Because your prayer is your belief. For those who pray, whether it is set words of the scriptures or affirmations that you have written for yourself or prayers that another has written for you, the very fact that you undertake this particular method of accessing universal energy means that you believe in the power of prayer. All your beliefs will be manifest as will the belief in the prayer. You, therefore, are a kind of person who believes in the power of the word. For you, the spoken word may not always be necessary. It could also be just a chant which empowers you. Sometimes, although you have this belief that a prayer is always answered, some prayers may not be answered. Here you have to understand something. What you believe is what is manifest. Not what you say or do, but what you believe. If I am praying for something to manifest but during that prayer, my internal belief is, "I don’t think it will happen", it will not happen. So you are absolutely right in saying, your beliefs manifest your situation. If you believe that your place, let us take an example, as a woman is to be subservient, to serve your husband, your father, your belief will bring a husband, a father, a male into your life who will encourage you, through force or subtlety, to be subservient. So in every instance, what is around you is what you believe should be around you.

First, let us discuss greed then you can answer whether you are greedy. For there to be greed, there must be a belief that money is limited, that resources on this earth are limited. That is the root of greed. From that belief, then comes the manifested behavior. ‘If money and resources are limited, I must be able to look after myself, my family. I must never allow myself, and more importantly, my family to ever experience a need that goes unfulfilled. But if I am responsible for fulfilling all these needs, and they may be needs for basic necessities or just luxuries, but if I am responsible for fulfilling all these needs, then I must ensure that I have enough of a horde of what is limited. If I am not quick enough, someone else will take possession and I will not have enough.’ That is greed, very simply put. It is not something that we have made it out to be.

Greed comes from fear but more importantly and often greed comes from a huge, huge treasure trove of human love. ‘I love my family. I love my children but I still do not understand the significance of Divine Love and so I love them in the way that I can and in this way that I can, I take on the burden of being provider.’ Through this love comes greed. Why must there be guilt then if you are greedy? Be gentle on yourselves. Tell yourself if you are greedy, "I am. But I’m greedy because I’m scared. I’m insecure. I love my family so much that I cannot bear them to go without something. This makes me greedy". Then don’t beat yourself up for it but go one step further and then tell yourself that, "All these feelings come because I do not understand that money is limitless, resources are infinite. I have not yet grasped Divine Love and that is why I behave in this manner. So why don’t I then try to increase my knowledge? Through that learning, I will understand more and this same greed that is making me uncomfortable, I will be able to remove from my character".

One doesn’t. That is the sad truth. It is easier for the human mind and ego to grab on to the negative. Let me explain why. In our unique process of evolution that you and I have undertaken….and not all souls start or move along this process of evolution. No. Not at all! There are some souls that move along on a process of evolution from having complete knowledge and complete remembrance of all knowledge that there is. We have opted for another kind of pathway. You and I decided, "There is this pathway of evolution that is rather unique and quite challenging". And you and I are brave, so we said, "Let’s take on a challenge. Why take the easier path of remembering everything? That’s easy. Why not walk the path of not remembering, in order to remember"? And so we did.

So we are walking a path of evolution that comes from not remembering. In other words, "I am not" and as we move, and every step that you and I take ….yes, we take the step together, we don’t take it alone… every step we take together we place a greater distance between us and "I am not" and move closer towards "I AM". But if I have to walk this path of evolution, if I’m always positive and good…and it is my conditioned mind that says good and bad…. then how would I walk "I am not" because I already would be at "I AM"? In fact, I am brave. I’m an adventurer. I want to go from "I am not" to "I AM" and I want to do it on my terms. And if in this process, I am negative, so be it. And all credit to me to be as negative as I desire because the more I can strive on being negative, the quicker will I move towards remembering all that I am. So it’s great. Think all the negative thoughts that you wish but now every time a negative thought comes, pat yourself on the back. "Wow! Buddy, I am so smart and so courageous. O.K. I have now thought negatively. Do I want to think positively? If so, I will do so on my terms, when I desire; then I will do so".

