This much is certain. Man knows what he wants. But he does not know the true nature of what he wants and why his happiness eludes him. That there is a surpassing supreme happiness which can be obtained in this human life is the great declaration of the Upanishads, the Vedas, and the Bhagavad Gita. “Know thou that the Reality is indescribable bliss and the highest conceivable happiness. There is that happiness which is so intense that the intellect cannot even comprehend it and the senses (which ordinarily experience happiness) cannot even grasp it or convey it—it is so intense and so transcendental!”: that is the happiness which is the goal of man. Fullness and perfection pertain to the highest happiness. It has nothing to do with the imperfect, for imperfection implies a mixture, and in a mixture of factors, there is no uniformity of experience. If salt and sugar are mixed together and the mixture is placed upon the tongue, one cannot taste a uniform sweetness because of the two elements inherent in the mixture. One will taste sweetness, but at the same time he will make a wry face, for the taste of salt also will fill his mouth. A mixture by its very nature cannot impart purity or perfection to an experience. The great thing is to find surpassing happiness. He who attains that goal passes beyond all grief and sorrow. This assertion that happiness is an experience available to the human being is not stated merely as a theory. It is asserted authoritatively as a substantial, self-experienced fact by those who have actually attained to that supernal experience.

Where is the source of this happiness? Before man can set out in quest of this source, he has to know what he is seeking. The correct conception and the right idea of happiness should be clear to him. Unfortunately, few men demonstrate the use of their intelligence by defining clearly what it is they wish to obtain. The whole world is madly going after something of which it has no clear conception in mind. All this effort becomes practically futile, for it is not backed up by intelligence. The first thing to realize is that happiness is an experience. It is not an object. Also, it is not an acquisition. Rather, it is an awareness of an internal state that is already an essential and, therefore, an irrevocable part of your very being. One cannot just go to a place and bring it away as though it were something to be had. Happiness is a condition of the being. Once it is clearly understood that it is not a thing, then the filling of your life with things will be regarded as a great delusion. Things in this world are not sources of true happiness. At most, they are capable of keeping out (in some doubtful measure) certain known, universal inconveniences and miseries of the human being. This is their only intrinsic value and utility. They have been created by man, and man himself is imperfect. He himself is subject to misery, sorrow, suffering, grief and pain. Things created by such an imperfect being cannot partake of the nature of perfection. We know that it is in perfection that a uniform experience can be had, uncontradicted by anything external. Mixed experiences obtained from man-made things cater to the physical part of the being, providing sensual satisfaction perhaps, or removing discomfort, but imperfect things cannot give us happiness.