no third person. There is me and there is my Creator, that’s all- in other words, I, the child and my Father. There are just the two of us. If the Father didn’t cause me sorrow, who did? Surely, it is I that caused myself sorrow.

Whatever I am an instrument for, I am the one who suffers the sorrow; I create it for myself. And so, Baba says, isn’t this senseless? The thing that I want to be free from, I create it for myself! People don’t want sorrow and yet they so their best to create it for themselves. So clearly there is something we don’t know about, that we lack clarity in which is why we continue to cause ourselves sorrow. And so job#1 is to understand how I am causing myself sorrow for only then can I course-correct. Some people misunderstand; they think it is other people, or that it is wealth that are the cause of sorrow. And so, based on this wrong understanding, they arrive at a wrong solution which is to leave the world and retreat to the mountains or the jungle. Some even think it is their body that is the cause of sorrow and so they seek ways to protect themselves from it.

But the Father comes and teaches me the truth for only He knows the truth. He says: The elements (which is what the body is made of) are not the cause of your sorrow, the elements are My creation. Nor are other souls or wealth the cause of your sorrow. Anything that is eternal cannot cause me sorrow. It is something else that is extra in you is causing you sorrow, the Father explains. That extra is called the five vices or Maya. The body or wealth are not the vices; it is my attachment to the body or to the wealth that is the vice. It is my greed for wealth that is the vice. It is my lust for other bodies and comforts that is the vice. It is my arrogance or ego of my social status or my position etc., that is the vice. And so when I am under the influence of these vices, then everything – be it other people, wealth, comforts, the body…everything become causes of sorrow. When I am not operating under the influence of vices, all these same things become the reason for my happiness. And so, the Father explains, you cause your own sorrow because of the vices. So you now have to remove them. Everyone says: “God gave all this”. If God, my Father, gives me anything, it would be for happiness. “You have put the vices in all these things and spoilt them“, He explains and it is why He says: “Now remove these vices and you will become happy for all time.”

How to remove the vices? I will need to follow God’s directions for everything in my life. This is something I need to learn. This is Raja Yoga. I need to make time to learn this if I am serious about finishing my sorrow for all time. Some say: “These things are for retired or older people.” But God asks: “So do only older people want to create happy lives? Do only older people want to be liberated from sorrow?” The Father says: I have come to take away all your sorrow and give you happiness. This is why you sing: O Remover of Sorrow and Bestower of Happiness. It is never said: You cause us sorrow and remove our happiness! No, He is the Remover of all our sorrows. To do that, the Father teaches me to perform such actions that my sorrow is finished. He says: “Whatever I teach and explain to you, understand it and simply make effort and your sorrow will finish. I give you teachings to finish your sorrow, so imbibe them, because it is your property.”

However, some people make excuses as if they are doing God a favor. They say: “If I have time, I will come and learn this.” I cannot wish to be liberated from sorrow and then not make the time to learn how. The Father says: “Understand these things and make full effort to remove the root cause of your sorrow, the reasons for your sorrow. This is your right!” The first thing, therefore, is that I have to understand the right I have over God, the Father, who is the Father of everyone and thereby, claim the right from Him. I mustn’t simply call Him my Father but rather I should come and listen and understand what I have to attain from Him. “On this path of knowledge“, the Father explains, “you are not followers or disciples. You have become children of the Father. To become a child means to have a right to the inheritance- happiness for all time!“