Baba says, “You understand that this is Ravan’s kingdom, but you don’t even understand that Ravan is the enemy.”

This is the old world; The golden age was the new world. How does one know when the world is new and when it is old? It’s the same as a house. When a house is new, it looks and feels new- beautiful design, strong walls, fresh paint, everything is working as it should. When I move into a new house, I am automatically happy, I can’t stop smiling. There is nothing broken, nothing looks ugly, everything is beautiful, there are no complaints. Then as the house becomes old, the paint wears off, the roof starts to leak, there are termites in the wood, and the plumbing needs constant repairs. Now, I am not automatically happy as I used to be, I now have something new to worry about every day, I am easily frustrated, it’s too much expense to fix up the place. Frankly, I can’t wait to rebuild the home and make it brand new again.

In the same way, the world when it was new was beautiful- it was the golden world, with golden palaces decked up with jewels and diamonds. It was ruled not by politicians but by Lakshmi and Narayan, the most elevated creation of God. It was a world of deities, a small world with few souls. Everyone knew everyone, it was like a family- and everyone lived by the code- the code of conduct, that is, that was set by God. There was, therefore, no scope for sorrow, not even a trace. This also meant long lives, with no illnesses- just health, wealth and happiness. This lasted for half a cycle before souls started to forget who they are and the code. They started to believe that they are the roles, the titles, the positions, and the relationships rather than just pure elevated souls, brothers. The differences divided them, turned them against each other whereas when everyone considered themselves as pure souls, they were united.

“Body consciousness is the greatest vice”, teaches Baba, “once it comes, then all the other vices follow.” The roles, titles, positions, relationships etc., these are bodily things because they are associated with me as long as I am in this body. When I consider myself as simply a pure soul, then there is none of this expansion.  In the golden age too, there were roles, titles, and relationships but the souls didn’t identify themselves as these things. They played their roles, fulfilled their relationships while remaining in the awareness that they are souls. That was the critical difference; the subsequent shift in consciousness from soul to body led to the downfall of souls, leading us to perform wrong actions resulting in the downfall of the world. Now, just as with the house, there is sorrow, suffering, complaining, hurting, blaming, manipulating, hustling, bitterness and all the rest.

The Father has come to make the old world new again. He enlists those same original deity souls of the golden age to help Him rebuild the world and make it into heaven again. The help He needs, He explains, is a return to soul consciousness. “Remember who you are and re-learn the code”, He tells me.

Everyone acknowledges that there is a lot of sorrow in the world, everyone wants Ram Rajya (the righteous world) again. But in this pursuit of a new world, people view each other as the obstacle in their path to create it. At a macro level, countries blame each other and go to war. At a micro level, members of a family also blame each other for their sorrow. “If only my husband/wife would be a little more sensitive to my needs….”, “After all I did for them, is this what I get in return?”, “How dare he talks to me that way…who does he think he is! I’ll show him…” etc., etc.

“You understand that this is Ravan’s kingdom, but you don’t even understand that Ravan is the enemy.”, observes Baba. Since I want Ram Rajya to come, it is clear that I am now in Ravan Rajya. I even burn the effigy of Ravan every year  and yet, bafflingly enough, I fail to realize who Ravan is or that he is my true enemy. I think Ravan was some demon who lived during the time of King Rama. But God clarifies that when Rama was king, in the silver age, there were no demons, it was heaven. Ravan, He explains, is not a physical demon, he is a representation of the vices inside every human being today. It is these vices- starting with body consciousness, then leading to lust, anger, attachment, greed, ego, jealousy, bitterness, laziness etc- that are the real enemy. It is when I come under the influence of these vices that I think the wrong thoughts, speak the wrong words, and perform the wrong actions. It is anger that leads to war, greed that leads to children killing their own parents, it is ego that leads to brother fighting brother or conflict within teams.

“Get rid of these vices, cleanse yourself and become pure again“, Baba teaches me, and the world will become heaven again. It is when I fail to realize this truth that I look at others as the enemy when in reality, it is Ravan or the vices that are acting out through them. “Don’t condemn your brothers, don’t reject them, reject Ravan.”, He teaches. To respond with more anger when someone is angry with me, to insult those who insulted me- this takes no effort at all. This is default behavior in Ravan’s world and by perpetuating this behavior, I unwittingly preserve Ravan’s world, that is, the old world. To bring Ram’s world, I need to stop being angry and insulting, no matter who or what, and respond with love. I need to stop demanding specific behaviors of others and focus on modeling the right behavior myself. I need to stop being frustrated and become more tolerant and patient. This is spiritual warfare against the real enemy.

The Father now says: “You lost the kingdom of the world. I am now giving it back to you once again. Just follow My directions. If you want to become elevated, simply remember Me and not any bodily beings. Consider yourselves to be souls and remember Me, your Father, and you will become satopradhan from tamopradhan.” Then as the Teacher, He also says, “Remember the kingdom, the new world.” At this point, every single human being – be it a guru, a saint, a mahatma, a scholar- is body conscious. Only God is always soul conscious, He never forgets who He is. He is therefore my only reference to shifting back into soul consciousness. So if I can, as He says, remember only Him and follow only His directions, I will return to my original elevated self. And this, is the greatest help I can offer to the Father in establishing the new world.