14 May 1977 · English

"Self-respect (swaman) and orders (farman)."

Do you remain constantly happy while constantly remembering the fortune you have attained from the Father, the Bestower of Fortune? Out of the whole cycle, it is only at this time that you attain the most elevated fortune. It is only at this time that you experience the stage of being constantly fortunate. You will not attain such fortune even in the future new world. Just as the Father considers the children to be the ones with the most elevated fortune, so does each one of you also move along while considering yourself to be that fortunate? This is known as being stable in your stage of self-respect. Pay attention to your thoughts, words and deeds. Firstly, constantly maintain your self-respect. Secondly, follow the Father’s orders at every step. Pay attention to these two aspects - self-respect and orders. As well as this, when you interact with others, give respect to them.

By stabilising yourself in your self-respect, you will constantly maintain the stage of a destroyer of obstacles. Do you clearly know what self-respect is? The Father’s praise is your self-respect. Even if you keep just one aspect of His praise in your awareness, you would automatically be able to remain stable in your stage of self-respect. By remaining stable in your stage of self-respect, you cannot experience any type of arrogance, whether it is arrogance of your body, intellect, name, service or special virtue. All of that naturally comes to an end, and you thereby become a constant destroyer of obstacles. Those who maintain such self-respect are always humble. They do not have any type of arrogance, but remain very humble. Through this, they automatically receive constant regard from others. Because of being beyond any desire to receive respect, you become worthy of receiving the most elevated respect from everyone. This is an eternal law.

Respect from everyone is not received by asking for it, but by giving respect to others and remaining stable in your stage of self-respect, you receive respect from others as a right. By renouncing the desire for regard, you receive the fortune of being respected by everyone. Those who maintain their self-respect do not receive respect for just this one birth, but for the whole cycle. For half the cycle, they receive respect from their royal family and subjects, and for the other half, they receive it from their devotees. You receive so much that, even in your last birth, you yourselves see in your living form the reward of the respect you have received. While in the living form, you can see your non-living images, can you not? So, what was the basis of that respect which you received for the whole cycle? Renunciation of short-lived respect. That is, you have to stabilise in your stage of self-respect, be humble and give regard to everyone. This giving becomes a form of receiving. To give regard means to put zeal and enthusiasm into those souls, thus enabling them to move forward. Short-lived charity is performed by giving some short-lived thing, or by co-operating for a short time. However, this permanent zeal and enthusiasm, that is, the treasure of happiness, the treasure of your co-operation makes souls charitable souls for all time and this is why it becomes the greatest charity of all. The fruit of the charity you perform in this one birth is received throughout the whole cycle. This is why it is said: To give regard is not to give regard, but to receive it. In lokik life, too, when someone performs an act of charity, he is respected by everyone. However, the fruit of this elevated charity is that you become both worthy of worship and worthy of respect. Ask yourself: Do I constantly perform such charitable acts as a charitable soul? “Give me regard; I should receive regard. Why was respect for me not maintained? Why was the other one given respect?” Are you those who receive or those who give? The feeling of asking in this way is also a royal form of begging. So, have self-respect and give regard to others. You have to maintain your self-respect and also give regard to others.

What else do you have to do? You have to follow orders at every step. The whole world is constantly surrendered to those who follow orders at every step. Along with this, Maya, too, along with her entire progeny, surrenders herself. If Maya is constantly waging war against you, it proves that you are not following orders at every step. Because you do not follow the Father’s orders constantly, Maya also does not surrender to you at a stroke. This is why Maya repeatedly wages war and why you repeatedly become those who cry out in distress. Calling out ‘Maya has come’ is crying out, is it not? “Today, she came in this form. What shall I do now? How can I finish Maya, that is, this obstacle?” Because of not surrendering at a stroke, Maya cries out and you also cry out. Therefore, follow orders and Maya will surrender to you. When you surrender to the Father, Maya will surrender to you. The method of following orders is so easy! Self-respect and following orders is very easy, is it not? By adopting this method, you will be liberated from difficulties for birth after birth. At present, you are an easy yogi, and in the future you will have an easy life. Make such an easy life. Do you understand? Achcha.

To the obedient children who constantly follow orders, to those who constantly maintain their self-respect, to those who renounce short-lived, perishable respect, to those who attain the part of being respected and worshipped by everyone, to the souls who have surrendered themselves to the Father, to the loving souls who constantly give respect to everyone and who become worthy of their love, BapDada’s love, remembrance and namaste.

