Baba says, “Holi means that you have become a pure soul.”

The Father is the Ever Pure one. As His child, I too am called to live a life of complete purity, a holy life. Even people in the world call themselves children of God but they don’t understand what that actually means and entails. They simply speak and sing the words. To be a child of God is to be colored in the colors of the Father- His virtues, His powers, His nature and character, His way of thinking and doing. In other words, to be His child is to be equal to Him.

I get to know what God is like by developing a deep connection with Him, by spending time with Him. I do this through remembrance and the murli. The murli is the most tangible form of God; I gain insight into how and what He thinks, into His nature and qualities. I then experience these first hand when I make Him my constant Companion and do life with Him. Remembrance begets remembrance, love begets love. Its easy enough to say: “but, I’m God’s child anyway..”. Just because I put on my white clothes, wear my badge, and attend class, it doesn’t automatically make me ‘holy’. Yes, having recognized the Father in His ordinary form, I am undoubtedly multi-million times more elevated than the rest of the world but it still doesn’t make me ‘holy’ or equal to the Father. That takes commitment and effort.

But what exactly does it mean to live a holy life these days? Complete purity, God explains, is purity in every aspect of my life starting with the seed of thoughts. If I sow a pure seed, then the sprouts will be pure as well. My feelings and attitude will be pure and based on that, my words and actions will also be pure. It’s easy enough to create a pure thought once in a while, here and there, but that doesn’t really help me stock up. I create one pure thought and then follow that up with ten wasteful or negative thoughts and show a negative balance on my account. I routinely engage in gossip about what he/she said/did, how so-and-so doesn’t follow shrimat, the state of the center, the state of the country/world. I justify that by thinking that one does need to know the news about what is going on in the community and the world. But Baba has already told me that this is Ravan’s world, the iron age, and so I already know that souls are far from perfect and as a consequence, the world is far from perfect.

And so rather than engage in listening to and speaking about what is wrong with people and the world, Baba says, what I should be doing as God’s child is engage myself in His task of transforming the world- from Ravan’s kingdom into God’s kingdom, from hell into heaven. I do this through my own self-transformation. The reason I have trouble transforming my thoughts, that is, in creating pure seeds is because I routinely neglect the very first shrimat Baba gives me: “Consider yourself a soul and remember Me alone.” I hear this and think: “well of course, I know I am a soul and of course, I am Baba’s anyway…” but that doesn’t work. My mind has been conditioned over half a cycle to think negative and wasteful thoughts. I see or hear something and my mind immediately starts creating wasteful and negative thoughts. On top of that, in this present most impure and degraded atmosphere of the world, the mind defaults to those kinds of thoughts. This is why Baba deliberately uses the word: ‘consider‘. He doesn’t just say: “you are a soul, remember Me”; He says, “consider yourself a soul…”. To consider means to deliberately remind myself of who I am, come into that awareness and operate based on that awareness. I need to have this practice throughout the day. While walking, sitting, eating, going about my activities, I have to practice ‘considering’ myself a soul- I need to practice experiencing myself as a tiny point of light seated in the center of the forehead, separate from the body.

It is this tiny point of light that is me. I have taken on many bodies but I am not the body or the role or relationship that this body might represent. I am the soul, I carry sanskars- good and not so good within me. I have the power to emerge or merge whichever sanskar I choose to. At this point in the cycle, it is time for me to emerge the good, elevated sanskars and merge the rest. As a child of God, I have His divine sanskars within me. I am an embodiment of peace, love, happiness and wisdom. I am an embodiment of tolerance, co-operation, discernment and adjustment. The more time I spend with God, the more I will see these sanskars modeled for me and I will know how to use them. When I practice situating myself firmly in this awareness of who and Whose I am, then I will think, speak and act accordingly. I will realize that to gossip is not becoming of who I am, that it will deplete me of my power. I will realize that to be irritated, angry or bitter doesn’t serve me, that they are devilish sanskars. I will be quick to forgive and light in my mind.

When I find myself in a difficult situation or circumstance, I will not complain about ‘my karma’ or sulk with God but understand that God is teaching me something I need for my journey. I will recognize that He is working in me to push out the wasteful and negative attitudes, mindsets and sanskars and purifying me. He is working to bring out the holiness that has become merged underneath all the junk that has accumulated over the last half cycle. He works with each child individually, personally and privately and brings out the goodness, the divine nature. My only responsibility during this whole process is to co-operate with Him. I don’t allow myself to feel condemned, disheartened, guilty, regretful, or pitiful; I allow the past to be the past, and rather than feel shameful and run away from God, I run closer to God. In fact, this is the true meaning of celebrating the festival of Holi, explains Baba: 1) Holi means the past is past; 2) Holi means I belong to the Father no matter what I might have said or done; I realize that I am not a surprise to Him, He has made me belong to Him and is here to make me victorious and 3) Holi means that I come into the awareness that I am originally a pure soul and then work with God to embody that truth; I become that again. “Remember the one word “Holi” and use it with its three meanings.“, He teaches.

As I transform, I become a better representative of the Father in the world and help Him transform others from unholy to holy as well. When I become colored with the colors of the Father, then those are the colors with which I color the world. Happy Holi.