Baba says, “First of all, it should enter your intellects that you are children of the Father.”

For half a cycle, I was the master of heaven. It was the land of peace, happiness and prosperity. There was no such thing as lack or discontentment; those words didn’t exist. There was only abundance, contentment and fulfillment. There was a sense of deep belonging and family. There was song, dance, music and merry. The name itself, is heaven! Then, midway through the cycle, I lost it all and became a beggar, begging for those same things. What happened? I forgot. I forgot who I am and Whose I am.

Then, Ravan adopted me and made me his child. He taught me to beg.

Birth after birth, I begged and with every birth, that is, with time, the begging got worse. I’d have a little problem, I’d get afraid and beg the deities to rescue me. I’d observe fasts, perform tiring rituals, cause myself physical pain to impress the deities so they’d oblige. But it didn’t stop with the deities. I also begged from fellow human-beings. I’d beg my boss for approval, for validation. I’d beg my colleagues for appreciation, for respect. I’d beg friends for loyalty and family for love and happiness. But it didn’t stop with humans either. I chased after possessions, and accomplishments too. It was as if I held up my ‘tin cup’ as soon as I woke up in the morning and went through my daily routine with the mindset: “I need approval, I need respect, I need love, I need happiness…can you help me out? can you spare a smile? can you spare some appreciation?” Every so often people would throw in a few coins into my cup, so to speak, and I’d become happy for a little while until those coins ran out and I needed some more again.

This ‘cup’ was my life, it was how I survived. My begging was on autopilot, that is, it was a sankar. Subservience to deities, to people, things, to power….this was what my father, Ravan, had taught me. Any time I saw a deity or a person or a thing, I automatically held up my cup. It was a pathetic existence that sabotaged the soul, drained it of all its self-respect and honor and brought a sense of defeat and lack.

Then, the true Father came and reminded me of who I really am and Whose I am. I am a pure soul, He reminded me, “you are My child”, the child of God Himself! This is not the world I created, He told me. I created heaven and then you were free, masters of that heaven. I have now come to re-create that heaven and make you into masters again. So now, He instructs, awaken, remember!

“First of all, it should enter your intellects that you are children of the Father.” I am not the child of Ravan, I am the child of God. I am not a beggar, I am a prince. I am not a worshipper, I am a worship-worthy deity myself. I am not a peaceless, fearful, unhappy, discontent human being. Peace is my original nature; Courage, happiness and contentment are my Godfatherly birthright. My Father is the creator of heaven and I am the inheritor of that heaven; to live in hell is not my destiny. It’s time to recognize who I am and get into the right mindset or awareness. Without a shift in mindset, I cannot transform my life, I will continue to hold up my cup.

“Everyone of the Father’s praise is your praise“, Baba reminds me. As long as I believed Ravan to be my father, I pushed myself down and thought of myself as a mere role or a relationship or a position or an accomplishment. But now that I remember Whose child I really am, my praise is different. I am a pure soul, an elevated soul, am master almighty powerful, I am master knowledge-full, I am guru, the child of the Satguru, I am master ocean of peace and happiness… Throughout the day, take up a title of self-respect and practice remaining in that awareness as you go about your duties, He teaches. This practice helps replace the old conditioning of the mind with the truth.

Without this practice, just by virtue of being a Brahmin, I won’t automatically lead a victorious life; my sanskars of fear and begging won’t automatically change, they will simply get transferred over. Problems will continue to make my legs tremble even as I say: “Baba is with me, I am powerful…”. Even while I mouth the words, they won’t give me power without practice beforehand. I was used to carrying a heavy burden of always trying to measure up, a heavy burden of responsibilities, like a donkey in the past. Indeed, Ravan is shown with the head of a donkey! But now, I am no longer a child of Ravan, God has made me belong to Him and He is now responsible for my life. I get to give Him all my burdens and become light. “BapDada is sitting with you and yet you become so engrossed in your own situation, trying to face it, that you don’t even realize who is with you! BapDada is with you, but you do not use His companionship at a time of need; you put Him aside at that time.“, He points out. I won’t make this mistake when I constantly stay in the awareness of who and Whose I am.

Something else I do when I forget is that I try to recruit God into helping me chase after the same limited things, the limited respect and appreciation that I was chasing after before. “There cannot be a child who doesn’t know the occupation of his father.“, says Baba. To teach me to chase after perishable and limited things, to teach me how to beg was Ravan’s occupation. God, my Father, teaches me to be a self-sovereign so that I can rule my inner kingdom now and become the master of the kingdom of heaven in the future. He teaches me to stop begging for respect and start respecting the self. He returns me to my lost dignity and honor. He is not ‘requesting’ me to stop begging or to change my mindset, it is His direct order, it is the Father’s direction to His child: “Now, consider yourself a soul and remember Me alone.”

If I can do this, I will get rid of that ‘cup mentality’ and become the sovereign that I am. I will stop thinking of myself as at the mercy of other people, at the mercy of circumstances. I will stop waiting for other people to approve of me or give me a good break. Instead, I will realize that I am the king of my Father’s unlimited treasures, that I am a prince with unlimited fortune. I will learn to sing, dance and be merry. I will re-claim my lost kingdom of heaven.