Baba says, “You now have to become swans, that is, as completely viceless as Lakshmi and Narayan.“

Holy swans, Baba explains, are souls with cleanliness. The specialty of a swan is that it is clean. Cleanliness means complete cleanliness, which is the aim of this confluence aged life. I come to God’s university to transform from an ordinary human into an elevated deity. The very praise of a deity is full in all virtues, 16 celestial degrees complete, completely viceless, completely righteous. There is the word ‘complete’ before everything. Complete cleanliness means that there is cleanliness in all four aspects of the mind, body, heart and relationships.

Cleanliness of the mind means purity of the mind. If there is any type of impure thought in my mind during the day, it cannot be called complete cleanliness. BapDada’s direction for the mind is: “Manmanabhav! Belong only to Me in your mind. Use it for doing world service.” This is called cleanliness and purity of the mind. If the mind wanders to anyone or anything else – if it chases after limited relationships, accomplishments, name, fame, status, recognition etc. – that is not cleanliness. “So check“, says Baba, “to what percentage have you imbibed this cleanliness.“

Cleanliness of the body means constantly to have the awareness of the body being the temple of the soul and to keep it clean with that awareness. In the world, a temple is not elevated because of how big or luxurious looking the structure is; rather a temple is as elevated as the idol within it is. The more elevated an idol is, the more impact there is on the devotees and thereby, the more elevated the temple is said to be. “So, are you ordinary idols or elevated idols?“, asks Baba. Brahmin souls are more elevated than even deity souls because of my direct connection with God at this time. To the extent that I recognize who and Whose I am, I will accordingly keep my body, the temple, constantly clean. “Let it be simple, yet clean“, says Baba. There is no cleanliness in body consciousness but when I consider myself a soul and treat the body as the temple within which I reside, then I keep the body clean. This temple has been given to me by the Father to look after and use. He has made me into a trustee of this temple, to use it for world service. If I use it as I wish, then that is unclean. If I use it per Baba’s directions, that is cleanliness.

Cleanliness of the heart means honesty of the heart. It is said: honesty is cleanliness. What are my motives behind thinking, speaking or doing anything? Even if it is something to do with service, am I doing it for my own visibility, to get myself a platform or am I truly serving? Do I say ‘ha ji‘ (yes) to the instrument souls because I believe they will be impressed and put me in front, because my name will be furthered in the Brahmin community or am I saying ‘ha ji’ to Baba? Or sometimes, I do service because I think: “well, I am a Brahmin, I have to serve”, it’s almost as if I do it out of compulsion, because I think it is ‘my duty’ to serve. In reality, to serve is the original sanskar of a Brahmin soul, it is my very breath. I cannot stay without sharing what I have attained with my brothers and sisters who are still stumbling. I may have taught the course to many, given many lectures, explained at a lot of melas (spiritual fairs, exhibitions) but “ask yourself“, says Baba, “what was the percentage of purity or cleanliness in that?” Did I do it show off, did I do it as a duty, or did I do it truly out of love for my brothers and sisters?

Cleanliness in relationships, Baba explains, is visible in the form of contentment. Throughout the day, there are relationships with a variety of souls- there are those of the Brahmin family, then there are students, there are those of the lokik family, those at the workplace etc. “In all types of relationships, check the level of contentment experienced by the self and by others”, teaches Baba. The sign of being content will be that I myself will feel light in the mind and remain happy, and others will also remain happy with me. The sign of discontentment will be that I will be heavy in the mind. If I am a true effort-maker, I will have thoughts such as: “I shouldn’t have done this or said this..”, “it would have been better if I had behaved this way…” etc. If I am a careless effort-maker, then my thoughts will be more like: “it’s not a big deal, even the seniors make mistakes…”, “the situation was such that my reaction was warranted…”. Either way, I will experience a burden on my mind that will not allow me to remain light and happy. But if I am clean in my relationships, that is, I see myself and others as pure souls and interact with them as such, then I will view every scene as a detached observer and respond in the right way. Because I am detached, I will always have my powers to discern and judge working such that I will know what to think, say and do. No matter what type of soul comes in front of me, I don’t imbibe their weaknesses, rather, as a holy swan, I only adopt the Father’s virtues. As a result, I will always be content and others will also be content with me.

It’s easy enough to wear white clothes and walk out into the world but that doesn’t automatically make me a holy swan. The definition of cleanliness and purity runs much deeper than wearing white; there has to be purity in all four aspects – the mind, body, heart and relationships. In the new world, there will only be swans but I don’t become a swan there, I have to become that here at this confluence age. Yes, in today’s world, the swans are vastly outnumbered by the storks- they speak bad words, eat impure food for the body and for the mind (bad thoughts), they manipulate, push, expect, demand, and all the rest. I too lived that life of a stork once but now, by belonging to the Father, I have become a swan. So while continuing to live among storks, the effort is to never forget my life of a holy swan. I pay attention that I am never influenced by the storks but that I myself become pure and clean enough, that is, ‘holy’ enough to influence them. This is called being a world transformer but it starts with self-transformation, with making myself holy. “It is because you become holy swans at this time“, the Father explains, “that you become ‘His/Her holiness’ in the future.“