Is the Pandava Army on the battlefield? Pandavas are known as mahavirs. A mahavir means one who is constantly a conqueror of Maya. Mahavirs are never afraid of Maya, but they challenge Maya. No matter what form Maya comes in, you have to recognise her with the power of discernment and become victorious. So, have you developed the power to discern? Are you able to recognize Maya from a distance when she is coming or do you recognize her when she begins to attack you? The sharper your power to discern, the more you will be able to chase away Maya from a distance. If you chase her away after she has come, time is wasted . Then, having come, she sometimes even sits down. Therefore, you mustn’t allow her to come. Nowadays, you have to practise being far-sighted. Scientific instruments help to see things from a distance. Previously, when storms came you had to make preparations to protect yourself from them, but it is not like that any more. Now when you know that there is a storm coming you try to avert it. Since science is advancing, how far advanced the power of silence has to be! In order to chase Maya away from a distance, constantly remain stable in the trikaldarshi stage. You have to see every aspect in the three aspects of time, in terms of: what the situation is; what its present form is; be aware of the form that it came in earlier and how you can finish the form that it has now come in. When you see the three aspects, Maya’s attack will not be instrumental in defeating you. However, because you do not look at everything in the trikaldarshi stage, you only see the present, and this is why there is sometimes victory and sometimes defeat; there isn’t constant victory. Maya can never be safe from those who remain stable in their trikaldarshi stage. If Maya wages war again and again, you will not be able to experience supersensuous joy even if you want to. The praise that supersensuous joy is a blessing of the confluence age, that it cannot be experienced in any other age, is the experience of the present time. So, if you have not experienced supersensuous joy, then what have you accomplished as a Brahmin? The speciality of being a Brahmin is to experience supersensuous joy, and if you haven’t done this you haven’t done anything. So check that you are constantly staying in supersensuous joy.

Question and Answer with BapDada.

Question: What would be the signs of those who have supersensuous joy?

Answer: Those who remain in supersensuous joy will never be attracted to the joy experienced through the physical organs. Just as a wealthy person walking along a street is never attracted to anything because he is full and complete, in the same way, those who stay in supersensuous joy will consider the pleasure gained through the physical organs to be like poison. So, would anyone be attracted by poison? In the same way, they would remain constantly beyond the pleasure experienced through the physical organs. They would not have to labour, but, because of being knowledge-full , they would recognise all of that (pleasure through physical organs) to be degraded. If, while moving along you become attracted to the pleasure of the physical organs, it proves that you lack something in your experience of supersensuous joy. You have the desire to experience this, but have not attained it. It means that you are still a seeker, not a child. A child is one who has a right, whereas a seeker is one who just has a desire. It is not that you have the desire to attain something, but that you have already attained it. You are those who experience the happiness of this right. Constantly maintain this supersensuous joy. For how many births have you been experiencing pleasure through physical organs? You also know what attainment you gained through that, do you not? What did you attain? You earned something and then lost it. Since you have lost it, why are you still attracted to it? There is still a little time for the attainment of supersensuous joy. If you don’t attain it now, you will never attain it. If you don’t make a bargain for it now, you never will. You still keep thinking about it: Should I discard this or not? The Father says: Let go and you will become free. You say, “I am not able to let go.” You, yourself, are holding on to it and you then say that you are not able to let go! You are the creators, and so don’t let this make you stumble again and again.

Question: What special virtue do you have to adopt to be always unshakeable and immovable?

Answer: Become one who picks up virtues. If you pick up virtues in every situation, you will not fluctuate. To pick up virtues means to have feelings of bringing benefit. When you see defects, there are feelings of misfortune and there will be fluctuation. To see virtues in defects is known as picking up virtues. Even while seeing defects, you should pick up virtues. Pick up virtues from those who have defects. Just as they are firm in their defects, you have to remain firm in your virtues. Become one who picks up virtues, not defects. Absorption

Question: What food will make souls constantly powerful?

Answer: That of happiness. It is said: There is no nourishment like happiness. Those who maintain their happiness would be powerful. By using the shield of the drama very well, you will remain constantly happy and never wilt. If you constantly have the awareness of the drama , you will never wilt. You will have constant happiness, even in your intellect, and not just in the form of knowledge. No matter what the scene is, you should seek benefit for yourself from it and you will remain constantly happy.

To come to such an elevated land means to be very fortunate. In order to keep this fortune constantly, pay constant attention to your stage remaining stable. To be stable means to be so lost in the sweetness of One that nothing else attracts you. If your intellect is pulled to any other sweetness, you will then not be able to remain stable.

Do you experience yourself to be knowledge-full and an ocean of knowledge, the same as the Father? To be knowledge-full means to be one who constantly performs truthful actions and doesn’t waste anything. Since you are the children of the true Father, and you are establishing satyug (the age of truth), your actions should also be true. All your thoughts, words and deeds should be truthful. This is known as being the same as the Father, master knowledge-full, that is, an embodiment of knowledge. Achcha.