I wish I knew the answer to that. As we live, how many, many moments of stress do we choose to be in? Please, listen to these words ‘do we choose to be in’. Stress does not just happen. Nothing just happens in our beautiful realm. Nothing. Remember, you and I have decided to walk on our terms and when it is on our terms, it is our choice. If my husband stresses me out, I chose this stress. If my boss stresses me out, I chose this stress. Once again, the answer lies on this road that we are walking. You see, on this road that we are walking, not only is this road filled with the ‘I am Not’s’, it is also filled with a lot of bumps and huge boulders. They must be having a municipal system like ours!! (Laughter) Every bump, every boulder is a stress situation. Why? If you have an open road like the Pune highway, do you walk or do you try and speed? Never mind that the speed limit is something else but you want to speed. Let me get quicker to where I want to go. But as soon as there is a bump, I put a brake. It makes me stop and listen to my car. The boulder, the bumps on our road, what we call stress, make us stop. Where are you rushing? Wait. Not so fast. Take stock. Are you leaving something precious behind you? Have you forgotten a valuable bag at the back? Wait. Look at the situation.

But why is it so stressful? Where does this stress originate from? And why did you choose it? So the way you handle stress is one, to introspect; but never forget step two, to say a big thank you to the person who caused that stress. Say thank you for that bump in that road because had he not stressed you out, maybe you would have gone on so far, so fast, not realizing that you have forgotten a very beautiful part of yourself somewhere at the back.

You ask for my blessings. You ask for where I am and I can only say, look into the mirror. I can never be higher than you. I can never be lower than you because I am you. And of course, I bless you because I bless me. And of course, I love you because today I can be proud and say I love me. So I am where you are. Just go home, look into your mirror, hug yourself and there are my blessings always with you and you need never see me physically again if you can just look at yourself once in the mirror and take my blessings because only you bless you. If you do not bless you, you cannot bless me.

I wish I knew. I wish I knew because I am as human as you are. I haven’t walked any road that you haven’t walked. It’s just that I sometimes take turns that you haven’t yet taken but our road is the same….and I don’t know. I still expect and so will each of you because where we are at present, is only halfway of our path. But as you and I walk, slowly and surely, without hurry, without haste, there will come a time when you will ask me, "How can you love with expectation"? And then too, I will turn around and say, "I don’t know, because to love is not to expect."

The question really shouldn’t be on how one focuses but on what. We all focus, every day in our lives we are focusing on something or the other. Sometimes, you wake up in the morning and you know you have to get a task done. Throughout you are focusing on that task. If you have a dinner party, you’re focusing on the dinner party and we don’t ever question how we focus because we know how to do it. It’s inherent. It’s like breathing. That is why we never teach a child how to focus on the mobile above his crib. He knows how to do that.

But on what do you focus? And why must this focus always be for spiritual growth and advancement? And anyway, what is this spiritual growth? We are all moving down this road, ‘I am not……..I AM’. That is spiritual growth. You’ve moved down this road over halfway through and you didn’t even know that you were spiritually growing. So it’s not spiritual growth that you focus on; that’s a done. It happens. We have to do nothing to really go there.

What we focus on is our SELF. What you focus on is loving yourself. What you focus on is having nothing in your character, in your personality that you are ashamed of. If you are the world’s greatest liar, say that with pride, "I lie with skill because it is from this point of lying that I will go towards truth with as much skill". If you are judgmental and arrogant, have no shame; admit that openly to the world, even in the face of sneer and contempt because it is from that point of arrogance and judgment that you will go towards glory and pride in who you are.

So if there is only one thing that you ever focus on, it has to be loving yourself, being who you are, not who you should be. There is no ‘should’. When there is a ‘should’, you give your power away to another. There is no ‘should’. Be who you are at present and have pride for who you are. Focus on loving you.

Then you would have manifest no answer but there is an answer. There is an answer. If you didn’t deserve the answer, I would have stopped the question-answer session before your question came up. Now I ask you to go back to our first question. What you believe is what is manifest. So, my beautiful friend, can you not see that you really believe that you deserve this answer and that is why you have manifested it. If you truly didn’t believe that you deserved it, this answer would not have come. So you believe in self. Acknowledge that belief. It is easier for us to say, "I am worthless" because the world expects that. When we say, "I am worthy", the world says it comes from ego. That is not ego. Making the world believe that you are worthless, that is ego. Believing in self and saying, "I am worthy" is the greatest manifestation of Divine Love that there can be.

