Baba says, ‘be fearless‘. Where there is an attachment or expectation, there is fear.

In this physical world, the more one has the more fearful one is. The rich and famous cannot be seen walking freely in public view and the few places they do go to, they are surrounded by security personnel to protect them. They are fearful of their lives, of losing their wealth, their fame. People accumulate physical possessions to give them satisfaction but it becomes a major source of fear and worry.

In the spiritual world though, things work differently. First of all, the way to accumulate spiritual wealth is to give it away. The more I give, the more it grows. Two, the more I accumulate, the more fearless I become. Every word of knowledge, every second in remembrance is invaluable treasure. It takes me closer to my own truth, to my Father.

There isn’t a greater wealth than self-respect. The more of it I accumulate, the more fearless I become.

For half a cycle, I thought respect came from accomplishments in this physical world. The more educated I was, the higher my pay grade, the bigger my bank balance, the more respect I could get. If I didn’t have enough of any of these, then it must be that I simply wasn’t good enough. In other words, I measured my worth was based on these things and my respect was to the extent that I felt worthy.

And so as my assessment of worth fluctuated, so too did the level of fear and anxiety.

When I come to Baba, He rids me of my fear. He does that my asking me to surrender two words – ‘I’ and ‘mine’. He says, you are a server now and you cannot serve if you still have needs of your own, attachments of your own. If you do, then anything you do will be motivated by your own gains and then it is no longer service.

He establishes the great sacrificial fire (yagya) of knowledge and asks me to sacrifice the ‘I’ and ‘mine’. The more I imbibe this knowledge which is to say, the more I learn about my own truth, the more I am able to sacrifice the ‘I’ and ‘mine’. I realize that the things I had been holding on to for dear life were in fact not mine to begin with, they belonged to Ravan, to this old world. The labels, the masks, the assessments of worth- one by one, I throw them into the fire. The more I shed, the more confident I become…why? Because I come closer to my truth.

I realize that the soul does not gain respect or confidence through physical accomplishments or possessions. It ONLY respects itself when it acts based on its truth, its original values. When it’s thoughts, words and actions are misaligned with it’s truth, it no longer knows what to do, it becomes fearful. But when it is aligned, it is confident in it’s stride – as they say, the one who is true always has a song in their heart and a dance in their step.

I am not pleased with the cleverness of this world, says Baba. I am pleased with a honest heart. And honesty starts with recognizing and realizing who ‘I’ am and ‘what is really ‘mine’ – the rest is false.