"In Myself I am free but in you I am bound. But the binding is of My own doing so that I might realize Myself consciously in each one of you."

And the second statement:

"I am ever conscious that I am in you, but you are never conscious that I am in you. Daily I support you and share your consciousness. Now I want you to uphold Me and share My consciousness, and share it one day with all with whom you work."

Only recently have I begun to understand what Baba was doing with us in the early years. There was one fine thread on the canvas, and that fine thread concerned consciousness. I recalled Baba's words that those who concentrate their lives on Him gradually become identified with Him in consciousness. Little, by little their humanity is absorbed into His divinity, and they become free.

Going back to the 1930s and '40s for a moment: To give one example of how Baba worked on this theme - any time of the day - during mealtime, playtime, worktime, or perhaps whilst we were walking in the compound - suddenly Baba would gesture toward one of us with a slight raise of His hand indicating, "What are you thinking?"  Why? He was working to bring our consciousness away from the many objects of illusion and duality with its wants and desires, to the one object of Himself, or God.

Apparently, to do this, He needed us to be with Him and His physical presence. I recall a statement of Baba's at the time: "Love Me and obey Me and I will look after your spiritual life." Yes, He was our Companion and Friend.

I also recall another remark Baba made during this period (paraphrasing) “What I am doing now with you all will affect everyone in the whole world later. In their time, they will be sharing in the work I am doing now."

Needless to say, we were not cognizant of what Baba was doing or what was happening to us. His tool, of course, was His Love - pure, divine Love. I only know that because of Love we wanted to please Baba. But slowly, gently, spontaneously, Baba was shifting our consciousness to Himself - to God - the one Reality of Consciousness - Infinite Love.

Baba tells us: "I have come not to teach but to awaken." I recall on one occasion when we were with Baba in India, He asked us what He meant by this statement. Then, before any of us could reply, Baba explained, "I have come to awaken Myself in all."

Again, quoting Baba:

"The journey of the spiritual path from beginning to end is a journey from unconscious God to conscious God, the highest consciousness being Infinite Consciousness - Divine Love.

"When misdirected it is illusion. When directed to Reality it is Infinite, but whether from having Reality for its object or bound to the objects of illusion, consciousness is One. All consciousness becomes infinite when it takes Reality as the object of its consciousness. All apparent differences are different states of Consciousness. Nothing comes, nothing goes. There is only the shifting of Consciousness."

Yes, the shifting of Consciousness, or one could say the unfoldment from within. This is the work we all face today and every day.

In the years after leaving India, and even more so after Baba dropped His physical form, I found my attention centered more internally, and in trying to fathom Consciousness I encountered another word - Awareness. Was this something that preceded or followed consciousness? Was one the outcome or outgrowth of the other?

During this time, I found a need to make choices and decisions which brought about greater responsibility in thought and action and yes, a need for greater self control. Did this too have something to do with awareness? And why was it only recently that I seemed to come across this word awareness so often in correspondence, books, newspaper articles and on television - especially national