So there is a breakdown, inner, outer. How beautiful! What a wonderful place you are at! Can you not see that? Structure, that is old, has crumbled. Sweep away the debris and now start re-building. Remember, you are not alone. So many hands in embrace are with you. For every brick that you consciously raise, there will be a hundred raised without your conscious knowledge. Let there be a breakdown, complete. In fact, stand up in courage and tell the universe, "If there is even one flaw left standing, break it down, now. Let me be left without foundation, so that the new structure that I build on, I do not build on an old foundation". Of course, there is fear. Of course, there are negative thoughts. And isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t it beautiful to have fear? Because there is the opportunity to love. What is fear? "I am scared. Will I be able to take care of myself? Am I going to be all alone?" Aren’t these your questions when there is a breakdown? And what are the answers that you get? "No, my beautiful one, you are not alone because we are together". "No, there is no need to be insecure because if the whole world turns against you, there is one who will constantly be with you and that is self". What a wonderful thing breakdown is! Accept it, yes, with fear, but sometimes, for just a few moments in the day, will you also accept it with joy? Because then in those few moments, you will start the process of re-building.

When 9/11 took place and towers that the world thought would never fall, fell, there was debris, chaos, pain, confusion, anger. What happened then? If all the New Yorkers had decided to sit and only indulge in these things, would the debris have been cleared away? But no, there were a few brave firemen who went in to fight, to save, to clear, so that New York would shine again, this time without towers, towers that imprison you. Because of these brave men, New York has a beautiful opportunity to re-build.

Let your tower fall. We are so used to being imprisoned in our tower that when it falls, the very prospect of no walls scares us out of our minds…. and that is wonderful because then you are out of the clutches of your ego-based mind. Sweep away that debris. Let not a brick of that old foundation remain and then be that brave fireman and start re-building a beautiful new structure that this time you want, not the tower built around you by another.

This question comes again from a point of your separation, where you think of yourself and your dear one and then you assume that ‘when my dear one passes over, I have lost her. But she comes to visit me in my dreams and that when my dear one then takes birth somewhere else, I will lose her.’ (Ellaeenah was dearly holding Silla’s arm at this time.) How can I lose her? She is me. She has been me for all time. And that, which is her own specific beautiful energy cannot be lost. I can access it whenever I desire and she doesn’t have to be dead for it. I can just expand my energy and completely merge with this energy and for all time evermore, her energy and mine are one. So let your beloved ones re-incarnate. Remember, you may never see them again but their energy is your energy always.

I’m a teacher. Every year in school, we face exactly this. When the new books come, the new bag comes, new pencils, well sharpened, new books, well covered, the first week of studies is just wonderful. There’s enthusiasm. ‘Wow! I started history this year. This year, this teacher is teaching me math.’ Somewhere, at the end of the first month, the books get a little torn, the pencils have broken ends and somehow or the other there are ink stains all over the new bag. And suddenly the whole year seems to stretch before me. When will it get over? That’s natural, its part of the process. How can you sustain such a high level of enthusiasm? It has to settle down. So what! And O.K, you feel you’re stagnating….whatever that means, because I am not and if I am working, so are you, because I cannot walk alone. But you feel you’re stagnating. So what! Take a rest. Enjoy the holiday. Haven’t you noticed when you get away from everything and have even a two-day holiday, you come back refreshed. Suddenly, after the May vacations, students again come with pencils that are well sharpened. Again the books are well covered. Happens with every holiday. Think of that as a holiday period for you. ‘I can goof off. I don’t have to be so serious. I can have fun. Maybe I can even lie. And if I’m greedy and eat two, instead of the one, that’s O.K, I’m the one who’ll put on weight. I can always tell myself that.’ So go ahead. Have a vacation. Who’s counting? Eventually, you and I will reach where we are going to reach, whatever you do, whatever I don’t do. So have a holiday but enjoy the holiday, don’t have shame and guilt, and let the holiday be as long as you require. Once again, don’t build that tower by someone else saying, "Two months is long enough". What is 2 months? When you have millions upon millions upon millions of years, what is two months?

Once again, it’s a question that is not really that simple but I will attempt it very briefly. Although, I have to admit, I’m answering it from only pure, intellectual knowledge, I really don’t think any of us have experienced, consciously, this unity of time, except as an intellectual concept. So I’m answering it as such.

