Beneath the mask is all the glory of our real self: complete fearlessness, unconditioned love, and abiding joy. When Gandhi succeeded in taking off this mask and "making himself zero" through many years of living for others rather than himself, he found that what he had eliminated from his personality was only his separateness, his selfishness, his fear. What remained was the love and fearlessness that had been hidden there all the time.
— Eknath Easwaran, Gandhi The Man