Baba says, “You children also have to have regard for the Father.”

Giving regard is the special way to make my life elevated, meaningful, great. God is my greatest example of this principle. He comes to this physical plane only once every cycle at this most auspicious confluence. He comes when the whole world is old, when every single soul is full of all the vices and therefore impure in every way- thoughts, words, actions, attitudes, vision, everything. Yet, He never once considers not coming. One might say: “well, that’s drama. He cannot escape His part in the drama.” But even after He comes here, He serves willingly, happily, never out of compulsion. He doesn’t serve with one hand covering His nose, waiting to return home! He is happy to be here, to be with His long lost and now found children, no matter how impure they might be. His holds each soul in the highest vision, it never wavers no matter what the soul’s actions might be. He never loses faith in me, no matter how many times I fail at following His directions. Even if I become disheartened, He never does. He understands, accepts without judgment or condemnation. He continues to serve tirelessly – not because He has to but because He wants to. Not because it’s His role but because He loves His children deeply and wants them to reach their highest destiny. This, is giving regard. I feel and experience God’s regard for me daily, at every step. It is this regard that He has for me that inspires me to want to be better, to rise up higher. No wonder God is worshipped with so much love and devotion for half a cycle, He is the One whose temple is built first, Who is remembered first when things start to go wrong in the copper age.

Do I have regard for the Father to the same extent that He has regard for me?

To have regard for the Father means to know and recognize Him accurately as He is and to fulfill the code of conduct in all my relationships with that accurate recognition. “To have regard for the relationship of the Father is to follow the Father. To have regard for the relationship of the Teacher is to be regular and punctual in your study and to pay full attention to all the subjects you are studying. To have regard for the relationship of the Satguru means to follow His instruction to forget your body and all your bodily relations. It means to become soul conscious and to stabilize yourself in the incorporeal stage, the same as the Satguru. It means to remain constantly ever ready to return home. To have regard for the relationship of the Bridegroom means to remain lost in love for Him in every thought at every second and to fulfill your faithfulness in everything you do: “I eat with You, I do everything with You.” To have regard for the relationship of the Friend is to constantly experience His companionship in whatever you do.“, He explains.

In this way, to fulfill all relationships with the Father is to have regard for the Father. It is to live by the saying: “Mine is the one Father and none other.” The Father says something and I put it into practice; I step constantly in the Father’s steps. “The dictates of your own mind and the dictates of others should be removed from your intellect to such an extent that it seems as though they never existed. They shouldn’t touch your thoughts even in your dreams; you should be totally ignorant of them. Only the shrimat of the One should be in your intellect. Only listen to the one Father, only speak of the things that the one Father has told you, only see the one Father, only walk with the Father, only think of the things that the Father has told you and only perform the elevated deeds that the Father has told you to perform. This,” Baba explains, “is called maintaining your record of having regard for the Father.”

Just because I follow all the disciplines, wake up for amritvela, attend murli, serve doesn’t automatically mean I have regard for the Father. Am I here with all my heart? Do I share a deep relationship with the Father? Do I really, deeply, truly feel in my heart that having attained the Father, I have attained everything I ever could have wanted? or have I gotten a bit disillusioned along the way, or am I still attracted to Maya’s world a little? For example, I might do what Baba tells me such as letting go of that ‘dream job’ but in my heart I am still pulled by it: “I don’t understand why Baba won’t allow me to take that job! I could have really made some waves with that role..”, or “I don’t know why I have to stay in this town. With all my training and qualifications, I could serve so much better in a large city or even abroad!” It’s as if I follow Baba’s directions out of compulsion. Then, when even something little happens, I say things like: “I follow every single shrimat and yet, this is what happens to me…”, “I do everything Baba says and yet, I am still stuck here…”. It’s as if I am doing Baba a favor by following His directions. I don’t realize that Baba is here for me, that He is enabling me to create my fortune for the new world. Instead, I am still caught up in trying to make it in the old world!

“Check“, says Baba, “if your record of having regard is unshakeable or does it go into upheaval according to the circumstances of Maya. Is your line straight or sometimes crooked.”

Secondly, to have regard for the Father is to also have regard for the knowledge He gives me. To have regard for the knowledge is to have unshakeable faith in all the elevated versions He has spoken. To have questions such as: “Baba says this, but how can that happen? I know it is the truth but still, it doesn’t seem possible…” means to have subtle doubts. This too is to have disregard for the Father. Versions spoken by the human gurus of today, those who show temporary miracles, those who deprive me of meeting the Father, those who divert me from the truth- for such souls too, it is said that whatever they speak are the versions of the truth. So, to raise questions or doubt any of the knowledge given by the Satguru, who is the Supreme Father, the Creator of all the great souls, is also a form of doubt or disregard.

“The Father is very sweet. Let the mercury of happiness rise high inside you. Let there be ecstatic happiness.“, says Baba. The more I follow the Father’s directions for my life, the more I see myself transform and the happier I become. So let me check how much I follow the Father’s directions, how well I study that which He is teaching me. In other words, let me check how much regard I have for the Father, to what extent the Father is my world.