Baba says, “In order to become satopradhan, remember the Father with love.“

To become satopradhan means to make the seven original qualities of the soul- purity, peace, love, happiness, bliss, wisdom, and power- the basis of my life; to make them the foremost or primary in my life. Each soul has these same seven original qualities and I operate based on these qualities, naturally, during the first half of the cycle. It’s when I forget who I am during the second half that things change. When I become body conscious, that is, when I start considering myself a role, relationship, a position, a name, a gender, a nationality etc., that’s when the original qualities become merged along with the original identity of I being a soul. Now, based on the new consciousness or identity of being a body, I start acquiring different qualities such as comparison, competition, the need to be approved, the need to win, jealousy, arrogance, etc. and these become the basis for my thoughts, feelings, words, attitude, vision and actions.

God comes at this most auspicious confluence age to make me the most elevated human being (purushottam) again. And for this, He says, “you have to become satopradhan again.” In other words, I have to emerge the original qualities and make them the basis of my life again. When I emerge the original qualities, the acquired qualities will become merged automatically. To emerge the original qualities does not mean that I simply say: ‘I am a peaceful soul, I am loveful, I am knowledgefull’ etc. To emerge is to actually use these qualities in my life, practically. God gives me directions daily- become very very sweet, become humble, become patient etc. I hear the knowledge, I know the knowledge but that’s useless unless I am also applying it in my life- that’s what creates new satopradhan sanskars or habits based on the original qualities.

For half a cycle now, when someone is rude to me, the habit is to become rude in return. If someone disrespects me, I treat them the same way. If someone is being slow, I feel justified in losing my patience. I don’t have to think to do it, my reactions are natural because I have cultivated the habit of being rude or disrespectful when provoked. God is now asking me to reverse that- whether or not others are doing the same. In other words, the other soul might continue to disrespect me but now, I have to respect them. Even if someone betrays me, rather than take revenge or become bitter, I now get to forgive them. That’s God’s way. He does not force me to follow it, to believe or impose on me to do what’s right.

He asks me to choose.

I have free will, I get to choose which path I want to follow. God’s path feels hard to walk on because I get caught on: ‘but what about how I feel!?’. How can I forgive someone that’s harmed me, betrayed me? How can I stay silent when the other is being insulting to me!? That’s not fair! To do it feels like a huge sacrifice, it feels like death. But this is a good death, Baba explains to me. To die to the old ways is to choose life. I hear this, I understand it and yet, to die alive is hard when I can see the soul that wronged me, when I still have the scars on me, when I remember how I felt and still do.

Meera was laughed at, insulted, poisoned by her own family, she was thrown out of the palace, she was left to fend for herself without food or water and yet, she forgave everyone. Her respect for them didn’t diminish, her attitude toward them didn’t change. God didn’t have to tell her what to do, she just did. Father Brahma too was opposed, insulted, and threatened but he too did the same- forgave and moved forward on his journey. How did they manage to follow the path so easily? Did they have any special powers that I don’t? No.

What they had that was different was- they were both merged in love with God.

Love makes all things easy, it makes the impossible, possible. God loves me deeply; in fact, He cherishes me. My not following His directions or following them perfectly won’t make Him love me any lesser or any more than He loves me right this moment. Therefore, to follow His path has nothing at all to do with earning His love; I already have it. But by loving Him deeply, I automatically become obedient to Him– not because He made me, but because I want to. Love is the only thing that gives me the power to obey. It enables me to climb the highest mountain and cross the deepest ocean for the one I love. I can’t stand anything coming in between me and my beloved; nothing is worth it. So I’m happy to let go, to jump over, to forgive, to forget…because I don’t have the space or time for anyone or anything else.

Here too, it’s not that I doubt that God means well or that there isn’t truth in what He is asking me to do. Deep down I know it’s the right path but it just feels hard to follow through. And so if I’m having a problem with obedience, if I catch myself questioning and complaining about what God’s asking me to do, if I am sulking, trying to defer things for later that I know I should be taking care of now, then let me spend a lot more time remembering the attainments I’ve had from God. Let me reminisce about all my sweet experiences with Him, reflect on how far He has brought me. Let me come into the awareness of how much God loves me, how tirelessly He serves so I can be happy. Let me emerge all of this and fall deeper and deeper in love with Him. The more I love Him, the more I’m going to want to do what’s right because I just can’t stand not to.

God does not want me to sacrifice anything for Him; He wants me to realize and offer Him my weaknesses, willingly. He wants me to live an elevated life by becoming an elevated human being because I see the value in it. “You now have to become satopradhan lords of divinity”, He tells me. “Therefore, remember the Father with a lot of love. He is the One who removes everyone’s sorrow. He is the One who gives happiness.“