‘Understand who you are and then move forward towards the Light and eventually you too shall become the Light. It is a difficult process but then if you want to metamorphose into a butterfly, then be prepared for the initial discomfort and angst. Walk boldly knowing that you might fall but be aware that to rise again is in your hands and is in your favour. Fear cannot touch those who have faith in the Divine and faith in the fact that divinity can never be wrong. The wise know the difference between their needs and their wants. The need may be for self-centredness but want may be for selflessness. Then pursue selflessness even though it shall be a process of angst and trials. Once you know the difference and are clear where you want to reach, trust me son, you shall reach that place, slowly but surely.’

‘But, Baba, it is a difficult path. Even when we go beyond self-accusation, guilt and anger, the journey is still not easy. There has to be change at every step and change, or any transformation for that matter, is never easy.’

‘Yes, my boy. First we need to go beyond anger and guilt and self-blame. Then comes another difficult mountain to climb: keeping realistic aspirations and goals. One of the greatest pitfalls on the path of spirituality is setting unrealistic schedules and milestones. Know yourself and what you are capable of and then set your goals. Not based on speed or some fancy, but based on the reality of your own strengths, weaknesses and limitations. Oscillation in our spiritual pursuits is very often our greatest enemy. This comes about when we set unrealistic goals which come about when we still do not truly understand our true selves. So the first step after we have gone beyond self-reproach is to set realistic goals for ourselves. If an individual gets angry a hundred times a day, the first step would be to realistically reduce the times one gets angry in a day. Usually a wise person would start by resisting anger a few times less than normal, so as to bring the number of outbursts down to say ten times. Thus, instead of getting angry a hundred times a day, you pledge to reduce your outbursts by ten to get the figure of ninety times a day of outbursts. Then slowly bring it down by twenty, till you reach a stage where you, maybe, get angry twice a day. But it has to be done slowly and steadily. Now imagine the person declaring on the first day itself that instead of getting angry a hundred times a day, from today I shall get angry only twice a day. It will lead to chaos within the individual. Of course, there are people who can completely go into a silence zone and succeed but those individuals are rare. For a common person, start with realistic goals and slowly but surely come to a stage where outbursts are far spaced, till the individual reaches a point where maybe he or she could even go through days without a single outburst. Thus, it is important to set goals that are realistic and only when you know yourself well will you know what kind of goals are realistic and what aren’t. The way forward is by clearing the backlog. Sometimes one might even need to take a step backward in order to leap ahead. So the individual might say that a hundred times a day itself is with a lot of restraint so for a while I shall not exceed the figure hundred. Then slowly start reducing the times of outbursts. It’s a very individualistic approach. Often, the freshness of the fruit depends on knowing when to pluck it, how to store it and when to eat it. Similarly, choose your battles, knowing your strengths and weaknesses and limitations and then set the bar, not too high but just high enough. The bar should neither be too high, nor too low, nor should it be out of reach. Haven’t I told you often, the wise know when to speak, how much to speak, how to speak, but most importantly, when to shut up. Often knowing when to keep quiet is more important than even speaking itself. When a spoon of sugar can do the work, why waste a gallon of vinegar?’