Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: E&G: Repentance, Oct 5, 2025, live Baba Zoom

Today, at numerous levels of society, there is a pervasive and unapologetic attitude among many about their selfish behavior that in the past would have resulted in remorse and the sting of conscience. There is an illusion of freedom in not having to be hindered and slowed down by remorse and conscience in their effort to climb up in society and wield authority. But in overriding remorse and conscience, which are qualities of the heart, we become victims of a hidden guilt, which is of the mind in collusion with the ego. This unconscious guilt takes up residence in the shadows of our psyche, and our unending preoccupation then becomes to adopt a frantic forward-looking life style that keeps us just ahead of our guilt, and we pray that it doesn’t catch up with us! This repression of guilt often manifests as a feeling of unworthiness. People don’t like guilt, and no matter what strategies the mind comes up with to get rid of it, we only reduce it superficially. Guilt cannot do away with guilt. It is as futile as clipping off the tops of weeds, thinking that they won’t come back! We have to get at the root cause. Einstein said it clearly, “No problem can be solved with the same level of consciousness that created it.” The qualities of remorse, repentance and conscience, old-fashioned terms as they might seem today, are essential in changing our behavior because they reside in the heart, and it is at the heart level that change in us must be made. When we feel genuine remorse for something we’ve done--a harsh remark made to someone, betraying a confidence, not helping a neighbor in need—rather than diminishing us, our spirit is affirmed and even ennobled. As uncomfortable as it might be, we know we are doing the loving thing. Our conscience is chastising us so that in the future we will try to be more loving. Guilt is concerned with our self-image; remorse is about transforming our heart. Remorse and guilt don’t come up just in present moment situations. We all have selfish things in our past that we often unconsciously drag around with us that make us feel unworthy and which cast a shadow over our present. Baba assures us that we can change our relationship with the past. The selfish behavior back then can be dissolved in the present. Here are two immensely helpful methods. One, which we have discussed in recent weeks, is to bring up in our heart, situations in the past that we feel guilty about and deeply ashamed of and give them energetically to Baba in the present. (Shame is not really an emotion; it is a combination of severe self-condemnation and guilt, and it persists because it is a verdict handed down by the court of our ego and which allows no appeal. It masquerades as a permanent sentence. The ego is that cruel!). In bypassing the ego-mind that has little empathy, but instead, by appealing to our heart, Baba assures us that we will be readily forgiven by Him. This can happen instantaneously, but in most cases we have to access and then give Him our selfish past layer by layer before it is dissolved. Here is a second method: In the course of our day and week, events are bound to happen that remind us of the selfish and unkind things we have done in the past. Normally, we might cringe when these memories, triggered by present situations, come up in our mind. And when we cringe and feel that shot of guilt running through us, this is the moment when we can give that memory to Baba and even send His name and love toward those past actions. In this way, the negative self-condemnation is not continually being reinforced in memory by guilt and shame; we maintain a positive self-compassionate attitude toward what we had done. After all, it is not really fair to judge what we have done in our past, using what we know about love today. There is this sage advice, “Give up all hope ……. of a better past!” In putting these two methods into practice, the power of the past to cast its shadow over the present can be greatly diminished, and over time, it can become completely transformed by Baba. He even goes a step further by transforming the guilt associated with our past selfishness into empathy for others in the present. It enables us to relate compassionately to our fellow beings who suffer with many of the same weaknesses that we have. Bhau Kalchuri would share with us a very helpful and insightful equation that went something like this: If you do something selfish and unkind and justify it, you will not be able to repent. And if you don’t repent, Baba cannot forgive you. And if you are not forgiven, you won’t be able to change your behavior. Along the same lines, Darwin writes, “Meher Baba is the gateway to the Infinite, and a contrite spirit is the key that opens wide the gates of forgiveness. A contrite spirit is thus a vital part of this dynamic. We cannot accept forgiveness without repentance. This, then, is the loophole in the otherwise ironclad law of ...