Baba says, “To enable someone who is distressed to stabilize in his spiritual honor is the best service.“

“You are bestowers“, Baba reminds me. “So, check“, says Baba, “how much you accumulate in your account of charity through your thoughts, words, relationships and connections as a charitable soul.” The best service through which I accumulate in my account is of bringing happiness to weak souls, by making distressed souls aware of their honor, by putting zeal and enthusiasm into disheartened souls, and enabling souls in relationship with me to experience my elevated company.

But for me to be able to make distressed souls aware of their honor, I first have to be aware of mine. I first need to be seated firmly on my seat of honor. There is happiness in being set, it doesn’t feel good to become upset. It is when I become upset that I become distressed whereas when I am set on my seat, there is happiness and comfort. So at this most auspicious confluence age, what honor is the greatest of all for Brahmins? The honor of being the direct child of the Highest-on-High Father, of God Himself. “When you remember this honor, you would never be distressed because there is no other honor that is higher than yours. There is nothing more that you could want.“, explains Baba. No matter how much distress someone causes, when I remember who and Whose I am, I wouldn’t become distressed.

This Brahmin honor is even greater than the honor of deities! The throne and crown I have now is even greater than the throne and crown of deities. As God’s direct child, my throne is the heart-throne of God Himself and my crown is that of responsibility– of being a helper in His task of world benefit. “Do you know how to sit on your throne or do you slip off?“, asks Baba, “does your crown stay on your head or does it come off?” I slip off my throne when I slip into body consciousness– specifically, under the influence of old sanskars, of situations and people. Someone speaks to me angrily and I think it’s my duty to put them in their right place; I slip off my throne. I see someone do something I perceive to be against shrimat and I slip off my throne- ‘can this too happen….’, ‘this is so wrong..’ etc. A situation comes and once again, I forget Whose I am and start to worry and complain: ‘just my karma…’, ‘what will I do…’, ‘why did this happen…’ etc. In fact, these situations are the opportunity for me to serve, to help in God’s task by demonstrating to the world how, by being God’s child, I get to remain calm in the face of the storm, how I get to continue to enjoy life despite the upheaval in my circumstances. But when I slip off my throne, my crown tumbles off my head too. Rather than help others, I become a victim myself.

And so Baba says repeatedly, “consider yourself a soul and remember Me and the inheritance.” Similarly, when it comes to interactions with others, “Your brothers and sisters are not your enemies, it is Ravan that is your collective enemy“, He reminds me. Every single soul is body conscious at this time and therefore, under the influence of Ravan. It is Ravan that acts out through souls, Baba teaches me. So when someone gets angry or insults me or behaves wrongly, it is Ravan who is making them do it. But I will realize this only when I am soul conscious myself! If I too am body conscious, then I will see the soul as my enemy rather than Ravan and judge them, and dislike them instead of Ravan. But when I remember who I am, then I accept the soul and reject the sanskar. I become a mirror into which they look, check themselves and come back into the right awareness, the right mindset.

“You have been distressed for half a cycle“, Baba reminds me. My mind and intellect were always wandering from person to person, from incident to incident, from situation to situation, spinning the cycle of waste: ‘why, how, what’ etc. “Don’t let your mind and intellect wander around even now.” If waste thoughts or feelings come- be it in the form of fear, doubt, wasteful thoughts/feelings for the self/others, then sing the song: I have attained that which I wanted to attain. I have found the Father and thus, I have found everything. To be a pure soul, a most elevated soul, the child of the Highest-on-High is my fortune. Maintain this intoxication, maintain this honor.