How do I know if I'm staying in love for the right reasons or just afraid to leave?

This is the question Mirabai asks us through her whole life. She stayed—but not because she was afraid. She stayed because something in her refused to stop witnessing, stop feeling, stop showing up to love. And eventually, that choice led her away from the life everyone expected her to have, toward something truer. The difference between fear and devotion is subtle but crucial. Fear whispers: *I can't survive without this.* Love whispers: *I choose this.* Fear makes you small and careful. Love, real love, makes you more alive, even when it costs you. Ask yourself honestly: If this person never changed, never gave me what I'm hoping for—could I leave? If the answer is "no, I'm trapped," that's fear. If the answer is "I could, but I choose not to—*yet*," that's different. That's a choice you're making. But here's what Mirabai teaches: even radical devotion has a breaking point. She loved Krishna, but when her family tried to poison her, she *left*. She chose her own freedom. Real love doesn't require self-erasure—it requires consciousness. Stay aware. Stay honest. The moment you realize you're staying out of fear, not choice, that's when freedom becomes possible.