Baba says, ‘let go of the I and mine and you will become fearless, carefree emperors‘. When something is ‘mine’, I take responsibility for it. When ‘I’ have to do something, then I am accountable for it. So it figures that the more ‘I’s and ‘mine’s I have, the more responsibility and accountability I have.

If I were to just step back and look at my life, I’d see how quickly the list of what’s mine and what I need to do has grown as I got older. When we are kids, there’s not much we consider to be ‘mine’ and I certainly don’t feel accountable to anyone or for anything. I’m perfectly happy being taken care of. As I grow older I take on responsibilities, take on roles, new identities, new possessions, relationships etc. I feel ownership over them. The more attached I am to them, the more fearful and anxious I am of ever losing them.

Baba says, ‘don’t forget the days of your childhood‘. That’s when I felt carefree, happy and light. Can I become a child again?

When I step out of the consciousness of being a body and step into the consciousness of being a soul, my only identity is of being a child of God. Once again, I have no bondages, no cares – not even of myself. I learn to hand over the reins to Baba.

I realize that a role is just a role, it is not who I am. I realize that my only permanent relationship is with My eternal Father, everything else is transient. I realize that positions and status are all made up, that the only true position is one of my own self-respect as a child of God.

It doesn’t mean I give up all my responsibilities and relationships and become a recluse. It means I shift my perception – from being a body to a soul. When I do, I feel like a child again, under the canopy of protection of the Father, I feel taken care of. I fill myself up with the spiritual powers I need to make my relationships here sweet – because I’ve learnt to transform attachment to love. I’m secure enough to open up, share with others my ideas, thoughts and invite their perspectives. I no longer feel the need to control everything or hoard.

Sometimes we fear that we’ll be taken advantage of. But where there is an honest heart, pure intent and attitude, I cannot be taken advantage of. Baba says, when you have a clean and honest heart, you are already victorious, you become fearless.

And so He tells us everyday- ‘consider yourself a soul and remember Me alone’. In that remembrance, I replace all the ‘I’ with ‘I, the soul’ and all that is ‘mine’ with ‘My Baba’. As I become the child again, I become a carefree emperor.