Time is a man-made concept, to help us walk from here to there, but really there is no here and there, it all exists simultaneously. In the larger picture, you and I being together, being one energy, we are all existing at several levels, all simultaneously. But that is too big a concept to even abstract in your intellect, so let us only look at it from only one person. Although it does seem to come from separation, it’s easier to understand. Time exists simultaneously. That which I was, I am and that which I am, I will be. Let us take it on different levels. On the level of personality, all that you have learnt, experienced, undergone, soul-wise, remains as a memory. You, therefore, are today a result of all that you were. The conditioning that you give yourself today is not only of the outer world, it is also inner conditioning. What you are today will therefore be responsible for your tomorrow. So every small process that you go through, every tiny bit of knowledge that you take in will, naturally, translate and manifest in your tomorrow. That is one aspect of looking at time.

But the true aspect of time is that the past, present and future are taking place simultaneously now. We cannot understand this, except as I said, a very abstract, intellectual concept because you and I live in a world that we have created where time is past, present and future. From that point of view, no, you cannot do or undo the past. But remember, that is because we are looking at it from this aspect, in order to help us understand. If we hadn’t created time, everything would be now and if everything is now, I can do and undo all that I desire.

The walk from ‘I am not’ to ‘I AM’. That is dharma, to walk and never to say, "I am lost. In your moment of defeat is our defeat. In your smallest victory is our greatest success. Dharma is to walk, is to fall, is to trip, is to rise, is to smile. It is to say, "I AM and I love me because I AM".

I am your lover. I exist only to experience and be experienced as love, not limited in a form that you recognize. This love does contain the element of human love but it is the grandest, most universal form, nay, it encompasses all forms. I come from you, without you, to you and then to me. I come to give you a message, a message in the form of a song. Let it not be said that there is a single soul within this room, nay, on the face of this planet and in the entire universe, who is not loved.

In every heart there is a room,

a sanctuary safe and strong.

To heal the wounds from lovers past,

until a new one comes along.

I speak to you in cautious tones,

you answer me with no pretence.

And still I feel I sing too much,

my silence is my self-defense.

And every time I hold a rose,

it seems I only hold its thorns,

And so it goes and so it goes

and so will you soon, I suppose.

But if my silence makes you leave

then that would be my worst mistake.

So I will share this room with you

and you can have this heart to break.

And this is why my eyes are closed.

Its just as well for what I’ve seen.

And so it goes and so it goes

and so will we soon I suppose.

So I would choose to be with you,

that’s if the choice were mine to make.

But you can make decisions too

and you can have this heart to break.

And so it goes and so it goes

and you’re the only one who knows.

I am your lover. I can be nothing else. It is now up to you to decide where I come from, how I come and what I am.

Greetings. Greetings, devoted friends. And what is devotion? Towards whom or what do we acknowledge your love and dedication? Many consider devotion to be an allegiance to Masters, Gods and perhaps Higher Selves but in its purest expression, devotion is your ardour to be, an allegiance to your purpose to be. Towards those purposes for which you, from spirit, for spirit individuated towards and by your very being, my dears, you are expressing your complete devotion. If you understood this well, there would be nothing more to add to devotion. But you will tell us to be practical and speak from your point of focus, so yes, from the beautiful place you are at, your devotion is your enthusiasm towards all that you chose to be, Do, feel, experience in what you call this life, thereby gathering towards and contributing to your larger and larger purpose of being. In this joyous commitment to all that you are now, you encompass Masters and Gods and indeed serve them best. So feel free, my dears, devotion is not a narrow line of ‘must be’, ‘must feel’, ‘must do’ towards some higher other. It is being yourself, all that you consider or call bad and good because we observe some here are wary of being too good. Acknowledge, accept, revel in all of self and you are expressing devotion. In closing, we shall add as we always do that what might appear new interpretations are not making others old, wrong or redundant. Yes, from where you are now, from your current point of focus, you may say devotion wants implied and awareness of and commitment to a higher, larger unknown force. But that was required for soul growth. Humanity did not see beyond its physical unit and it has served its purpose. All of you are aware of being the larger picture. So it is being anchored in humanity, through another ray altogether. Through itself, being aware of and committed to that larger, higher other being and other than himself. Yes. Could you claim undying devotion to your friend and then proceed to berate the very expression of their being, their manner, their skills, their choices, their will? Not so! So how can you claim devotion to us and reject our hues and facets, which all of you are?