Baba says, “Simply switch on your awareness of self-respect using a direct line and there will be light.”

Some days, I try so much to do the right things and all the wrong things happen. Just when I thought I was making progress, I do something that catches me by surprise and I wonder: Where did this sanskar come from!? It makes me feel like a failure, like I lost the battle again. There are those voices that whisper: “There you go…and you thought you were making progress! I bet Baba’s so pleased with you!” I start to feel defeated, like I’m not worthy of Baba and His task, like I’ve failed Him…again. The Father sees me making all this effort and says: “The Father cannot bear to see the children labor. These different forms of body consciousness are easier to imbibe, difficult to let go.” So, He advises: “Don’t make effort to let go, but instead pay attention to stabilizing yourself in your self-respect. Where there is self-respect, there cannot be any body consciousness.”

Maya wants me to constantly battle, struggle and become disheartened. She wants for me to shut down, shrink back from shame, regret, guilt, and disheartenment. The moment I feel worthless, it is a sign that I have forgotten who I truly am and Whose I am. It’s like I’ve thrown open the door to Maya so she can claim me back as hers. “At the confluence age, you have attained so much self-respect from the Father, which is the best of all. You don’t have to attain it, you have attained it.“, He reminds me. If I were to make a list of my stages of self-respect that I have received from the Father, it would be such a long list. Throughout the cycle, no famous soul- actor, politician, mahatma or anyone else- would have so much respect or so many titles. And what’s more, Baba reminds me of these titles of self-respect every morning. “Each day, keep a new point of self-respect in your awareness. Then, in front of your self-respect, body consciousness will run away just as darkness is dispelled by light. It takes neither time nor effort. So why do you repeatedly have to make effort to finish body consciousness.“, He explains.

Darkness is simply the absence of light; the minute I turn on the light switch, it is gone. Here too, rather than try, unsuccessfully, to chase away the darkness, what I need to do, Baba explains, is simply turn on the switch of self-respect. “No matter how much a dark cloud may hide the light of the sun, you have an automatic, direct connection of light with the Supreme.“, He reminds me. A direct line is so powerful, there is nothing in between that could be a barrier. “Let alone one cloud, even if there were many clouds, how could they create darkness!“, He asks, “As soon as you turn on the switch of your consciousness with the direct line, there will be so much light that not only are you in light but you also become a lighthouse for others.“, He explains. However, often, I forget I have a direct line, that is, I forget my experiences with Baba, I forget the various relationships I have with Him; I make myself alone. Rather than use the direct line, I turn away from it and become absorbed in all the things that are wrong, that are not working, the mistakes, the situations, the circumstances. In other words, I continue to stumble in the darkness rather than turn on the switch.

“BapDada constantly seats you in His lap of love and co-operation and takes you towards the destination. But you move away from the lap of love and are pulled away by other attractions and so you go on a tour elsewhere. You become tired and even experience having to labor.“, He points out. Indeed, often, wallowing in self-pity, guilt, and shame, or staying bitter can feel a lot more attractive or compelling than feeling good about who I am based on Whose I am. Staying down on myself or nursing wounds can feel ‘justified’; I see it as punishment I deserve for what I have done wrong. But all it really is, is time wasted. It’s Maya’s way of keeping me from making progress. True repentance is to learn from mistakes and move forward. And when it comes to bitterness over what someone else did to me, I’m not hurting them one bit by staying bitter. They’ve moved on. By staying bitter, it’s as if I’ve taken the poison while hoping someone else will die! Let me wake up from this deep sleep, stop stumbling in this darkness of ignorance but turning on the light of who and Whose I am.

To turn on the switch is to experience the immense love of the Father. Every child has love for Baba but, it is one thing to have love and another to be absorbed or merged in that love. If I only ‘have’ love, then it is possible that I have love sometimes and other times, I forget and wander away. But if I am ‘merged’ in love, then I am safe because I don’t see or think about anything else. “You have the company of the Father in all relationships with your mind and intellect in your stage. The Father is also your Companion in your doing service at every moment. So He is with you in your stage and is your Companion in doing service. So, where there is His constant company and He is your Companion, what can be difficult?“, He says.

The praise of the Supreme Father is that He is the One who makes difficult things easy. Such a Father is with me and He is my Companion. When the switch of this awareness is turned on, nothing can be difficult.