In the pursuit of evil or of good, it is happiness you are always seeking. The former promises happiness and gives sorrow; the latter may seem to offer sorrow by its requisite of discipline and will power, but will surely give lasting joy in the end. God is everlasting, ever new Joy, and when you have found Him, you need no longer pursue the eternally elusive will-o’-the-wisp “something else” that has always eluded you in all fulfilled desires. God is that “something else.” Finding him, you will need seek no further. In ever new Joy, you will have everything you ever sought.
Material objects that give pleasure remain outside the mind. They, and the gratification they give, gain entry into the mind only through imagination. Joy, by its very nature- being the blissful consciousness of Spirit in man’s soul- lives closest to the mind, and is born in it when the mind is inwardly tuned. When external objects of sense pleasure are destroyed, the happiness they give is destroyed with them. But the ever new joy of God inherent in the soul is indestructible. So also, its expression in the mind can never be destroyed if one knows how to hold on to it, and if he does not deliberately change his mind and become sorrowful by nurturing moods.
So do not seek fulfilment through material mediums, or through desires born of such contact. Seek the unconditioned, indestructible pure Bliss within yourself, and you will have found the ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Joy- God. Unlike material pleasures, this joy is not an abstract quality of mind; it is the conscious, self-born, self-expressing quality of Spirit. Seek it and be comforted forever.
When you have attained this ever new joy, you will never become a cynic, hating the world and condemning its human inhabitants. Rather, you will then be in a position to appreciate God’s creation rightly. As His immortal child, you are supposed to enjoy the good and the beauty of His handiwork with the lasting blissful attitude of your eternal nature, which is perpetual joy. But people who delight in material things without knowing the superlative inner joy of God become materialistically minded. It is a disgrace to behave like a discontented mortal, chasing one desire after another, when you are made in God’s immortal image of all-desire-quenching ever new joy.
When immortals behave like mortals, they experience the alternations of pleasure, sorrow, and indifference in their natures. That is why you must destroy this changeable nature grafted to your unchangeable, immortal nature. When you have found your true soul-nature of everlasting joy, that indestructible bliss will remain with you throughout all experiences of life, whether they be pleasant or disagreeable. Your joy will stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking earthly pleasures. You will enjoy everything with the joy that is God. “Unattracted to the sensory world, the yogi experiences the ever new joy inherent in the Self. Engaged in divine union of the soul with Spirit, he attains bliss indestructible.”
