‘They have given us twenty-four hours with each hour consisting of sixty minutes and each minute throbbing with sixty seconds. Countless seconds make a day. How many seconds do we really remember Them with true love and intensity out of those? When we instill awareness and gratitude into our prayers, when we pray with earnest yearning and seek mercy, when we call out to Them like a child who is seeking one’s very Mother. When our prayers are not a ritual or a formality but our very reason for existence, then we have begun to walk the true Path of prayers. Every time we take Their Name and we are aware of it, our awareness makes our prayer reach Them. Thus, it would be a shame to waste this opportunity that we have of spending time in prayer and spiritual pursuits, as this opportunity does not come to all and doesn’t come without working for it and there is an expiry date if we don’t allow more grace to enter. This is our gift and if we squander this honour away, then who knows when and in which lifetime we might earn the privilege to be able to get an opportunity to pray as and when we would so desire. Pray as though you are possessed of the Divine Spirit; pray like a child yearning for the embrace of a loved one; pray as though it may be the last time you might get the opportunity to pray. Pray that They have taken time off and are hearing us pray. Do not disregard Them by making your prayers a formality. Then you have debased the only truly noble thing a human being can indulge in, which involves Them directly with yourself, and nothing in between. This is the eternal truth, beta.’

Baba stood up and they walked back to the cottage. Rudra had prepared a simple curry for Baba and he had cut apples and made a homemade paan. Baba ate a little bit of everything as then they sat down with their chai and chillum and saw the night embrace the sea. After a while they could only hear the waves sing their soft lullaby.

Spiritual pursuit is not an act, it is one’s very reason for existence. Something one does not just do but lives for and eventually becomes.