"Once I was helping my brother do a little business years ago. I was handing him a few coins and one fell at a distance. I could not reach it by hand so I just stretched out my leg and pulled the coin near. A fellow there said, 'Oh what an insult to Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth!' I said, 'I do not look upon money as God.' My sense of values was different from the practical, the worldly man.

"Baba, in His life, gave the greatest importance to the smallest instance, whereas a big disaster might not touch Him at all. Why? Because He is so vast. Compared to Reality, everything is insignificant, big or small. But we do not have that point of view. The book God Speaks gives you a sense of values — who is a saint, who is a Sadguru, who is a Perfect Master, who is the Avatar."

Jerry McClean: "Sometimes everything seems to be fine shades of gray, hard to evaluate. Is this the Kali Yuga, the age of ignorance? It is hard to know what one should do in certain circumstances."

Adi: "In specific circumstances, you have to rely on your conscience. Could you possibly remember Baba then, just feel Him in your heart and ask the question, and then you get an answer. If there's a conflict between your heart and your head, you'll make less mistakes by following your heart . . . "

Filis: "Some find it hard to know what Baba wants. They try looking in their hearts, but they just don't know . . .that's the difficulty."

Adi: "In spite of all our talk about reacting to a situation in a certain way, when the time comes, a man reacts very differently. And that's God's will. It doesn't mean we should not train ourselves to behave in a certain manner, but in spite of ourselves we'll react differently. I wrote that to someone last year and Baba liked it immensely, He said it's very true, everything is done according to the Will of God."

"Then the question arises, where is our free will?" A sigh goes up from all of us. "Our free will is there, but that is also because of the Will of God. We feel we have free will and we do have free will, but it is rooted in God's Will. It is kept apart because of the impressions, sanskaras. I put it this way: 'God's Will is equal to man's will minus impressions.'

"A big minus!" "Do we have a choice?"

Adi replies: "Yes, we do have a choice, after all, but how much can we express it? It's not only the point of having a choice, but having the ability to express it."

Jerry: "Baba says many people in the first few lifetimes get carried away from the goal, even though they are consciously trying."

Adi: "Yes, but whatever conscience tries is also determined by His Will. Baba used to say everything is determined by the Original Whim. But that shouldn't disappoint us, or make us feel we can do anything we want. . .our will is embedded in God's Will, but we don't feel it, understand it, because of the curtain of sanskaras. What power they have to estrange us from God!

"That's why Baba always asked us to guard against action. No matter what thoughts we get, we are not to bother about them, just witness them, let them come and go. All those thoughts that come and go will not touch you, unless you translate them into action. Don't suppress thoughts — that will poison you. Just be a witness to them. Be indifferent to them. Treat them as unwelcome guests in the house of your mind. Like guests that are not welcome, after a while they will not want to visit you anymore."

"People expect the minds of those who have been with Baba for many years to be very pure. I say not at all, — their minds are pure so far as actions are concerned. The sanskaras are stored up from so many lives! But if you do not put them into action, they do not create a further binding. Baba always made a point of it — because involvement through action creates gross sanskaras, that are very dense, hard to eradicate."

"Is sickness a way to get rid of gross sanskaras?

Adi replied: "I don't feel that sickness always removes your sanskaras—. It depends on the type of suffering. Is it a creative suffering?? Purposeful? Taken on under instructions of a Perfect